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Friday August 11th, Mulomong, Lesotho Today, I finally realised why I had chosen a Toyota Landcruiser, had it checked out in Toronto, and shipped to South Africa! This epiphany came to me, just after we had driven down a dry river bed (seriously), to get to our lodging for the night - the "Mulomong Guest House". Compared to the beating the machine had taken today on the passes and "roads" in Lesotho, 12 inch boulders and 18 inch holes in the "road"/ path to the lodge was easy. This machine really will go anywhere!
After a day in PMT (Petermaritzburg) last Thursday, August 10th., while all the bits and pieces causing concern on the Landcruiser, were hopefully located and fixed once and for all! While it was being fixed, we all did some internet connecting, and I actually had a cyber chat with my buddy Hannis in UK, most god fearing folk in TO, being safely in bed. I think I caught up with all devotes who have mailed us, and send a few more entries of this for the web. This time we took five hours between us to send about 30 messages. This at a cost of $CAN20.00! As we had decided to get our nominal camping gear (especially gas/ coking gear) here, an hour was spen getting this stuff, prior to departing to the great unknown At 5:30PM we headed out for Himeville, about 2 hours away (up lots of hills). We arrive at Himeville and the Arms turns out to be exactly like an English country pub, but better. Good food, good accommodation. We are the only guests, service is good, we eat and sleep well. Finding any information about Lesotho here is a bit of a job, but eventually a local transit company (Major Travels), gives us some good directions, and what we need to take with us. Time to gas, cash and grub up, we are not sure when we will see anything recognisable as these items next.
The road to the border post turns out to be rougher than the pass itself - luckily. We leave South Africa officially before the tough part. Border control take less time than it does to find the washroom - no more than 2 minutes. Sani Pass however needs TOTAL concentration, first time I've actually needed the full 4 x 4. ALL of my gears - yes lowest of the lowest gears in the low 4 x 4 ratio up the last stretch, (the last 300 vertical metres is at a 1:6 incline ) and lots of 4 x 4 functionality up the tortuous winding dirt and rubble track. This all at 2600+ metres. We spot the remains of several vehicles that did not make it. Thankfully, the machine and the family stays cool, and we all survive the test. It feels like we have been driving for 5 hours, but it was really only 90 minutes from Himeville. It's only just lunch time. We get stamped into Lesotho, and head for Sani Top Chalet, just across the road - the highest pub in Africa with a view of the pass to match. Steak and Kidney pie is the best I've had in 20 years, well, it certainly felt that way - maybe the adrenalin added some mysterious jene ne sait pas to the meal.
Maps, well, we reset the odometer at the border, and wait for the correct number to pass. After 2 false trails, we eventually reach our destination for the night. Mulomong. There is another family here already - Willem, his wife and 2 young kids, also exploring, from Pretoria. While admiring the austere mountain peaks surrounding us, the owner, Derek and his girlfriend arrive. Time for an impromptu wine and cheese party in front of the fire. Candles (there is no electricity within a 100 Km) make the whole thing quite romantic. Aiden does some maths work, all is well with the world. Tomorrow is another day. Distance travelled this entry: 225 Km. Distance moved on trip this entry: 225 Km |
It has been and exciting and probably stressful day. I forget.
August 11th., Now we are off into REAL adventure land, its 40K to Lesotho over Sani Pass, and then another 250Km to our
destination at Melealea over some of the roughest and toughest "roads" this side of the Congo. We are living apocryphal stories, and
AA maps. We leave the tarred road - the last we will see for several hundred Km.
2:00 PM, it starts to snow, and we are off to find our guest house. Lesotho still has some surprises. I thought we were out of the skill
testing sections. Not a bit of it. The "road" takes us up another 300 - 400 metres over the Maluti mountain range. Thick black smoke
pours out the exhaust as we climb, once again all in 4 x 4 low gearing, manually overriding the automatic all the way up & down. 
