November 15-17, Sani Pass

So on Saturday the 15th, our rental car was delivered to us, a nice sporty VW Polo and we drove a couple hours to the edge of the Southern Drakensberg (Dragon – Afrikans,) Mountains. The 243,000 hectare sweep of basalt summits and buttresses became a World Heritage Site in 2000 and is literally a wall between two states (SA and Lesotho) and described as the roof of the nation. Amazing landscapes that provided the backdrop to the film Zulu. It is famous for the Sani Pass, the highest in SA, where at the top you cross into the Kingdom of Lesotho, which is surrounded completely by SA. We are so glad we spent three nights here at Sani Lodge doing a package tour for a great price (approximately $90 US each for three nights, two tours and all food included. Thanks Majorie and Tessa for the tip!

On Sunday we drove with our wonderful guide up the Sani Pass. Matthew was a hoot, funny and knowledgeable about everything whether a bird or plant or just knowing that Tolkien was inspired by this area when writing Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. At one point it was talked about that LOTR was going to be filmed here. Green hills quickly disappear to be replaced by rock and scrappy alpine steppe flora and fauna. The landscape was something like I have seen in pictures of Tibet and Mongolia – maybe some places in Alaska too. Sani Lodge where we stayed is at 1560 meter elevation, the Lesotho border at the top of the pass is 2874m. We then drove further up the Black Mountain pass to an elevation of 3240m (9-10,000 feet) where we could view Thabara Ntlenyana, the highest point in Africa, south of Kilimanjaro. We ate lunch here before stopping in a Basotho house to try some traditional bread and beer. The Basotho who live in Lesotho and speak Sesotho have a fascinating history and culture. You will often see Basotho men wearing blankets around them, not just to keep them warm but because they strongly identify with their founding King who was given a blanket that he wore instead of an animal skin around him.

The next day was spent, just the two of us (previous day there had been 8 of us altogether) with Stuart who took us on The Steps of the Bushmen tour. In addition to being a fount of information on every plant, insect and bird, Stuart showed us rock paintings by the San/Bushmen people (who predate the Bantu speaking peoples that ultimately led to all the different language speaking groups today) believed to be 8-10,000 years old. Another great day with vast open spaces. Great for body, mind and soul. With Matthew we drove but with Stuart we walked (all day) and though he tried to say we had only walked 8km, my pedometer said we had walked about 10 miles – 15/16KM!!!
Really glad we stayed here. By the way, one of the many birds we saw was a kind of quail that can literally barely fly but somehow it does. The amazing thing is that it migrates all the way to South Africa from Europe flying over the Mediterranean Sea before collapsing on the shores of Egypt, Libya etc to rest before continuing on down south. Stuarts uncle who served in WWII there shared they learned from the Egyptians how to literally scoop up these multitudes of quail as they were so exhausted from their journey across water that they wouldn't move. Sounds like something I read in Exodus 16:13 although I still have to figure out the manna part!

Duncan