Trip Report - Roof of Africa...

[jakeslouw]

Sani Top Chalet/pub is supposedly 2874m ASL.

Afriski is technically the highest at 3030m ASL.

I have to go back to Lesotho then and have a beer at Afriski.

[Mad Manny]

Great report so far, thanks Ian...

[iandvl]

Day 5 : Sani Top -> Letseng

Got up early and had sips of of coffee in between packing up the truck. Checked out and headed out into the Lesotho hinterland. The little patches of snow we'd found the previous day are at the start of the Kotsiphela Pass (Black Mountain pass). According to Mountain Passes ZA, this is a "Mega pass". It's 32km, has a summit of 3244m and "consists of 139 bends. Eight of these have angles in excess of 90 degrees and of those, six are hairpin bends". It is super pretty, but I did not have much time for photos as I was driving and needed to clock in for work that morning. There was also quite a lot of ice on the road, so my full focus was required on driving....

I shall digress for a bit. I'm not a fan of the "neo-colonialism" thing the Chinese are pulling in Africa. However, that road recently built by the Chinese, is a master piece. We'll see how it holds up over time as the condition of the A1 (also built by them) is not awesome these days. But... that road is awesome...

I turned North onto the A1 shortly before Mokhotlong and continued on my journey, eventually reaching Mapholaneng.

Mapholaneng marks (I think) the start of the Tlaeng pass - which is apparently Africa's highest driveable pass. From there I continued through to Letseng - where I would be staying for the next couple of days.

At Letseng, it took a while to clear security as I had to document every single little thing in my vehicle. Tools, spares, fridges, tents etc... But eventually I got in and I wasted the rest of the day doing medical, induction etc. It was snowing when I arrived, but I was too busy with admin to be able to take any photos or enjoy it much...

Photos are the tail end of the Black Mountain Pass just after Mokhotlong, my quarters and my Patrol's quarters for the next while.

On a side note: Lesotho is bitterly cold in the Winter - it took my truck about 70km to get to normal operating temperature after leaving Sani top...

[iandvl]

Day Various: Hanging at Letseng and Some Urgent Excursions

So there I was - working at Letseng. The weather is super variable - ranging from wet, to sunny, to snow and similar, all in the space of a few hours... Also: it is as cold as my ex-wife's heart, and when the wind pumps, it pumps. Had one evening where it was -18 with windchill, and the wind was pumping at 96km/h... Also had snow on various days. They blasted regularly, but I was always too late to get a video. You'll see one of the photos with dust rising from the pits following a blast... Blasting is super impressive....

I ran into a little bit of a snag - I found out after arriving - that the mine works on a cash basis only... And my cigarettes etc would not make the week. I had noticed several ATM's in Mapholaneng on my way there, but I was loathe to take the drive...

My original plan was to refuel in Butha Buthe on the way home. And Mapholaneng would be a 70km round trip... And I was not sure whether I'd make Butha Buthe from Letseng if I opted to take the drive.... However, addiction is a horrible thing... I ended up taking the drive, but also found a petrol station in Mapholaneng. So I was guaranteed of making it back home...

Apart from that, the truck was covered in ice and snow when not in use. One of the highlights for me was bumping into fellow ex-Patroller, Grant, on my second-last night there. I did not know he worked there....

Anyways, work went on. Not much time to get around and see stuff. But it was pretty. And it was cold... Wrapped up my project on the father's day and packed all my bags on that Sunday. I'd be leaving the next morning (I thought)...

[iandvl]

Day Last : Letseng -> Pretoria

I was supposed to leave on the Monday. There were delays in terms of the project team arriving back at the mine, so I could only have my close down meeting on the Monday afternoon. I spent the Monday working on my report.

Early, early Tuesday, I was up and about. Watched the sunrise over the roof of Africa. Had a cup of coffee. Finished packing. I did not really want to drive in the dark on unknown mountain passes which were possible iced up. So I waited for it to get a little lighter...

At about 07h00, I reckoned it was OK and headed out... The route today would be the A1 all the way to Butha Buthe via the remainder of the Tlaeng Pass, Khalo La Lithunya (Pass of Guns), Mahlasel Pass and Moteng Pass.

Had a lekker drive, but driving here in the early morning can be difficult on the switchbacks in the passes. ie: Often you end up driving into the sun and it is difficult to see the road. There was also ice on the road at various places (you can see some of this in the photos). Finally, one has to be super wakey in terms of trucks. On the switchbacks, they can occupy the whole road. So keep an eye ahead to make sure you're not going to meet one of them on a bend, or you're going to prang or someone will need to reverse...

Got to Botha Buthe, but GPS took me wrong wayish again, so I missed the filling station. Crossed the border at Caledonspoort. There was no fuel in Caledonspoort. I refuelled in Bethlehem. From there I did more or less the same trip back. Bogan-central (Tweeling), Villiers, and the N3 / N1 back to Pretoria. Made good time and got home at around 13h00.

Side note: Moteng Pass is an absolute monster...

[iandvl]

I'll submit my closing thoughts in this trip in the morning. Cannot do it now.

[Mad Manny]

Very proud of you for missing Desmond 'The Tweeling Twat' on the way done and the way back. I once spent a week with Desmond on one afternoon ~ he is like that.

[iandvl]

Manny - Desmond is a dik pel of mine and if I had been delayed on my way home and did not have so much to attend to, I'd have stayed over there on the way home...

Conclusion

I've been in Lesotho quite a bit - as mentioned previously. But these occasions have always been either Maseru and surrounds or up and down Sani. On one occasion, after doing business in Maseru, I did decide to drive around a little and exited at Peka Bridge. But this is the first time I've driven across from Sani to Caledonspoort.

The people are friendly and the country is beautiful. I'm sort of sorry I did not have time to see more of the place whilst I was there, so I've decided to add to my list of places to see more of. So I'll put together another trip sometime to see a little more of the place.