Lesotho

Sawubona ~

Today we travelled up to Lesotho. Now for those of you that are unfamiliar with the topography or geography South Africa let me help. Lesotho is a landlocked country that is located at the top of the Drakensberg Mountains and is entirely contained within South Africa. It has a population of roughly 2.2 million people, mostly located in the lowlands on the other side of the mountains. It requires you to drive 48 kilometers up the Sani Pass to the South African border control, then 8 kilometers of no mans’ land where you ascend to 2873 meters (9400 feet) above sea level in a very steep and short drive. Then you reach the top of this terrifying drive, you go through the Lesotho border and then you are in a completely new environment.

I’ll cut it short for you. It’s comparable to what I imagine it must be like walking around on the moon: very cold, very barren, no vegetation and breath takingly beautiful. You drive another couple of kilometers until you reach the village which consists of 12 huts (at most) where the children and women live and stay all year round. Because the whole highlands are mostly a farming community, we asked what could they possibly be farming, because it’s barren and nothing grows, and the all the men are shepherds. They stay outside the village with their herds of sheep and goats until they are shorn and the wool is taken down to the lowlands or South Africa to be sold and processed.

While we were there we were guests in the hut of a woman that opened her doors to us, offered us the local beer (only found in Lesotho), and the best bread I have ever had. The Basutho people that live in this village have no running water, no electricity and even no fire wood because the only things that thrive up there are rocks. So they use to dried dung to do everything from brew their beer, to cook their bread in a pot, to warm themselves and their huts. Also, interestingly I learned that the architecture of the huts is incredibly important. Because it’s so cold during winter, there are no windows and no outlets except one single door. This door must always be facing north. The winds always blow east to west so the wind stays out and the sun can always shine through a door that is facing north (which is important because of the whole no windows and no electricity thing).

Finally, just a quick recap:

The Country is: Lesotho

The People are: Basotho

The Language is: Sesotho

One Person is: Mosotho

And everything else (currency, habitat, pathes, shepards…): Maloti

Hope that helps your understanding of a tiny country perched on a mountain :D

Sala Kahle

Final Thoughts

Distribution

Lesotho

Kamanga

Thoughts from the Moleskin