We woke up on our second day in the Addo National Park, and it was still raining. Furthermore, we received a message from friends from Jeffrey’s Bay warning against roadblocks in the area just outside of the National Park. Unfortunately, we have heard about this happening especially in eastern South Africa. Because some people are very poor in this country and unhappy with the government leaving them with nothing, they demonstrate and sometimes block roads and even damage cars, and rob people. This warning message triggered us even more after our experiences in Angola, and we realized that maybe, we haven’t completely processed what had happened to us up there… Of course, the shitty weather also didn’t really help with getting back into our positive travel mood. Tom suggested to drive to a hostel in Hogsback, a place he knew from his previous travels. It would be a safe haven and a good place to recharge our batteries, sit out the bad weather and plan our next steps. He texted Shane, the owner of Terrakaya Backpackers, who was happy to host us and had a room for us at his beautiful eco lodge. The weather stayed bad, but the place was lovely, with very welcoming people, dogs, cats, and many horses, a perfect place to chill. Shane also recommended a coach in the area who is dealing with people’s traumas. We decided to give it a chance and meet him and talk about our Angola experience. It turned out to be helpful in overcoming the fear of bad things happening on the road. We stayed four nights at Terrakaya, and on our last day, the rain finally stopped. Shane took us on a beautiful horse ride through Hogsback, so luckily, in the end, we still got to explore this beautiful place in the sun. We cooked a traditional Potjiekos, a traditional Afrikaner dish, cooked over a fire for our last dinner together, a delicious meal and a fun experience.
With new energy, we left Hogsback again, and even though the weather forecast didn’t look amazing, we decided to stick to our intended route and drive into Lesotho. This place was also new to Tom, so we had something new to explore together for the first time in a while. We spent the last night close to the border on a small campsite, had our car cleaned, and also washed our wet and dirty clothes from the past rainy days. After this, we felt ready to hit the road again. However, an unpleasant surprise waited for us at the border… What was supposed to be a straightforward and quick border crossing didn’t go according to plan. When we wanted to exit South Africa, the immigration officer told us he couldn’t let us leave since our application to extend the South African visa, which we handed in more than two months ago, was still pending. We showed him the receipt from the application, with which we were told we could travel freely in and out of the country. We already knew that the Visa office was far behind with handling the applications; they even informed us that, most likely, we would not hear back from them before the end of our granted visa but that this wouldn’t be a problem, we would just need to show our receipt and it would be fine. Apparently, the immigration officers at the very small land border to Lesotho weren’t informed about that. The officer told us that we should wait for his manager, who would be here in 2 hours, or alternatively, we could drive back to the next town with a VFS office (e.g., a two hours drive) to handle the situation there. Knowing that they probably wouldn’t be a big help, we decided to wait. I was already devastated because I was so much looking forward to visiting Lesotho. Finally, the manager arrived, telling us the same story we had heard from his colleague: If he would let us exit South Africa, the system would kick out our pending application, resulting in an overstayed visa for us and therefore, he would have to give us an “undesired” stamp, meaning we could not return to South Africa for 5-10 years. Of course, we didn’t want this, and also, Lesotho being a landlocked country surrounded entirely by South Africa, we would have been stuck there forever… The manager, however, understood our dilemma, and he also understood that it wasn’t our fault since we applied on time, paid the extension fee, and had done everything we needed. Luckily, he was very helpful and started to make a few phone calls. We waited again patiently, and another two hours later, he called us into his office again and informed us that he would let us pass. We were allowed to exit without being marked as overstayed. We were beyond happy and entered Lesotho.
The vibe after the border was very different to South Africa; we felt like being back in east Africa. The streets were bustling, kids were waving at us when we drove by, the houses were more basic and the people wore very traditional clothes. Above all, we felt very save and welcome. We bought two sim cards just after the border and were surprised by the excellent coverage throughout the whole country! It was definitely worth buying them. Our first stop was at Mount Moorosi Chalets, a cute little lodge and campsite, run by a local guy named Telang. He was very welcoming and even offered us a Rondavel for a reduced price. Since it looked like it would actually not rain for a night, we decided to camp. We were lucky and had a dry night; even the morning remained dry, so we decided to hike up the mountain, which is a historical place in Lesotho because in the early 19th century, an important battle took place at this place against the British. Telang knew a lot about it, and it was an interesting hike up.
