After stopping by the Ironman Expo and buying a sweet Ironman shirt, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Durban at 1:30. We went quite early and ended up having a good amount of time to sit and chill because even though our plane was scheduled to leave at 1:30, we didn’t end up boarding until about 1:45. Other members of our group who were flying with us, but not coming to Lesotho, should have logically missed the plane if we had been in the U.S. because their taxi was 45 minutes late and they didn’t get through security until after the plane should have left. Thank goodness we’re on Africa time! We flew to Durban once again on Kalula airlines, which is the really funny airline that had funny quotes from previously. We saw a ton of Ironman shirts everywhere too. I was wearing mine, so maybe people thought I actually did it, but in all reality I was just a poser. Once we got into Durban we were picked up by the Underberg Express and had another 3 hour drive to Underberg where our backpackers was located for pony-trekking. We had a beautiful drive through a mountainous area with the sun setting in the background. We arrived at the backpackers at about 6pm, just starving for dinner. We found out that the power was out in the town, which I guess kinda happens frequently. They immediately gave us Old Brown Sherry and started the braai (South African BBQ) on a bonfire outside. It was sooo good. We had steaks from cows raised in the area, sausages, baked potatoes, pasta salad, and some sort of carrot/vegetable salad and ate by candle light. I ate soo much! Then we got a quick briefing on where we would be going for our pony-trek. We were going to head into the country of Lesotho, which is quite untouched, mostly because it contains the Drakensberg mountain range. We all went to bad early that night.
Tuesday we got up at 7 am to pack our saddle bags and eat breakfast. I love eating breakfast here because we use the same milk that they use for their coffee and tea, except it’s not really milk, its cream. The milk and cream here for some reason are much creamier than U.S. milk too. I’ve fallen in love with the tea here too. We drink Rooibos tea for breakfast, lunch, midafternoon tea, and dinner. I’ve officially become a tea drinker. We also met this couple from who traveled around Africa for a year on a motorcycle. They were sweet to talk to. Check out their website: http://www.2canadiansonbikes.com/. After breakfast we hopped into the back of the bakkie (truck) and rode 50 km to the passport check. It was here that we saddled up our horses and hopped on. I had a beautiful chestnut brown horse with black feet, mane, and tail. I was told her name was “Soma,” but her name slowly progressed throughout the week. The guide would come back and get her going sometimes and call her “Suma” or “Sama” and eventually I figured out with his accent her name was probably “Summer.” That whole day we just trekked through the mountains on our horses. There was no official line of where we entered into Lesotho. We were told before hand that there were just two sticks, but we didn’t even see those. There were brown lines on the grass all over and we liked to call those the borders, but those were actually fire stops in case of a wildfire. The mountains that these horses climbed with us on them were amazing. It was a steep and rocky path, so we would weave a lot and at one point it got too rocky so we got off them and let them go up. It was so amazing though. My horse really liked to walk on the grass, probably because it was softer on her feet, but at times she would walk on the very edge of a cliff. Oh boy, that made me nervous. We stopped for lunch on the top of a flat mountain and stopped a few times to stretch our legs. I could feel the soreness already. We came into the village where our lodge was at about 3:30ish that afternoon which is mostly a guess because I took my watch off for the whole trip. Originally I thought the village we were staying in was all the “houses” in front of us, but it turns out it was a couple of villages together. Our guide was from the village we were in, which only had 16 people in it. The lodge was actually pretty simple with beds, a kitchen, and lounge area with beanbags. We mostly chilled out that afternoon and chatted. We did go for a walk that evening down the road of the village. The language they speak in this village is Sosotho, in which we know absolutely no words. We saw some little kids and said hello, but none of us could speak the same language. Our horses were set free and would just roam around and eat grass around our lodge. Other horses, donkeys, and cows in the village would also just roam around. The “houses” were more so shacks, but they were in pretty nice condition. They often were made of cement or clay and had tin or straw roofs. They did have access by road to town and it looked liked one truck did exist in the village, so they weren’t completely isolated. That night for dinner we had homemade bread, potatoes, peas, and chicken. I had a ton to eat again, but I never quite reached fullness. After dinner a few kids from the village came in and sold us purses and baskets that their mother had weaved. Then they sang us a few songs. The lodge had no electricity, instead it ran on a generator to cook dinner from 6-9 and then it was turned off. Once again we spent the evening in candlelight. I was incredible sore after one day of riding and a bit terrified for how riding would go the next day.
