Lesotho Diary - Days 7-10

DAY 7: PITSENG
Even the mixed sized rocks under my sleeping bag massaging quite happily didn’t prevent me from getting a good night sleep last night. After 10 minutes warm up we headed for a river crossing to start our final 12km trek. Today our route once again took us through more villages and schools as we walked along the track that lead across the Mphosong River to Pitseng. We walked through some "perfect picture" type scenery's through out the day and pictures here say it all.

[Photo: Bhumi ]

On route we stopped by a school that allowed children to come out of class to sing for us. They sang a few beautiful, harmonized pieces about friendship. In return we sang and taught them the Okie Kokie? Don’t ask me more as I had never heard this song before in my life but I did enjoy the song and dance. :) It had arm waving and a wiggle, which the kids enjoyed. Thanks to John Daffern here's a copy of the video of children singing:


We collected some money within our group to replace the broken windows for the school. Another group was due to visit that area the following week to build a school so it all fell into place beautifully. This was our last full day of trekking so after lunch we joined the two groups together to walk the last 6km as one team. Rest of the afternoon was spent walking through more villages and fields, climbing mountains and crossing rivers before we embarked on the last climb of the day to the finish line. We were greeted by our support team, and were served fizzy wine to celebrate our success. This was truly a great night for all of us as it was quite a tough trek and we completed it without any serious injuries, only what few of us had gone in with.

DAY 8: PITSENG—PILANESBERG

It was our last day in Lesotho and quite an emotional one too. Waking up to the views of the beautiful mountains was special. The school children came to see us and performed an impromptu concert, singing few beautiful, harmonized pieces, including items on friendship and AIDS. It was moving to see these talented children full of joy living in communities with highest % of AIDS in the world and where life expectancy is 37 years! I couldn't help but feel sad thinking these young children should be singing about other things and not serious issues like AIDS! This morning was full of mixed feelings; on one hand there was the satisfaction of having completed the challenge successfully despite of various difficulties, and the other hand sadness that it was our last day in Lesotho, where despite of a striking poverty and vacuum of needs, the locals seemed to be so content! Here's a link to my favourite video of the Lesotho trek by John Daffern



After 6km walk we boarded the coach for 6 hrs journey to Pilanesberg National Park. After 8hrs we finally arrived at the park at 8pm where we spent the next two nights. The luxury of a proper bed and pillow, hot water and flushing toilet, big enough space to leave all your bags around without compromising sleeping space injected a lot of excitement in the group. I was quite surprised with myself to have survived 7 days with baby wipes shower and no Indian music!!! South Africa unfortunately is not a vegetarian friendly place, so I had to survive on bit of salad that night and the next!! Breakfast however was delicious! :)

DAY 9: PILANESBERG

Today was our first and only free day to ourselves to enjoy and recover from the last 8 days of travel and trekking. I decided to go for Safari at 6am in the morning, with a hope to catch a glimpse of a baby Elephant. We managed to catch a glimpse of few animals including Lion, Elephant (from far away and I am sure there was a baby elephant but others had a different view :), Zebra, Rhino, a rare view of a lioness with a fresh kill, Antelopes and some distinct beautiful native birds. That night we had the Gala Night to celebrate our success, this kicked off at 8pm with a meal, followed by a number of activities (organized by trekkers during the day) that provided us with few hours of comedy and entertainment.

DAY 10: COTLANDS ORPHANAGE, JOHANNESBURG

In the morning we made our way to Cotlands in Johannesburg where we would be spending the afternoon before our return flight. Founded in 1936, Cotlands continues to meet the needs of children impacted by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

[Photo: John Daffern, Steve with a child at Cotlands]

This was a very moving experience for a lot of us especially to see the hunger for love and attention that these children had in their eyes when they rushed towards us opened their arms wanting to be picked up. The branch we visited looks after orphans from 0-7yrs, a lot of them are HIV positive. We spent few hours with children, offering them toys, colours, books, etc while learning about Cotlands and admiring their contribution to the society. Anna showed us around sharing stories and answering endless questions from the group.

[Photo: Dick Goodband, Richard sharing photo with a child at Cotlands]

That night we flew back from Johannesburg and arrived in London on Sunday the 22nd April. I slept for 14 hrs straight waking up the next day. I had not quite realised how exhausted I was!!! Despite of few difficulties it was definitely a worth while challenge to have taken on board!!!

