South Africa is a truly civilized place, very much like West Europe, North America or Australia. Coming from Mozambique, it was plain weird to see so many road signs, for example - informing you about a lone pot hole, a turning truck, possible animals crossing the road, a nearby village, a primary school, etc. Just way way too much of information. And there were guys mowing the lawn next to the road! (just remember those pics from the North of Mozambique where the elephant grass was so tall we could not see over it…). And the supermarkets! You want sausages? Cheese? All there, nicely packed. Life is tough in Africa, indeed.
Our first stop in South Africa was in Pretoria where thanks to a recommendation from a local biker, Ian aka Welsh (the same one actually who helped us out with the invitation letter), we rolled up at just the right bike shop - Offroad Cycles, owned by Conrad. After a while it was clear to us that he has a lot of knowledge about bikes, and a warm heart too.
We got our truly worn tyres changed for new Heidenaus and all the oils changed in no time, and as we were preparing to leave to look for a campsite, Conrad invited us to stay at his home. What a change it was to sleep in a bed after quite a while! We also got a few other things sorted, including getting visas for both Lesotho and Namibia which in the end only took us two days, so we were efficient indeed - it would have been difficult, if not impossible to arrange all that without Conrad's assistance.
Three guys working on our bike - never happened before! :evil
New tyres installed - proper Heidi K60 Scouts.
Our bike serviced and ready - thanks Offroad Cycles!
From Pretoria we rode the short distance to Johannesburg where we met Ian for a beer which we really owed him, but he was really kind to pay for both the beer and one of the most fantastic fish and chips we'd eved had. Thank you so much, Welshman!
In Jo'burg we also met up with Steve whom we'd known from Nairobi who helped us to sort out a few other things, and then we shot towards the tiny Lesotho - a sovereign kingdom within South Africa. The closer we got the more prominent were the mountains - the Drakensberg range bordering Lesotho in the east is a must-see in itself.
The Moon somewhere over Drakensberg.
Funky plants in Drakensberg.
Panorama of Drakensberg landscape (click to enlarge each panorama)
Panorama of Drakensberg - somewhere up there is Lesotho - good to know we're going there!
Panorama from the road through Drakensberg.
Fairytale land of Drakensberg in panorama.
Then came Lesotho. I had always imagined I'd go there - it really seemed so special, being a tiny country (even smaller than Estonia) with the lowest point above 1400 meters (4593 ft). But to tell you the whole story, when we had gone to their embassy in Pretoria, having heard all the requirements for getting a visa - an invitation letter, a proof of accomodation and such - we just came away without hope. Also, it was going to cost us 500 rand each and take 3 working days to process. We typed in the address of the Namibian embassy instead and a few hours after we'd paid them a visit we had the Namibian visas in our passports, 470 rand but no problem. Why is it that the smallest, poorest countries have to be so prohibitive in letting people come and visit them? It had been the same with Rwanda in our case - hotel bookings and stuff… hell, no!
Back at Conrad's workshop we told him the story, and it was overheard by another biker guy, August. Before we knew he was on the phone with the King of Lesotho personally, explaining him our stupid situation. "It is a country you MUST see!" he said to us. It turned out he was a missionary (which you would never have guessed really) and obviously had plenty of contacts in Lesotho. And a hell lot of enthusiasm. After a few more phone calls he took us back to the embassy of Lesotho, where his fluent Sotho (a white guy speaking a black language!) quickly melted the hearts of the staff, and after he'd written us the invitation leter we were asked to come back the next day to pick up the visas. Easy as that!
And there we were, at the famous Sani Pass, the gateway to the Kingdom of the Sky. At 2865 meters (9400 ft) it isn't nearly as high as the passes we'd been to in North-India, and not too technical either, but pretty epic nevertheless. First ascending though the valley the slopes of which look as if they'd been draped in green velvet, the horizon broadening up the higher the switchbacks take you, and then finding yourself at the windy, barren plateau. There was something reminiscent of India, though - not sure what exactly, and as we rolled on we were half expecting to come across a military convoy or a dilapidated hut selling chai, but no. Not many people there really, except for the odd shepherd with his harmonica, wrapped in a warm blanket.
