Kingdom of Lesotho (pronounced Lay-soo-too)

It is autumn here in South Africa. The golden grass makes the most soothing sound when the breeze blows. You gain a lot of elevation as you leave the coast of the Transkei and head inland toward Lesotho. It was a long day of driving, and I was not sure if I would find even a place to pitch my tent as some of the areas that I drove through looked a bit unsavory. But just as the sun was setting I pulled into the city of Kokstad, looking for a place to relax. And bingo: I found it! Wendy and Leon Sander have a little guesthouse there called "The Planes", right near the friendly streets of Kokstad. I was able to sleep in a VERY nice little room for a very reasonable rate as it is their off season. The two Jack Russel Terriers would roll over on thier side when they saw me, expecting nice pets on there bellies.

The next morning I drove through he dirt roads to the border crossing of Lesotho. It is a tiny little country that is completely landlocked my South Africa. The temperature got very cold as I gained elevation again, and laughed with the immigration guys as I was still wearing shorts and flip-flops. There was a huge line to get the passports stamped, and the immigration lady said to just go to the front of the line, as if I had more priority than the Lesothians who were there waiting in line. I politely declined, and waited my turn. After clearing customs, a man named Edward, asked if I was interested in a place to stay in Qacha's Nek, the border town as it was again getting dark. I followed him to a over-priced hotel, and then said I would just rather pitch my tent. So he offered for me to stay at his house just up the road, where his grandmother lives. Edward and his family grew up in a small one room tradition stone home with grass roof, and he showed me it as well as all around town. He is now starting a fire-extinguisher servicing compnay, as he was a firefighter in Durban for many years. He mentioned that his grandmother grew up in the countryside of Lesotho, and galloped on a horse for transportation. I could just picture this young beautiful black woman galloping through the alpine mountains with her little tin of snuff (that she still uses!)

The next morning, I set out driving to Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. Now I am convinced I might have been the only white man in Lesotho, and evryone I paced on the road would just stop and stare at me! So many wonderful smiles. The scenery looked like the Grand Canyon in the states, with giant precipes, and turquoise rivers. I passed many horse drawn wagons, a woman beating a drum in the middle of nowhere, young kids with donkies.

I picked up a number of people hitchiking, including these two little kids you see in the video clip above. They were so nice, and could only say "yeah" after everything I asked them in English. I finally got the nerve to stop at one of these remote villages and pull out my guitar and start playing and singing to see there response. One by one, the whole village walked out and surrounded me with the most baffled faces you could imagine. A few on the naked children start to get up and dancelike freshly watered flowers. Then they all wanted to see the guitar...note the albino man's intense curious look.

As I drove on, I came to an area where about 15 cars and buses were stopped. I had no idea why, so I got out and walked up to the front of the line. Huge boulders from the adjacent cliff had rolled down into the road, and made it inpassable. There were men with sledgehammers trying to knock the boulders into sizable pieces to move. Finally, a truck arrived with a backhoe in the back. Since there was no ramp to deploy the backhoe, a man very skillfully rolled the rocks with the shoveled end. The starnge thing was that despite all of the rocks, the smaller trucks and cars could have easily passed by. When I asked a man why they waited for the road to be cleared, he said "The big buses can not pass. No one passes if we can not all pass." Brother your right. What was even more amazing was that the rock had fallen at 9 a.m. I arrived at 1:30 p.m., and there were only 15 cars and trucks on my side of the fall. This is the major road in Lesotho connecting the north and the south!

I finally arrived in Maseru after a long day of driving. If you ever wnat to test your concentration arrive into a new African city at night without any idea of where you are, no maps, and trying to figure out a place to stay, while taxi-buses zoom by!!! Fortunately, Edward gave me his brother-in-law's (Kiso) phone number there, and I stayed with him last night.