Can you see the waterfall behind us? yeah, we didn’t see it either …
From there, we drove to Semonkong, another Lodge with a campsite. As soon as we sat in the car, the rain started again. We texted the lodge owner, who informed us that the campsite at the Semonkong lodge was VERY wet. We decided to go there still and see what we could do. The owner, a lady originally from St. Maurice, was very friendly. She had spent a lot of time in Lesotho and told us a lot about the culture. The lawn of the campsite was indeed very wet, already the road to the lodge was super muddy, and our car looked again like we had just driven a Ralley. But luckily, they had a nice indoor kitchen and sheltered area for campers, so we decided to stay and sleep in the car - after all, our roof tent is waterproof. The following morning, the rain had stopped again, so we got up early and joined another couple for a hike to the highest waterfall in Lesotho. The weather stayed dry for our hike, however, the ground was very wet. We crossed many fields, and our feet were soon soaked. Still, we got to enjoy a breathtaking scenery; it was amazing to explore these even more remote places on foot. We enjoyed the hike, but when we finally reached the waterfall, it was hidden behind some big clouds; we literally didn’t see anything of the waterfall; we only could hear the water falling over the cliff. Thanks to our drone, we still got to take some pictures of the waterfall ;)
We hiked back to the lodge and enjoyed a hot coffee before we continued further north in our car. Our next stop was the Thaba Bosiu Cultural Center, a small museum, where we learned much about the Lesotho history and culture. Again, it was raining in the afternoon, but luckily, not very severely. We found another homestay on iOverlander, Metolong Backpackers, run by a very friendly man named Tlali. He welcomed us warmly, and because the rain picked up again, we spent the evening in a local bar close by, playing pool against the locals. When we woke up the following day, the sun was out again, and we walked down to the dam with Tlali’s trainee, a girl who studied Tourism Management in the capital city of Maseru and was here to complete a three-month internship. We were only her second guest, but she did a great job showing us around, and of course, she had lots of questions about Europe and all the places we have traveled to.
After these three rather wet days in the car on basic campsites, we looked forward to a hot shower and some shelter. All our clothes just didn’t seem to get dry anymore, it stayed damp inside the car. We asked a hotel in Hlotse, a town along our route, if they had a room and they offered us an excellent deal to spend the night. Along the way, we stopped again to visit another old cultural village with huts built into caves. The young local tour guide spoke English very well and explained much about the place’s history.
When we arrived at the hotel, we were amazed: It was a beautiful place, the rooms were clean and modern, and we enjoyed the strong hot shower and the comfortable bed a lot. We wanted to eat at the small restaurant but forgot to tell them when we checked in. When we walked to the restaurant around 8 pm, everything was closed already. So we returned to our room and cooked a small dinner on our gas stove just in front of the room :D
We woke up excited the following day: today, we would meet again with Barbara and Urs, our fellow Swiss overlanders with whom we had spent a fantastic time in Zambia and Botswana. They were back in Africa after a visit back home, and we had made plans to travel together again. We met them at a campsite called Mamohase, about an hour away. En route, we stopped at a car wash (yes again, the muddy roads kept our car very dirty) and at a tourist site, where we could see dinosaur footprints. Unfortunately, half of them were underwater because the river was very high. Nevertheless, we got to see two of them, and the size was indeed very impressive.
Mamohase was another locally-run campsite with a lovely view. The sun was shining when we arrived, and Barbara and Urs were already waiting for us. We sat together, and of course, we had plenty to tell each other. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t stay dry, soon again some clouds appeared, and we had to move our gathering under some shelter. The lodge owners, three cousins, were very helpful and brought some dry wood, so we could still make a braai. It felt like no time had passed since we last saw the two; we were excited to hit the road together again for some weeks.