Panorama of Sani Pass (click to enlarge each panorama)
Panorama of Sani pass landscape.
Over Sani pass - we are in Lesotho!
Typical road in Lesotho.
3222 meters is a norm - Lesotho is one high place (the lowest place in the whole country is some 1400 meters above sealevel)
Road through Lesotho...
Lesotho shepherd.
Lesotho shepherds come out in the middle of nowhere we stopped.
And they play their funky instruments while hearding their flock...
They are wrapped into warm natural clothing - it's freezing cold here, especially at the night.
Some mountanous plants in Lesotho.
We'd decided to stay at one mission guarded by an angry looking ram, but as we had pitched our tent we were invited to stay indoors instead for the camping price so as not to be blown away with the wind or frozen in the night. And indeed - after a warm night in a real bed, the bike's seat was frozen solid.
Panorama of the clouds above Lesotho (click to enlarge each panorama)
Last beams of light in the same spot
Angry ram in the morning kept staring at us with a strange look...
Our frozen seat - gets below zero during the night.
A funky-looking guy came to us to show his musical instruments - a very tall pipe, blown in a strange way - accompanied by some verbal sounds. It really sounded exotic and even a little mystical. We gave him our last tomato as a thank you.
Funky Lesotho man with a funky Lesotho instrument in his hand...
Funky man playing his instrument...
The same moment in sound:
...::: LISTEN :::...
We took the smaller roads, the ice sparkling on top of the numerous potholes in bright sunshine - the night must have been real cold. The morning was pretty chilly too, in fact, but thankfully we had our fabulous heated jackets with us (that we'd thought of sending back home quite many times while in Africa - it should be hot as hell, right?). And the rolling mountains… they really warmed our souls so that even when we had to wade through a river or two or three and our boots were full of water, it still felt warm.
Potholes with icy covers - reminds our home Estonia.
Landscape panorama seen from the road (click to enlarge each panorama).
Panorama of Lesotho landscape.
Panorama from the road.
Woman crossing a bridge.
Wrapped in man walking towards us in the freezing Lesotho.
Waterfall.
Riding in Lesotho - a heaven on Earth - it's our type of environment. Although it's south, it has this "northern" feel in it.
Watercrossing.
Panorama of Lesotho (click to enlarge panoramas)
Panorama from the road
Panorama of typical landscape in a clear weather Lesotho.
Panorama from the road somewhere in the Southern Lesotho.
Beautiful road through desolate Northern Lesotho.
We only reached the main road near the huge Katse Dam which at the height of 185 meters (607 ft) is the second tallest dam in whole of Africa. It was quite a sight.
Katse Dam - a massive engineering, 2nd largest in whole Africa.
Panorama from close to Katse Dam - flooded, but creating intresting landscape.
The weather can be a tricky thing in the Kingdom of Lesotho - there may be a thunderstorm one moment, and an hour later the sun may be shining as bright as ever. But this one morning, as we set out on the road, the sky was all grey, and as bad as we wanted it, there did not seem to be any chance of it clearing up. We tried to think positive, though, and the passing procession of local christians - singing and making music - brightened up our mood quite a bit.
Crosses on their backs...
Singing their way to the church on a Sunday morning...
Same place in sound:
...::: LISTEN :::...
But the further we travelled, the darker became the sky, warning us of the imminent bad weather.
To make things look more dramatic, we crossed a pass called Lekhalo La Molimo Nthuse or God Help Me Pass. To be honest, it did not seem very funny.
"God help me" pass - all good and tarred except for the rain that was waiting us ahead...
More so when the things actually came to the point where it did start to rain. At first we thought it would only be a brief rain, and did not bother putting our "waterproofs" on. How stupid was that, there was no sign of the rain stopping in the near future! The dark, damp blanket was tretching as far as the eye could see.
