I'll Take a Pass

Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa and there are a number of border posts around the country to move between the two countries. In my opinion, the most beautiful (and adventurous) way to enter the country is via the Sani Pass.

For years, this pass was only used by locals on horses, mules, or donkeys. There was no road up this mountain, only a bridle path leading from the eastern mountain villages of Lesotho down the Drakensberg Mountains into the western part of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.

At the bottom of the path (on the South African side), a trading post, the Good Hope Store, was built in the early 1900’s. The Basotho people would make the trip (which could take up to 2 weeks), twice a year to trade their wool and mohair for clothing, food, blankets, and other essentials for life in a remote mountain village.

Remains of the Good Hope Store

In 1948, the pass was first successfully driven by a vehicle – a WWII surplus jeep. The British not wanting to be outdone, drove a Land Rover up the pass in 1952.  By 1955, the first rough road was built. The road has improved today, but is still only accessible with a 4x4 vehicle. In fact, the South African border patrol (located 8km from the top), will not allow non 4x4 vehicles to attempt to drive the road.

View of the Road from Below

In total, the road to Sani Pass consists of a 4250 foot elevation gain over about 12 miles.

Although the road begins with a gentle climb through the mountains, the final five miles account for 3280 feet of the elevation change!

The road consists of 27 hairpin turns, most during this steep final 5 miles.

One of these turns, “Reverse Corner,” requires most larger vehicles to do a three-point turn – on the edge of a mountain!

To make this dangerous road even more challenging, the road conditions are less than ideal – at times it was tough to distinguish between the road and rock slides!

In the end, we made it to the top in one piece and were rewarded by beautiful views and a warm welcome to Lesotho!

Best of all, what's at the top of the pass? The Highest Pub in Africa (over 9400 feet!).

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The Mountain Kingdom

In the middle of southern Africa, lies the small mountainous country of Lesotho. Lesotho is not only landlocked, but completely surrounded by another country -- South Africa.

Lesotho is the only country in the world that lies entirely above 1000 meters (3281 feet) in elevation. The lowest point in the country is over 4500 feet – the highest low point of any country! Over 75% of the country is mountains and accordingly, the country is rich in natural beauty!

Maletsunyane Falls -- the Highest Falls in Southern Africa

Lesotho has a population of just over 2 million with 75% of the population being rural. Wool and mohair are major exports in Lesotho and the mountainous countryside is peppered with sheep and goats being tended by shepherds.

Look closely -- all those white dots are animals!

The hillsides are also full of traditional stone homes –built by hand by each family.

Many Homes Have a Corral to Keep the Livestock at Night

The Basotho people make up 99.7% of the population and one language, Sesotho, is spoken throughout the country. (English is also an official language and is used in government and commerce) I believe that this cultural uniformity has saved Lesotho from many of the tribal disagreements that plague other African nations.

Traditional Lesotho Bread is Baked Over Hot Coals in an Iron Pot

Impressively, the literacy rate in Lesotho is 85% – one of the highest literacy rates in Africa. Lesotho spends over 12% of their GDP on education. Despite the high educational level of the population, 40% of the population lives below the poverty line making less than $1.25 per day.

As such, cars are not common in Lesotho (many of the roads aren’t car friendly) outside of the big cities. The main form of transport (apart from foot power) is on horseback. Lesotho is an equestrian country. Many villages have no roads nearby but are full of bridle paths criss-crossing the area.

The "Parking Lot" in the Village of Semonkong

Interestingly, due to the high elevation of the country, snowfall can be counted upon consistently in the winter. Accordingly, Lesotho is home to the only ski resort in Africa!

Lesotho has been called the "African Switzerland." However, despite the mountainous landscape, Lesotho remains purely African.

How do they do this? These buckets are full of water and none ever spills!

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Giving Me the Run Around

While in South America, I visited two ostrich farms (http://bothsidesnowblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-wish-i-could-fly.html ). But now, a year later, I found myself in Oudtshoorn, South Africa, the town with the world’s largest ostrich population. Oudtshoorn has over 300 ostrich farms, some of which have over 10,000 ostriches!

Street Marker in Oudtshoorn

An Adorable Baby Ostrich

 In the late 1800’s, ostrich feathers became extremely popular as fashion accessories in Europe.

No, this picture is not from the late 1800's!

