Lesotho

I spent last weekend in Lesotho (one of those tiny countries tucked into South Africa)--a new country for me! I rode down with some friends and after crashing at one of their boyfriend’s houses in Maseru three of us took a combi up into the mountains and went on a two-day pony trek. Yes, I said pony trek. After seven hours on a horse two days in a row, breaking only for lunch and a two-hour steep climb to a waterfall, I could barely walk. But the mountains were amazing and Setswana is close enough to SeSotho that my basic greetings worked fine. It was so lovely to see green again, and crops being planted, and rivers that actually had water in them. We stayed overnight in a rural village—no amenities, sheep out the hut door, bring your own food and sleeping bag, drink from the nearby spring, etc. Highlights included my friend’s cantankerous horse calmly kneeling down, “elbows” first in the middle of the trail and rolling her off! Twice. I’ll write more and try to post some pictures if I manage to get my computer online this weekend.