Thabana Ntlanyana has been a hike we have wanted to do for
the past couple of years. We made
it to the area in late 2010 but were rained and snowed out, at the height of
summer (not unlike the risks of summer in the Rockies). Wendy has two colleagues that are
runners, and they had dreams of ‘running’ to Thabana Ntlanyana, so together we
planned a trip.
Wendy had to convince them that hiking in to the highest
point in Lesotho, 3482 meters, would be a bit different than going for a 3 or 5
hour run. On the agreed upon day
we loaded up (down) our vehicle and began the journey. Food, day packs, sleeping bags, tents, blankets, more blankets, and we were off. Off, in Lesotho, means winding roads through innumerable small villages, over incredibly high mountain passes,
and along roads of every sort.
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| Winding roads. |
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| Wendy's colleagues got in a little run at one of the passes. |
Roads of every sort included smooth, modern, tar roads; roads more potholes than road; a section of paved highway with a
stream, 15 inches deep and about the same width, winding it’s way down the
middle of the road; gravel roads with water filled potholes four feet across, 6
feet long and up to 20 inches deep.
Then there was the 4x4 only
section of the road which I pushed our little Honda CRV over. At times my passengers would get
out. It is amazing the difference
that 500 pounds less makes in getting up steep, rocky grades. Nine hours of driving later and
we arrived at our destination for the night.
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| Road hazards. |
Wendy and I got our little tent pitched easily enough, while
our hiking colleagues struggled with erecting a tent that had been lost deep in
a closet for too long to remember how to set it up. After supper we had a snug and restful sleep in our little
tent, while their’s was buffeted by the wind and treatened to blow away. It was cold - with ice forming on the
puddles and frost on the vehicle.
The next morning we drove to the trailhead and were on the
trail just before 7:00 a.m. The
reports I had read gave hiking times of 8-12 hours. Later our hiking colleagues suggested that I had set a pretty
tough pace, but I didn’t want to be getting back after dark.
The mountains here, devoid of trees, make for such a different
hiking experience. Nothing gets in
the way of the views, though I find the views wanting compared to the views in the Canadian Rockies. We wound along a valley, then up a long steep slope. We stopped
at the top and enjoyed our first views of our unremarkable goal.
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| The goal, elevation - 3482 metres. |
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| 3491 meters in the Alberta Rockies. |
Additionally, the herdboys
with their sheep, traverse the same mountain slopes and show up seemingly out
of nowhere, past experience telling them that hikers stop at the top and eat,
and they are likely to get handouts.
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| The top of Lesotho. |
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| Wendy with her Basotho colleagues. A 'high' point for them they said. |
On the way back we met more herd boys. One young fellow with
his mamokhorong, (a simple instrument made of an old tin container, a bowed
stick and a single string) sang and played us a number of tunes. Then it was the final push back to the
vehicle.
We arrived at the vehicle weary and worn 9 ½ hours after our
departure and with plenty of time before dark. The next day after the nine hour drive back to Maseru I was
ready for a couple of days of rest.
But we had been to the top of Maseru, and for this attempt we had had a
perfect sunny day with not a hint of rain to threaten our trek to the top of Lesotho, Thabana Ntlanyana.
~ Benno ~
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