Lesotho Diary - Day 6

DAY 6: HA MASHILI TREK

The drums went off at 6am and walk started at 7am with our group to leave first after the warm up exercises. The target today was to achieve an elevation of ~1100m (7.5km steep walk up) by lunchtime. For the past couple of days I had been asked to walk right at the front with our guide to set the pace for rest of the group which was made up of people with varied speed. It was tough going up especially when we started hitting the altitude so Jess and Chris took my jacket and fleece off me to reduce the weight in my daypack. Gillian’s “small steps tip” and Volker’s “runners breathing technique” made a big difference and helped us throughout the day. We walked pass the triple waterfall once again from a different angle, simply beautiful! The path that we used today was under construction by the locals working hard and it completely disappeared as we got closer to the top, when it became just a matter of finding your way up. When we got to the top (3109mts) the views were amazing, and we had a view which I feel truly describes “The kingdom of mountains”! A feeling of jubilation prevailed through out the group to have made it to the top with no serious issues.

[Photo: Richard Storey]

After a quick lunch break we embarked on our next stage walk which was to cross the plateau (7km). This was done mainly in hailstorm which lasted an hour leaving quite an impact. As the walk was tough today, we had to carry extra water, food and extra layers of clothing so I had taken out all the other things from my day pack. Unfortunately, this was also the only day when waterproof trousers, hand gloves and head torch were needed big time! Soon the sun was out and so was the rainbow. We stopped for another short break before heading down on a vehicle track (not in use) for ~ 5km walk.

[Photo: Richard Storey]

Soon we discovered why no vehicles used this route that was full of rocks ranging from a size of green pea to a baby rhino! (well, felt like it :) This route was tough on knees and ankles and as a result my knee pain worsened, and I limped for the next 3/4 hrs going down carefully stepping on rocks, escaping few falls thanks to Dave and Richard (co-trekkers) helping me at numerous tricky points.

[Photo: Richard Storey]

Four of us got left behind because of me and when we finally caught up with the rest of our group, we had a small hurdle to clear. The group had discovered the river (now dry) had washed away our road so needed to drop 8ft down in to the actual river bed to cross to the other side. Last hour or so of the walk was done in the dark and I am grateful to Dave, Richard and Narinder for helping me and ensuring I had enough light to see where I was stepping.

[Photo: Richard Storey]

By now I just wanted to sit down, but we had no choice and had to keep going as it was getting very dark and the second group was behind us another 20 min away. At that point, it was a great relief to see the campsite only minutes away. We were roughly 300yds away of the campsite when we came across a group of madly barking wild dogs. At this point it got very amusing as we had to group together and run, and guess what? I DID! The fear of a wild dog jumping on me was worst then the pain in my knee. That was just too funny and a perfect way to end a very long adventurous day, with a laugh!

Our group seemed to have stayed together, looking after each other, maintaining a positive outlook throughout the day, through some tough and good times. Our guides Gillian and Volker were great, offering tips to make walks easier and managed the team well ensuring we stayed together most of the times. While the whole group discussed today’s events around the fire, I escaped to enjoy some space in my tent and rest my knee. I didn’t really expect any issues with getting a good night sleep tonight as for the last 2 days we had just walked and walked until we simply dropped! There was a massive cheer when we were given one extra hour lie in the next day and the route sounded lot less strenuous.

[Photo: Richard Storey]

On these challenges I always go in with an attitude to “expect the unexpected” within a roughly set parameter and deal with the situation when it arises. Although very hard on my knees and at times pain reaching an unbearable point, I truly enjoyed the day which had all the ingredients of a real adventure – climbing steep mountains requiring us often to use hands and feet at times, steep descend sometimes requiring to slide on our bottoms, jumping a 8ft drop in the river bed, crossing a number of rivers, walking in the dark, crossing a river in the dark with ropes for safety, etc. This day especially tested my physical as well as mental strength (esp. my determination to deal with my fears) but more importantly it left me with an amazing feeling of satisfaction and truly having earned the sponsorship!