But as if the things were not interesting enough still, we got off the main road to follow our initial plan to go and see the highest waterfall in South Africa, the 192-metre (630 ft) Maletsunyane. The thing is that the better part of the road that leads there is dirt, and what happens when dirt gets wet, is that it becomes very, very slippery. So we slided instead of riding, soaked with the cold water coming down from the sky. Boy we were glad we had our heated jackets - without it would have been an absolute misery, nothing less - so we could push on. Up the hillside, down the hillside, rocks rolling under the wheels, slimy mud everywhere.
A ride inside a cloud.
Just little below the raincloud above...
Somewhere high up, cold and wet, obviously.
And so did the heavy clouds - they pushed on across the sky, often blanketing the mountain tops and the passes. It was hard to see and strange to breathe, but there is something special about actually being in the clouds.
Panorama from Lesotho's landscape during a rainy day - has a certain beauty in it (click to enlarge)
Road through Maluti mountains.
A few hours later, the sky still in pissing mode, we arrived, totally wet and muddy, in Semonkong, the closest village to the waterfall. But our hopes of finding a campsite to wait out the bad weather to go and see the natural wonder were soon flushed away - the vacationing South-Africans had occupied every space imaginable, and all we could have been able to get was a 600-rand (60 EUR) room. It was way too much, so what we did was we turned around and bumped and slid back along the same road without seeing the Maletsunyane.
A few more hours later, miserable as ever as the water was already pouring in through our Goretex liners, and shivering with cold, we stopped at a lodge in Ramabanta. They sure did offer camping too, but we had had enough, and although the cheapest room they had to offer cost 400 rand (40 EUR), it had a gas heater inside, so we decided to make the sacrifice and opt for the room. As soon as we had checked in, we started to reorganise the furniture in the room so that we could hang our dripping gear in front of the stove. Boy how much steam there was in the air just a few moments later!
We put all our batteries to charge as this can be tricky when camping (at least with our laptop and the mighty Sigma that we do not have a 12V charger for), Kariina cooked some smash and chakalaka (a local speciality) right there on the floor, and after we had eaten the world started to look a better place. Then Kariina jumped into the hot shower where she must have spent at least half an hour, and I meanwhile checked out the bed that very surprisingly had electical heating - opulence at its most! We did turn the heating off though, otherwise we would have been cooked by the morning, I'm afraid.
The next day the gear was almost fully dried, and even the sun came out so we could roll on in a far better mood.
A waterfall.
Things seen in "slow motion" below the waterfall.
Fields in the front, wild in the back.
Panoramas of Lesotho landscapes in different places (click to enlarge each panorama)
River below...
Village on a mountain...
Bridge and a backup bridge (in case one gets washed away with floods) seen from above.
Crossing the same bridge.
The weather finally got nice - time for a coffee!
Lesotho herder boys clothed up into warm natural clothes - as always, our bike tends to be a huge curiosity object.
Clothed up warm in cold Lesotho.
(Chinese built (read: "painted"?) road disappeared - it's a 5 meter drop from there.
By noon we found ourselves in Maphutseng, where August's mission is located. In fact, not only is he preaching, but also helping to develop the agriculture in a sustainable way. We were given a rondavel (a round hut) to spend the night in.
Our lovely hut in Maphutseng - was cozy in the inside too!
For the supper we were invited to August's house where he lives with his wife and three children. Before we could start gorging on the delicious pancakes he had made, he said: "Now we pray!" Half expecting of something embarassing to happen, we stood up. We have never been very religious as such, and travelling around the world has made us even less religious in many senses (or have we become just more tolerant towards all religions and not biased towards one?). But all that followed was a brief thank you for the God for us arriving safely, and a request for the safe continuation of our journey, then the mandatory "Amen", and that was it! No over-the-top ceremony, and it was refreshing for us - we never had prayers said like this.
Because Lesotho is made up of mountains, great views are kind of everywhere you look, but what we saw from the windows of August's house was truly spectacular, like a divine show. There are really no words to describe it, just look for yourself.
