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!!
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