The plan was a camping weekend in Lesotho this Easter Weekend but at the end we didn’t do much camping, but a lot of driving and exploring this beautiful country!
Day 1
We left Centurion Friday Morning at 4am; we decided to take the back road and not the N3 due to possible Easter weekend traffic to Durban. We arrived and met Willie with his Mahindra Thar, fully equipped for the weekend at Underberg and filled up.
The road to Sani was short and Sani almost came to quick. At this point I must point out, it was both my and the Thar's first Sani trip! The Sani has being on my bucket list for a long time and we were not disappointed!
I want to point it out, Sani pass is not the most extreme or challenging I have driven, so if you looking for something wild.... rather look somewhere els, but if you looking to explore and experience a truly beautiful and awesome strip, the Sani wont let you down! Staring below one can see the zigzag’s going up the mounting and the experience was great!
We only managed one stop in the pass as it was fairly busy, but our next stop, after getting our passports stamped was obviously having a drink in the highest pub!
After having a quick drink(s) we decided to take the road to St James "Lodge" - the drive to the lodge is not short, spoiled by the Chinese road works turning the world around and busy building or destroying the current road which might turn into a tar road fairly soon.
Luckily we arrived at St James just before dark - just a note - if you planning to drive for the first time anywhere in Lesotho, make sure you have the GPS-coordinates as their directions and sign posts cannot be trusted!
St James was great, very basic and cheap but we had a great stay, unfortunately we missed the hot water window.
Day 2
We drove to Mokhotlong to some reserves, this was the biggest town/village for a long time we saw.
From there we headed towards Tlokoeng where we turned towards Katse Dam, the first 20 odd km was good, dirt road but good.... thereafter the honey moon ended and we started with 4 low, but this was truly and awesome road towards Katse.... It took us around 6 hours to complete 80km of road.... very rocky made the going very slow but again, awesome part of our trip.
As it was raining when we got to Katse dam we got a Guest House through Orion hotels for R700 to sleep.
Day 3
Again early we took the scenic road next to Katse dam, dirt/muddy road on the edge of the dam. This is the only way to truly experience Katse, we made breakfast at the edge of the water.
From there we drove via Koa Mines, which are also in the process of really making a reall mess of that part of the country but the road for the day was easy, did use 4H every now and then as the road had really wet and slippery patches, but the scenery on this road towards the A1 was the best I've ever seeing or experienced, this took us to the highest pass 3270m above sea level.
We decided to stay the night at the Liphofung caves as its dirt cheap and must easier to camp.
Day 4
Yesterday morning we crossed the border and drove home.
This was truly one of the best trips I've ever had! The roads was not that bad, even with the standard Pajero and standard Thar we completed the trip with no issues.
I've being to Lesotho before but not exploring the country in so much detail, I can really recommend doing such a trip, the people are really friendly and always willing to help. The kids in the villages just broke our hearts, everywhere as you approach villages small kids from 2 years up storm the roads, run from up the mountains with faces as if we were Santa bring Christmas gifts, screaming...... Some Sweets Please ....... obviously tourists is handing out sweets and the kids learn to beg from a very early age, which is so wrong but just wish we could rather give them clothes or something they could use.... maybe one day I will return with such a plan
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