A dramatic play between the beams of Sun and thunderstorm somewhere above Maphutseng.
Panorama during the sunset.
Panorama of the same spot seen lit with the very last beams of light.
Sci-Fi-like red clouds above Maphutseng.
Illumination from above.
Our first stop in South Africa was in Pretoria where thanks to a recommendation from a local biker, Ian aka Welsh (the same one actually who helped us out with the invitation letter), we rolled up at just the right bike shop - Offroad Cycles, owned by Conrad. After a while it was clear to us that he has a lot of knowledge about bikes, and a warm heart too.
We got our truly worn tyres changed for new Heidenaus and all the oils changed in no time, and as we were preparing to leave to look for a campsite, Conrad invited us to stay at his home. What a change it was to sleep in a bed after quite a while! We also got a few other things sorted, including getting visas for both Lesotho and Namibia which in the end only took us two days, so we were efficient indeed - it would have been difficult, if not impossible to arrange all that without Conrad's assistance.
Three guys working on our bike - never happened before! :evil
New tyres installed - proper Heidi K60 Scouts.
Our bike serviced and ready - thanks Offroad Cycles!
From Pretoria we rode the short distance to Johannesburg where we met Ian for a beer which we really owed him, but he was really kind to pay for both the beer and one of the most fantastic fish and chips we'd eved had. Thank you so much, Welshman!
In Jo'burg we also met up with Steve whom we'd known from Nairobi who helped us to sort out a few other things, and then we shot towards the tiny Lesotho - a sovereign kingdom within South Africa. The closer we got the more prominent were the mountains - the Drakensberg range bordering Lesotho in the east is a must-see in itself.
The Moon somewhere over Drakensberg.
Funky plants in Drakensberg.
Panorama of Drakensberg landscape (click to enlarge each panorama)
Panorama of Drakensberg - somewhere up there is Lesotho - good to know we're going there!
Panorama from the road through Drakensberg.
Fairytale land of Drakensberg in panorama.
Then came Lesotho. I had always imagined I'd go there - it really seemed so special, being a tiny country (even smaller than Estonia) with the lowest point above 1400 meters (4593 ft). But to tell you the whole story, when we had gone to their embassy in Pretoria, having heard all the requirements for getting a visa - an invitation letter, a proof of accomodation and such - we just came away without hope. Also, it was going to cost us 500 rand each and take 3 working days to process. We typed in the address of the Namibian embassy instead and a few hours after we'd paid them a visit we had the Namibian visas in our passports, 470 rand but no problem. Why is it that the smallest, poorest countries have to be so prohibitive in letting people come and visit them? It had been the same with Rwanda in our case - hotel bookings and stuff… hell, no!
Back at Conrad's workshop we told him the story, and it was overheard by another biker guy, August. Before we knew he was on the phone with the King of Lesotho personally, explaining him our stupid situation. "It is a country you MUST see!" he said to us. It turned out he was a missionary (which you would never have guessed really) and obviously had plenty of contacts in Lesotho. And a hell lot of enthusiasm. After a few more phone calls he took us back to the embassy of Lesotho, where his fluent Sotho (a white guy speaking a black language!) quickly melted the hearts of the staff, and after he'd written us the invitation leter we were asked to come back the next day to pick up the visas. Easy as that!
And there we were, at the famous Sani Pass, the gateway to the Kingdom of the Sky. At 2865 meters (9400 ft) it isn't nearly as high as the passes we'd been to in North-India, and not too technical either, but pretty epic nevertheless. First ascending though the valley the slopes of which look as if they'd been draped in green velvet, the horizon broadening up the higher the switchbacks take you, and then finding yourself at the windy, barren plateau. There was something reminiscent of India, though - not sure what exactly, and as we rolled on we were half expecting to come across a military convoy or a dilapidated hut selling chai, but no. Not many people there really, except for the odd shepherd with his harmonica, wrapped in a warm blanket.
Panorama of Sani Pass (click to enlarge each panorama)
Panorama of Sani pass landscape.
