Grand Adventures: Watching Sheep and Towers in Lesotho

Most of the books and websites talk about taking a tour up Sani Pass, a treacherous road connecting South Africa and Lesotho through the Drakensburg mountains. But somewhere we read that it’s possible to walk up. So, on our second to last weekend in South Africa, we drove through the foothills to a comfy hostel 6,000 feet up the mountain, ready to conquer the pass the next morning.

We woke up, packed as little as possible for our stay on top, and set out for the South African border post. Sani Pass is 8 kilometers long. Elevation at the bottom is just over 6,000 feet. Elevation at the top is 9,300. That’s a long way up, especially for our sea-level lungs. It was a perfect day, sunny with a gentle, cool breeze and the valley spreading out below us. Looking up, though, was a different story, with the daunting hairpin turns winding their way above us into Lesotho. By the time we arrived at the top, we were blistered, hungry, and very happy to see the highest pub in Africa. The Lesotho border post was a riot. It seemed to be an optional stop, but we wanted those stamps on our passports, so we stepped over barbed wire and abandoned tires, walked past some lethargic guards, and handed over our passports.

Fully stamped, we found our hostel, which was an old barn in the middle of a tiny traditional village. A few hundred meters away, past traditional stone homes, sheep, and some curious children was the pub, where we found some warm food, cold beers, and views that made us feel as though we were on top of the world. We asked the bartender for advice about what to do while in Lesotho. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “You should go see this tower. It’s tall and pretty neat.” Then he waxed philosophical about the benefits of watching sheep.

Armed with that advice – watch towers and sheep – we went wandering on top of the escarpment and spent the afternoon watching sheep and towers. Good pastimes in Lesotho, it turns out.

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 4:30 the next morning to watch the sunrise. The sun illuminated the clouds blanketing the valley below and covered the mountains in gold. It didn’t take long for the sun to burn through the clouds, and our descent was as clear as our ascent, and a lot less work. Happy to find our car still waiting for us back at the South African border post, we headed back to the sea for our last week in Durban.