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...