Over Sani pass - we are in Lesotho!
Typical road in Lesotho.
3222 meters is a norm - Lesotho is one high place (the lowest place in the whole country is some 1400 meters above sealevel)
Road through Lesotho...
Lesotho shepherd.
Lesotho shepherds come out in the middle of nowhere we stopped.
And they play their funky instruments while hearding their flock...
They are wrapped into warm natural clothing - it's freezing cold here, especially at the night.
Some mountanous plants in Lesotho.
We'd decided to stay at one mission guarded by an angry looking ram, but as we had pitched our tent we were invited to stay indoors instead for the camping price so as not to be blown away with the wind or frozen in the night. And indeed - after a warm night in a real bed, the bike's seat was frozen solid.
Panorama of the clouds above Lesotho (click to enlarge each panorama)
Last beams of light in the same spot
Angry ram in the morning kept staring at us with a strange look...
Our frozen seat - gets below zero during the night.
A funky-looking guy came to us to show his musical instruments - a very tall pipe, blown in a strange way - accompanied by some verbal sounds. It really sounded exotic and even a little mystical. We gave him our last tomato as a thank you.
Funky Lesotho man with a funky Lesotho instrument in his hand...
Funky man playing his instrument...
The same moment in sound:
...::: LISTEN :::...
We took the smaller roads, the ice sparkling on top of the numerous potholes in bright sunshine - the night must have been real cold. The morning was pretty chilly too, in fact, but thankfully we had our fabulous heated jackets with us (that we'd thought of sending back home quite many times while in Africa - it should be hot as hell, right?). And the rolling mountains… they really warmed our souls so that even when we had to wade through a river or two or three and our boots were full of water, it still felt warm.
Potholes with icy covers - reminds our home Estonia.
Landscape panorama seen from the road (click to enlarge each panorama).
Panorama of Lesotho landscape.
Panorama from the road.
Woman crossing a bridge.
Wrapped in man walking towards us in the freezing Lesotho.
Waterfall.
Riding in Lesotho - a heaven on Earth - it's our type of environment. Although it's south, it has this "northern" feel in it.
Watercrossing.
Panorama of Lesotho (click to enlarge panoramas)
Panorama from the road
Panorama of typical landscape in a clear weather Lesotho.
Panorama from the road somewhere in the Southern Lesotho.
Beautiful road through desolate Northern Lesotho.
We only reached the main road near the huge Katse Dam which at the height of 185 meters (607 ft) is the second tallest dam in whole of Africa. It was quite a sight.
Katse Dam - a massive engineering, 2nd largest in whole Africa.
Panorama from close to Katse Dam - flooded, but creating intresting landscape.
The weather can be a tricky thing in the Kingdom of Lesotho - there may be a thunderstorm one moment, and an hour later the sun may be shining as bright as ever. But this one morning, as we set out on the road, the sky was all grey, and as bad as we wanted it, there did not seem to be any chance of it clearing up. We tried to think positive, though, and the passing procession of local christians - singing and making music - brightened up our mood quite a bit.
Crosses on their backs...
Singing their way to the church on a Sunday morning...
Same place in sound:
...::: LISTEN :::...
But the further we travelled, the darker became the sky, warning us of the imminent bad weather.
To make things look more dramatic, we crossed a pass called Lekhalo La Molimo Nthuse or God Help Me Pass. To be honest, it did not seem very funny.
"God help me" pass - all good and tarred except for the rain that was waiting us ahead...
More so when the things actually came to the point where it did start to rain. At first we thought it would only be a brief rain, and did not bother putting our "waterproofs" on. How stupid was that, there was no sign of the rain stopping in the near future! The dark, damp blanket was tretching as far as the eye could see.
But as if the things were not interesting enough still, we got off the main road to follow our initial plan to go and see the highest waterfall in South Africa, the 192-metre (630 ft) Maletsunyane. The thing is that the better part of the road that leads there is dirt, and what happens when dirt gets wet, is that it becomes very, very slippery. So we slided instead of riding, soaked with the cold water coming down from the sky. Boy we were glad we had our heated jackets - without it would have been an absolute misery, nothing less - so we could push on. Up the hillside, down the hillside, rocks rolling under the wheels, slimy mud everywhere.