Wednesday we woke up and had an amazing breakfast of homemade bread, a type of malt-o-meal, baked beans (although not as sugary as in the US), and scrambled eggs. Then we saddled up our horses and took off on another adventure. Today we headed through a lot of the villages and over streams and between lots of mountains. We saw a lot of old “houses” build under the rocks of the mountains and stopped twice at these houses to look at the old San paintings. You could distinctively see humans and animals in these paintings. It was so odd because there was no protection over these paintings and they weren’t in any sort of national park. They were just out in the wilderness of Lesotho and you could go find them if you knew where they were. We passed through a few more villages which we so beautiful. They were just plopped on the tops of flat mountains in the middle of nowhere. We climb the last mountains and passed some boys herding a donkey carrying stuff. We climbed up through a wheat field and stopped for lunch. For lunch we had cheese and onion sandwiches on homemade bread, tea, and toppers (a name brand cookie here). We just kinda sat there and looked at all the beauty around us while the horses wondered around us and munched on grass. After lunch we headed back to our lodge on a road that was being expanded. We passed a lot of workers, male and female, digging into the mountain rocks and dirt to expand the road. We said hello to a lot of them and it seemed like many of them laughed at us, either from our lack of ability to speak their language or how ridiculous we looked riding those horses. At one point, we started trotting and then cantering on the road and we got to see quite a spectacle. Brooke lost her foot holds in the saddle and while cantering almost fell off the horse. Our guide was right next to her holding on to her reins trying to get the horse to stop. I saw it all from behind and it looked like a wild horse chase from the Western movies. Thankfully Brooke did not fall off though and was okay. We mostly walked the rest of the way back to the lodge. We did pass through a few more villages and little kids would run on the roads next to us. We also crossed the paths of many children walking home from school singing. That was a priceless encounter- seeing children walking on a small road across a large mountain singing cheerful songs on their way home from school. That night was pretty uneventful. Our soreness was starting to fade and we all gave each other back massages to help with the soreness. That night we played spoons by candlelight before heading off to bed.
Thursday morning we woke and had the same breakfast with tea and then packed up our saddlebags and headed out. Our path home was a bit different and was most plains, which was really awesome because I got a chance to have Summer gallop! We saw a few baboons in the distance and passed through the Valley of the Wild Horses which, of course, had wild horses in it. We stopped at a waterfall for a break and it started to sprinkle lightly. Our lunch stop today was the same as the first day and we crossed paths with three Dutch women going on a two day ride. Two of them had never ridden horses before and it seemed they were a bit unprepared for what was ahead of them by the look of their clothes (pretty nice looking tank tops and t-shirts) and the fact that they kept asking if there would be Coke at the village. Our lunch was cheese and onion sandwiches and toppers again and tea, of course. We started our way down the mountain as a huge storm cloud rolled in over the mountains next to us and it started to lightning and thunder. We thought the horses would get spooked, but they never did. The storm actually turned out pretty cool to ride next to. It eventually cleared up by the time we reached the border. Once we came in we unsaddled our horses and hopped in the back of the bakkie for the ride back to the hostel. The rest of the day was spent hanging out and relaxing. We had another awesome dinner at the hostel and that night I watched 27 Dresses with Katie and Laura. The first movie I’ve watched in a couple months!
Friday we decided to stay at the hostel for another night and so we spent the day lounging around again. We met Simon the horse, who thinks he’s a dog and frequently tries to get in the kitchen. We also met Fat Cat. This fat is bigger than any cat I have ever met, including my own, and still seems to be extremely agile. It will jump to its food dish on the counter in the kitchen and even though its food dish is in the kitchen and it can walk all over the counters, it appears to not like human food. Additionally, no matter who we ask, no one can remember if the cat had a real name or what it is and therefore is just always called Fat Cat. There were also three dogs wondering around. A white one called Shmegil, who is the sheep herding dog, Blue, a Belgian shepherd who really just looks like a German shepherd, and Jas, who also responds to Spook. We took a walk around and I got to see the sheep being herded and we also got up to a random cabin in the middle of nowhere and watched Blue swim in the swimming hole and bark at us to jump in with him. Instead we just threw rocks for him to try and fetch. We also watched two movies and did Stations of the Cross as it was Good Friday.
Saturday we got picked up at 7:30 am on the Underberg Express for Durban. Riding the Underberg Express with us was a girl from Minnesota who now lived in Atlanta and was visiting SA for work. She attended Carlton College. Small world! We got to Durban about noon and I went on a run with Laura and showered. Then we hit up a small market nearby and went grocery shopping too. We also finally got a chance to check our e-mail! That night was pretty uneventful. We just made dinner, watched a movie and went to bed.
Sunday was Easter Sunday! We found an 8:30 Mass where we had gone to church previously. It was good, but we all missed our families. After Mass we packed up at the hostel and caught a taxi to the airport to fly home to PE. It was good to be back and meet up with everyone else after break. That night a group of us went out to eat at an Italian place to celebrate Easter. Our break was finally over, but in all we had a great time and an experience I won’t forget.
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