Lesotho

The mountain kingdom of lesotho.

This beautiful country is located inside South Africa and covers an area of approx 12,000 sq miles.

It is ruled by a King (hence the Kingdom!) and is just the most awesome place to visit, and you get more stamps

in your passport :-) The mountain passes are spectacular and the water clean enough to drink from the streams!

I spent 3 or 4 days traveling through it with my good friends Dewald and Irma in their new Subaru forester.

A truly unforgettable few days that saw the new car tested again and again! And it performed beautifully.

We where fortunate enough to witness some tribal events that only happen once a year.

Not so fortunate for the young lads taking part though!! ;-0

Unfortunately Lesotho has one of the highest HIV problems in the world but you would never guess

this by the smiling happy faces that greeted us everywhere.

Click on the photo's below to enlarge and back on your browser to return

These lads are off to be circumcised by the man in the yellow water proof trousers (the doctor!!) and then left to survive
on their own in a hut with no medication! If they survive they can then call themselves a man. Their mothers arrive during the
night to leave a bowl of food and some water but are not allowed to see them :-( Look at their faces in the larger picture ouch!!!!!!!

These guys came riding across the mountains in there hundreds!! maybe up to a thousand!! We didn't take many photo's as we
didn't know for sure if they would allow it. This picture I took as we where driving away from the area and by the looks of
that guy he was up for it!! We think as they where all men and it being a few days later that they where on
their way to celebrate the young boys becoming men. We also saw a village slaughtering two cows
earlier in preparation for a feast.

I just had to put this guys photo on :-) We where driving through a valley in the middle
of nowhere when all of a sudden this lad walks out on his own and plays his hand
made violin!! And he was making a tune on it! We could not see where he
lived or where he could have come from but we gave him a few
Rand and he was happy. look out Robbie Williams!!!!

Wow this place was awesome! this photo doesn't do it justice as it continues to the right
and left for a long way. A very peaceful and beautiful place as well as an
impressive engineering feat. Would have been happy to stay
there for a week :-)

Katse Dam

Height - 185 m
Crest length - 710 m
Design - double arch, concrete
Concrete - 2,320,000 cubic metres
1993 meters above sea level (highest Dam in Africa)

The water looks dirty but is in-fact clean enough to drink if left to settle, a lot of the rivers in Africa
look like this due to the roots and fast moving water over the mud (is that right Dewald?)