Africa Safari Blog

Source: Out there Travel, autumn 2010

Lesotho, the Kingdom in the Sky, is a land for explorers, photographers, writer, historians and dinosaur hunters.

It’s not quite the Swiss Alps, but Lesotho does have a ski slope in the Maluti Mountains. Okay, so the main slope is just a kilometer long and snow guns work through the night to ensure an even spread of powder, but the Alps are a R10 000 flight away, whereas Afri-Ski Resort, perched at a 3 222m near Oxbow village across the boarder from Fouriesburg, is a 4.5-hour drive from Johannesburg, and four hours from Bloem. Besides snow in June, Lesotho has several things the Alps don’t. For one, it’s a real-life Jurassic Park, with one of the world’s best dinosaur fossils and prints. There’s even a critter named after it: Lesothaurus was a small, plant-eating lizard from the early Jurassic period, and an artist’s impression shows it as an agile green beast with a flat black head like a snake.
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My trip to South Africa starts with the spontaneous question to Tobias: What do you think of me visiting you in South Africa for a few days on holiday?
At the end however it wasn’t only a few days…

Just three weeks after my spontaneous question I arrived in Cape Town leaving behind the cold Germany to enter the South African late summer. You can feel the heat as well as the diversity of the townships that we passed on our way to Cape Town. Then I finally saw, right in front of me, Table Mountain in all its glory and it’s even more impressive than you expect when seeing it on pictures! We quickly dropped off my bags and headed straight for the Cableway. But we were not the only ones who had this plan. After 90 minutes of queuing we took the quick ride to the top and were rewarded with a breathtaking view.
Must-do no 1 in Cape Town!
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Source: The Weekend Argus, 13th/14th March 2010

Kate Turkington tackles some more mountains…

The invitation was to visit the mountains of Lesotho and look at birds and wild flowers. Lesotho? After Tibet? You must be kidding! How could anything possibly compare with my recent trip to the mighty Himalayas?
But my traveller’s curiosity got the better of me. Maseru was my only previous experience of Africa’s Mountain Kingdom, which wasn’t exactly a Top 100 destination, but you never know…
My goal was Lesotho’s only National Park, Sehlathebe, established more than 45 years ago and situated in Lesotho’s south-eastern corner, in the Qacha’s Nek District. I knew that Lesotho is one of Africa’s smallest countries, but I had no idea that it’s also one of the most elevated. Most of the park lies at altitudes between 2 200m and 2 600m, and just outside the northern border, the mountains soar to 2 900m. The Orange River, whose source is in the highlands of Lesotho, flows through the park on its long journey west to the sea.
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