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A quick tour of Lesotho

Experience another way of life.

Join Zee on her day tour to Lesotho. Ride on a taxi, visit a local school, play soccer with the boys, have a drink with the locals in a shebeen. This is an interactive grassroots experience.

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South Africa and Lesotho are separated from one another by the Drakensberg mountains, known in Zulu as "Ukhahlamba" which means "The Barrier of Spears". In the 1800's there were three main groups fighting for land throughout this region: the Boers, British and Zulus. As they moved into the land around the Drakensberg they met up with smaller Nguni tribes and the San (the people who did the cave paintings). These smaller groups could not compete with them, so they moved higher and higher up into the mountains, until they were in such inhospitable land that their pursuers left them alone, having gained all the fertile land that they needed. The fact that Lesotho is set right on the top of the mountains has influenced the way that the Sotho people live. They have had to adapt to their environment.

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When we visit Lesotho, we do not take the usual route. Instead, we travel around the back of the Amphitheatre and Golden Gate. Although we use a high clearance vehicle, the emphasis is not on driving but on exploring the country of Lesotho itself. It is very beautiful, with indigenous succulents and amazing rock outcrops. It is so remote and wild that not even cellphones work. There are no tarred roads and people use horses to travel around. The men still travel great distances with their cattle, looking for grazing, and often sleep out in the open, eating lizards and mice for nourishment.

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While we are in the area we hike up to cave paintings, cross rivers, and pass herdsmen and men coming off the edges of the mountains with their hunting dogs. Perhaps the kids have caught mice, which they cook over an open fire, and if you are adventurous they'll let you taste some. Women still prepare beer for their men using their traditional recipes. Nothing is predicted, as this is not a set cultural tour - it is simply an area that we are traveling around in, and as we see different things we explain them to you. It is one of the few places in the world that is still as it was hundreds of years ago - actually it is rather like walking into a National Geographic movie.

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The trip takes a full day, leaving at 08h00 and returning at about 18h00.

Basotho mountain herdsman
Horse grazing in Lesotho
Basotho man on horse
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