Lesotho

Have you ever heard of the country of Lesotho?  I hadn't until we read the itinerary for our trip and saw that we were going to visit this tiny county totally surrounded by South Africa.  Notice the high mesa behind us?  That is Lesotho. The entire country is above 3,281 feet in elevation. It is about the same size as the state of Maryland.  Back in the 1800's when King Shaka was consolidating his Zulu empire by violently conquering other tribes, several groups fled to these high mountains and were never taken over by the mighty Zulu nation. The high peaks proved a great defense!

Today the kingdom is accessible in 4X4 vehicles by way of this crazy 'road'!  The Sani Pass which is  the border between Lesotho and South Africa is at 9000 feet.  This area is known as the 'Roof of Africa'.

The view back down is pretty spectacular.

How would you like to 'do your business' in this outhouse?  Our guide said that it was a Republican outhouse....when you go in you lean right!!!!!

A group of young men were waiting to entertain us!

Their homemade instruments are pretty creative.  His guitar was some sort of metal container with strings.  Drums were 5 gallon buckets with cloth stretched tightly on top.  Their music was surprisingly good!

I had to keep telling myself that I was in Africa not Mongolia!  For young men from Lesotho living in these highlands for the summer and taking care of the flocks of sheep is a rite of passage.

Don't you love their traditional blankets and hats?

The homes were the typical African shape but made of stones and plastered on the inside because of the severe winters.

Inside one hut this enterprising young woman was selling traditional weavings and her delicious bread cooked in a dutch oven.

The population of Lesotho is around 2 million  and about half of them live below the international poverty level. This means that they live on less that $1.25 a day. I was happy to buy some of her bread and a little hat that will be cute on our Christmas tree.

George was a bit tall for the doorways!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of these dogs.  They are not lazy at all but are trained to stay awake all night to protect the sheep from jackals!  Sleeping all day is allowed and expected.

These three were friends with our driver so they stopped our jeep to tell us goodbye.  The driver asked us to send any photos we took of the people to him and he'd take them back up the mountain and distribute them.

I'll never forget our day in Lesotho!