Lesotho diary - Days 5

DAY 5: TSEHLANYANE LOOP

The briefing for today stated “a moderate walk finishing at 3pm” as the following day was going to be a tough one. The walk today turned out to be everything but “moderate” in our terms and we eventually finished at around 5pm, having walked 17km taking us around 8/9 hrs. On this sunny day, we did steep mountain climbing achieving an elevation of 900mts (2953 ft) to reach height of 2700m (8858 ft) in the first half of the day. When we reached at the top of the mountain, we decided to name our group “Storm Troopers”.

[Photo: Richard Storey]

I enjoyed the challenge of having to deal with few unexpected events and enjoyed walking on a rocky mountain requiring us to often use our hands as well as feet. After a short break at the top we headed for a steep descend towards our lunch break stop by the spring. I knew this would be little interesting for me as I had struggled going down the mountains during our training walks in the Lakes District. I stayed focused and was very pleased to make it to the lunch not far behind our front guide and only falling once and escaping injuries!

[Photo: Dave Stewart]

After lunch we headed back up a bit and then across the mountain, walking through and experiencing some amazing scenery's. The views were so perfect that it was almost unbelievable, a bit like a film back drop, and no picture can match the feeling of being there. One of the highlights of this trek was a beautiful triple water fall with a very soothing sound. As the rain was heading towards us, we had to carry on and we walked across a river and through the forest until we reached the campsite.

[Photo: Richard Storey]

This was a hard day for few of us in the team and the next day was even tougher, so few of us were rightly given an option to take an alternative route which was less strenuous. Although I did struggle today because of my knee and perhaps not having enough stamina as others in the group to move faster, I decided against the less strenuous option provided I was not hindering the progress of rest of the group. These are the times when real team work comes in play and it was great to see the whole team stuck together to take on the next day. The briefing prepared us for the next day; we knew that we had to expect a very hard day, starting at 6am, longer and steeper walk with a higher elevation target with possible altitude sickness and fewer breaks. That evening I decided to brave it and go for the ice cold shower and yes it felt very refreshing!!! :)

Lesotho diary - Days 1 - 4

1 AND 2: LONDON—HA NTSOAKELE

We left London on the 12th April to embark on the Lesotho trek challenge which we took on to raise funds for Childline UK. Although the actual challenge had began months ago with the work on achieving the fund raising target. We got to Johannesburg at 6am the next morning and headed off to Lesotho via a coach. We arrived in Lesotho after roughly 6hrs coach journey, passing through the Northern Free State, the Maluti Mountains and crossing the Lesotho border. The scenery from there on was stunning, beautiful villages not yet hit by commercialisation with signs of conservation throughout.

[Photo: Bhumi]

With the clouds promising rain, we had a very quick lunch and started our 6km trek on a relatively flat ground, well, as flat as it can get in a place that is well known in the world as “The kingdom of mountains”. Next few hours we walked through some beautiful villages where the villagers welcomed us with illuminating smiles before we arrived to our first campsite. The campsite was on a small plateau just outside a village, over looking beautiful hills and fields. After the evening meal we had the full briefing on the next 5 days. Pretty much whole village children joined us at the campsite, shouting “shoot me, shoot me” :). That night we also had the most amazing galaxy of stars in the sky that I have seen in years! It was just over 36 hrs that I had been up now and it was time for me to hit the bed in the tent which was small, cold and wet.

DAY 3: BOITHATELO

Last nights briefing stated that there will be a wake up call at 6.30am every morning, however what I hadn’t realised was that it will be by a sound of African drumming! I have always been very fond of African drumming so I was pleasantly surprised and that was an uplifting way to wake up and got us going straightaway. After we completed morning chores, and a 15 min warm up, we were split into two groups to make the management of groups easier.

[Photo: Richard Storey]

At 8 am we were the first group to kick off the walk. We walked along the Hlotse River valley at the foot of the majestic Sekameng mountain range, walking past several villages, going up and down the valley, and over looking beautiful corn fields before we reached our lunch destination.

[Photo: Richard Storey]

After lunch we carried on walking through more beautiful villages; until we reached our campsite for that evening. Today we walked for 15km taking us about 8 hrs including breaks. It was quite a warm day which made the day lot more enjoyable however within half hour of finishing the walk it started raining/(hailing) which carried on for the most part of that evening, bringing back memories of Himalaya trek when we had rain/hail everyday!!! The coffee/dinner camps were not covered on the sides so it made it very difficult for all of us to get a proper shelter and it was freezing!!!!

