A trip to Semonkong.

Semonkong, or the 'Place of smoke', is a village located in the centre of Lesotho in the middle of the mountains. Apart from its beautiful nature and traditional stone villages, there you will find the highest commercially operated single drop abseil in the world. Set by the side of the Malestsunyane Falls, it is 204m high. Nicky was still staying with us at this time and we thought that would be the ideal birthday present we could offer him.
We arrived on a Saturday afternoon to first do the necessary training for it. By 5pm, the three of us were all ready for the big one the next morning. At 6pm, a big storm arrived which rose the water level of the river and flooded the street with 30cm of water . The pressure of the waterfall being too powerful the next day, they had to cancel it. Quite disappointing.
Sorry Nicky...! Next time. Nevertheless, Pedro and I went back this weekend for a second try. And this time we succeeded.







The training on the 20m cliff.




For Breakfast next morning we received a cancellation letter from the lodge.


One month later. Here we are again !



Can't go back now. Look down carefully and you will see two people there. Just to give you an idea of the scale.



15min later...Done !


Pedro's turn.


From the top.


And from the bottom. Look up, and you will see Pedro !

Xmas in the south!

This post is long overdue, and once again doesn't really refer to Lesotho... well some photos are from here but most are actually from SA.

Both our families came to visit for Xmas... We started our adventure at Kruger park!
This was the first animal we came across just as we entered the park!
the king and queen of the jungle....
... monkey's are nice too!
and boks....
Elefants are always a great animal to see!
and along with giraffes (if they are around) some of the easiest to spot!
Then back to Lesotho for Xmas, as time was short visits were packed and we ran (or drove) from palace to place in an attempt to show them as much as we could.

Camille's birthday dinner, at the glamorous Beijing Orchid, right here in central Maseru!

Mohale Dam was an obvious stop...

Xmas dinner which Camille prepared (as well as lunch) was more of an adventure than we could have expected! Mid afternoon just as the oven was pre-heating a fuse blew in our house... in abrave attempt to switch it back on we blew not the fuse again but the electrical post on the other side of the street!! Fire works and all! So dinner was by candlelight, 3-4 hours late... The biggest surprise was that actually LEC (lesotho's electrical company) actually came to give us a temporary connection on Xmas day! Really good service, needless to say though that the temporary connection is still what we are using today!

And as time was not on our side, back into the cars on boxing day and down to Cape Town to what was meant to be the most relaxing part of the holiday!

The weather held fine and our time in Cape Town, visiting the city, Cape Point, and the winelands was truly memorable... At the end of this though it was time to say goodbye to Philippe, Martine and Paul.

ahh... the ocean... but water is 14 degrees or less!


Don't jump off the cliff!

Cape Point! I wonder the Portuguese found it so hard to round it back in the 1400s
So back to Jo'burg and off to Kruger park once more with the Clarke's. We had been very lucky the first time around so Cam and I were a bit worried whether we'd see any "good" animals this second time around... But as they are well trained they all apeared once again for us and we even saw a leopard!


small animals are nice too!


and lions again!
Once again time for goodbyes, and time to take the parents back to the airport... Nicky stayed around for an extra 4 weeks doing voluntary work for K4L and just fooling around!

Xmas came early

To the villages around Mantsonyane in the Thaba-Tseka District Xmas came early this year!

2km left to go and we would have been there, uneventfully, after having negotiated our driving through 1000 sheep and 200 cows on the way... But it just wasn't meant to be.

As we turn around one of the last bends a this "booze" truck just lay there tipped on it's side (the driver got away with only a scratch but I guess this accident was only the beggining of many incidents which will take place today) with bottles and bottles of beer and cider falling of it, into the river, the peoples' pockets, cars... you name it!

Honestly an unbelievable scene, every Man, Woman and Child had at least one case!

We wish you a MERRY Xmas and a happy new year!

the size of golf balls... well marbles at least!

Never seen anything quite like this!

Yesterday at about 5pm we witnessed one of the most unbelievable events I've ever lived through... The sky went dark as night with clouds and for about 5 minutes it pelted down hail stone the size of huge marbles!

Unbelievable....

Lesotho from the sky.

Lesotho might be a really small country, but it will take you a day to go from one side to the other. We had to visit three different sites on Friday; Manšonyane Shcool, Mokholong TTL and Pulane Children's Centre. So to avoid driving through the mountains and spend a day on sinuous roads, we took a helicopter.

The sky was really dark in the morning and we all knew that it was not going to get any better. Despite the pilot's warnings and recommendations, we all insisted on flying off. Although we managed to reach the destination, it was impossible to return to Maseru. We then had to drive back with a local taxi for three hours to Buta-Buthe where Pedro and another colleague came and picked us up so that we did not have to drive the two last hours at night with local transport. Safety measures...

At the end, the pilot had to stay a night at Mokhotlong, waiting for the sky to clear up and Pedro had to cancel his Friday rugby session...but from my part, I had a great experience !

The traditional rural houses; the rondavel built with thatches and stone or rendered bricks/hollow concrete blocks. The courtyard in stone adjacent to the house is called Lappa.

The enclosure next to the house is for the herds.

Mantsonyane school.