These fancy plumes were used on wraps, skirts, handbags, fancy dresses, but especially on women’s hats. In fact, at one point, ostrich feathers were selling for more than gold! And there were more ostrich farms in Oudsthoorn than anywhere else in the world. The ostrich farms in southern Africa made their owners rich. “Feather palaces” (huge homes) were built in the area by these wealthy ostrich farmers – even shipping custom rugs and wallpaper from Europe. Unfortunately for the farmers of Oudsthoorn, the feather boom collapsed in 1914, in large part due to the advent of the car – large hats adorned with ostrich plumes were blown off ladies’ heads while riding in their fancy cars. Nowadays, ostriches are farmed for their meat more than for their feathers (each bird yields 75-90 pounds of meat).

Of the 300 farms in Oudtshoorn, 3 have decided to cater to tourists –and nothing is more of a draw than the opportunity to ride an ostrich!

Ostrich races are common in Africa but relatively unusual elsewhere in the world.  These three farms give educational tours and offer a chance (only to those under 160 pounds) to ride an ostrich. It was certainly my first time attempting to ride a bird! There were two professional “jockeys” that helped us with our ride. First, they put a “saddle” on the bird (we only rode the males).

Then they caught the ostrich, blindfolded him, and led him into the corral so he wouldn’t panic as novice riders approached.

I love the little hole for his beak!

Mounting the ostrich is a strange process. Unlike a horse, you leap frog onto his back from behind, not from the side. There are no reins, you just hold onto his very large, strong wings.

As soon as they remove the blindfold, the ostrich takes off!

Sadly, my ride was shorter than I had hoped – it’s not easy to keep your balance! Of course, after the novices looked like fools, the professional jockey showed us how it’s done. It was impressive!

The professionals use the ostrich’s neck both to turn and to stop. Ostriches have 17 vertebrae in their necks (most mammals have only 7), which gives them a very flexible neck – they can literally corkscrew their necks! Watch this video to see the expert using the neck to dismount. (My dismount was decidedly less graceful!)

It was good fun!

For those back in the States, Chandler, Arizona hosts an Ostrich Festival each year which features ostrich races. If you’d like to check it out, the 24^th annual festival is coming up March 9-11!  But, there they don’t ride on the ostrich, but have the ostriches pull a chariot, Ben-Hur-style!

While at the farm, I tried to give back to the birds by helping to incubate their eggs!

Seriously though, we learned that since ostrich eggs need to support the weight of an adult male bird (the males sit on the nest at night since they blend with the dark sky), eggs can hold over 250 pounds!

Don't try this with chicken eggs!

I had a fun day at the farm. I really think ostriches are cute, nevermind that their eyeballs are bigger than their brains!

Feeding 8 birds and getting a shoulder massage at the same time!

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In a Tight Spot

In a limestone ridge that runs parallel to the Swartberg Mountains in the Klein Karoo region of South Africa, are a series of dripstone caverns known as the Cango Caves.

Legend has it that these caves were first discovered in 1780 by a local farmer. He located the first cavern (about the size of a football field) with only a small candle.

But, as with most “discoveries,” later excavations proved that people had been using and living in the early caverns of the caves since the middle and late stone ages.

In the early 1800’s, the caves became the first official tourist attraction in South Africa.

Early tourists weren’t that different from modern tourists. . .many used candles to burn their names into the ceiling of the caves. Some of this graffiti dates to the 1840’s!

In 1897, the first 26 caverns were mapped.  By the late 1970’s, two additional connected cave systems were discovered. The three sections of the Cango Caves cover over 4km with one-fourth open to tourists (and only with a licensed guide).

The system is full of spectacular halls and impressive limestone formations with the largest cavern being 300m long!

Most caves are formed when natural acid in groundwater seeps through faults in soluble rock. Over thousands of years, these faults form cracks, which then expand to become caves and larger cave systems. Many caves, such as the Cango Caves, are filled with various formations made of calcium carbonate that are produced slowly as water drips through the ground and the minerals within solidify.

Many of these formations are stunning.

Stalagmite

Several Stalactites

Column Formation

Curtain Formation

In addition to the basic educational tour of the first few caverns of the Cango Caves, they offer an “adventure tour” which consists of 90 minutes of crawling through narrow passages and climbing up steep formations (as you'll see below, there are size requirements to do this tour to keep tourists from getting stuck in the cave!).

Some of the highlights . . .

The “Tunnel of Love” – a narrow keyhole-shaped tunnel that’s nearly 33 feet long.

The “Chimney” – a 12 foot climb upwards in a chimney-shaped tunnel with an average diameter of 35 inches (the smallest section is not quite 12 inches wide!).

And lastly, the “Letterbox” – a 16 foot crawl through a tunnel with 24 inch roof to floor clearance at the highest. Here are my feet as I disappear into the letterbox:

I used to have a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt hanging in my condo: "Do one thing each day that scares you." I think it's a great life policy!

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