DAY 4: TSEHLANYANE NATIONAL PARK

Today we walked down into the scenic Pela Tsoeu valley and walked past the villages of Mahlabatheng, Ha Malefetsane and Ha Mali. Just before lunch we crossed a small river and had an opportunity to have first dip in the water in 3 days! Few of us got excited like a baby discovering water for the first time. Although excited I only managed to dip my toes in the water as it was freezing cold!!!

[Photo: Richard Storey]

After lunch we continued our celebrity style walk on a long road through more villages and contagious friendly smiles. Until lunchtime today my knee had held up well and then it started all going downhill. It was a long day during which we covered the distance of 19km and walked for about 8-9 hours, before we entered the tiny but beautiful Tsehlanyane National Park. Our treat of the day was to find the washrooms with a flushing toilet in the National park!! Unfortunately the shower turned out to be ice cold! It was a cold night and we spent the night in a tent with a broken zip (on my side), freezing ourselves but worse esp. for me was the fear of insects making their way in the tent!! We camped at the National park for two nights!!

My brief encounter with Lesotho!

[Photo: Bhumi]

Children shouting “Shoot me, shoot me”, beautiful scenery, serene mountains, friendly locals, children with illuminating smiles, Volker’s uplifting drumming and trekkers singing by the bonfire every night, beautiful galaxy of stars in the sky, small wet & cold tents, walking on red soil with beautiful fragrance, crossing numerous rivers, climbing countless mountains and excellent team spirit everyday, are few of many things that reminds me of my brief encounter with Lesotho. It was an overwhelming experience especially the perfectly synchronised impromptu concert by the school children on our last day in Lesotho and the visit to Cotlands Orphanage in Johannesburg. (shoot me = take my picture)

A summary for those who wish to skip my Lesotho diary ;)

[Photo: Richard Storey]

We left London on 12th April and reached Johannesburg on the 13th at 6 in the morning. We straightaway boarded a coach for our next bit of journey to Lesotho which took roughly 6hrs. With clouds promising a heavy rain we had a very quick lunch by a road side before we started our 6km trek. We trekked and camped for the next 6 days. Our day started everyday at 6.30am with exception of the day 6 which started at 6am. We walked a roughly 95km over six and half days, achieving total elevation of 2124mts (6969ft).

[Photo: Daksha Patani]

The longest day we walked (12 hrs) was day 6, covering just under 20km and reaching the height of 3109mts (10200 ft) having achieved an elevation of roughly 1100mts (3600ft). This also was the day when we walked in the sun, hailstorm, rain and just over an hour in dark. Day 5 was not far behind in terms of distance and number of hours walked (17km, 9.5hrs, 900mts elevation).

[Photo:Richard Storey]

We had one free day to ourselves when we were given an accommodation in a national park resort and the feeling of excitement was injected in the group to find a proper bed/pillow, hot shower (after 7 days of baby wipes shower!!!) and a place big enough to put your bag without having to compromise your sleeping space!

As a result of this challenge the group raised over £62k for Childline UK at the time of writing this blog and more donations were pouring in following the success. Cotlands, Johannesburg and a school in Lesotho also benefited from this event. I feel Lesotho gave us lots including, a great adventurous experience, some beautiful scenery's, a location for the trek challenge that raised some serious funds for Childline to answer over 20,000 calls, very friendly and welcoming people. As a group we attempted to return the favour by donating £440 towards replacing a school’s windows and provided toys, books, colours to children at Cotlands. Cotlands in Johannesburg looks after orphans and most of these children are HIV positive. The children are cared for until they are seven and those that survive are either adopted out or moved to another branch of Cotlands.

[Photo: Dick Goodband]

I left South Africa feeling there is lot more that we could have done and can do for the children in Lesotho and Cotlands. This trip has left me with a reminder of the harsh reality of life for many there and an admiration for people who work for the orphanage. I hope to continue to raise awareness of the work that Cotlands does and generate more funds for the charity that offers excellent support to people who live in the most difficult circumstances in which they find themselves helpless.

I have put together a video for the sponsors to show my appreciation for their support and I very much hope that you enjoy it as lot of hard work has gone in creating this.