A ride inside a cloud.
Just little below the raincloud above...
Somewhere high up, cold and wet, obviously.
And so did the heavy clouds - they pushed on across the sky, often blanketing the mountain tops and the passes. It was hard to see and strange to breathe, but there is something special about actually being in the clouds.
Panorama from Lesotho's landscape during a rainy day - has a certain beauty in it (click to enlarge)
Road through Maluti mountains.
A few hours later, the sky still in pissing mode, we arrived, totally wet and muddy, in Semonkong, the closest village to the waterfall. But our hopes of finding a campsite to wait out the bad weather to go and see the natural wonder were soon flushed away - the vacationing South-Africans had occupied every space imaginable, and all we could have been able to get was a 600-rand (60 EUR) room. It was way too much, so what we did was we turned around and bumped and slid back along the same road without seeing the Maletsunyane.
A few more hours later, miserable as ever as the water was already pouring in through our Goretex liners, and shivering with cold, we stopped at a lodge in Ramabanta. They sure did offer camping too, but we had had enough, and although the cheapest room they had to offer cost 400 rand (40 EUR), it had a gas heater inside, so we decided to make the sacrifice and opt for the room. As soon as we had checked in, we started to reorganise the furniture in the room so that we could hang our dripping gear in front of the stove. Boy how much steam there was in the air just a few moments later!
We put all our batteries to charge as this can be tricky when camping (at least with our laptop and the mighty Sigma that we do not have a 12V charger for), Kariina cooked some smash and chakalaka (a local speciality) right there on the floor, and after we had eaten the world started to look a better place. Then Kariina jumped into the hot shower where she must have spent at least half an hour, and I meanwhile checked out the bed that very surprisingly had electical heating - opulence at its most! We did turn the heating off though, otherwise we would have been cooked by the morning, I'm afraid.
The next day the gear was almost fully dried, and even the sun came out so we could roll on in a far better mood.
A waterfall.
Things seen in "slow motion" below the waterfall.
Fields in the front, wild in the back.
Panoramas of Lesotho landscapes in different places (click to enlarge each panorama)
River below...
Village on a mountain...
Bridge and a backup bridge (in case one gets washed away with floods) seen from above.
Crossing the same bridge.
The weather finally got nice - time for a coffee!
Lesotho herder boys clothed up into warm natural clothes - as always, our bike tends to be a huge curiosity object.
Clothed up warm in cold Lesotho.
(Chinese built (read: "painted"?) road disappeared - it's a 5 meter drop from there.
By noon we found ourselves in Maphutseng, where August's mission is located. In fact, not only is he preaching, but also helping to develop the agriculture in a sustainable way. We were given a rondavel (a round hut) to spend the night in.
Our lovely hut in Maphutseng - was cozy in the inside too!
For the supper we were invited to August's house where he lives with his wife and three children. Before we could start gorging on the delicious pancakes he had made, he said: "Now we pray!" Half expecting of something embarassing to happen, we stood up. We have never been very religious as such, and travelling around the world has made us even less religious in many senses (or have we become just more tolerant towards all religions and not biased towards one?). But all that followed was a brief thank you for the God for us arriving safely, and a request for the safe continuation of our journey, then the mandatory "Amen", and that was it! No over-the-top ceremony, and it was refreshing for us - we never had prayers said like this.
Because Lesotho is made up of mountains, great views are kind of everywhere you look, but what we saw from the windows of August's house was truly spectacular, like a divine show. There are really no words to describe it, just look for yourself.
A dramatic play between the beams of Sun and thunderstorm somewhere above Maphutseng.
Panorama during the sunset.
Panorama of the same spot seen lit with the very last beams of light.
Sci-Fi-like red clouds above Maphutseng.
Illumination from above.
