Suni Pass & Lesotho - Snow and Crazy Roads

On the Monday, instead of heading to Port St Johns as my itinerary said Lucy and Rachel persuaded me (with, I admit, very little encouragement) to head to Durban with them as they were planning to hire and car and head to Sani Pass, which is on the border to Lesotho. The Baz Bus journey took most of that day so we didn't get to our hostel until late. On the way to Durban the bus driver had informed us that this city was the hottest in South Africa and it only rained, on average, 5 days a year. When we got to Nomad backpackers it was raining a lot (thats one of the five days!).

As the Monday was a national bank holiday (something to do with the apartheid I believe), everywhere was shut up early, but fortunately we found a cracking little cafe to get a bite to eat and some drink down us. Before heading out we had tried to hire a car through the hostel but they were more than useless and very unhelpful (if you're coming to South Africa and planning to stay in Durban don't bother staying and Nomads, even though the Lonely Planet rates them highly). As we couldn't get a car, we decided we would get the Underberg Express to Sani Pass. The bus picked us up from our hotel at 11:00 on the Tuesday so we had time to get a little breakfast (which was rubbish) from the hostel and popped to the local shopping mall to get some cash.

The Express bus to Sani Pass should have only taken 3 hours but ended up taking 8. So much for an express service! The driver took us to Pietermaritzburg where we where left in shopping mall for 4 hours while we waited for a greyhound bus to turn up with another passenger for us. It gave us time to have a Durban specialty called a Bonnie Choi (not sure how you spell it, but it's basically a curry in a loaf of bread which you eat with your hands). I liked it but not to sure it liked me that much as spent the majority of the next week on the toilet along with Lucy and Rachel. We finally got to Sani Pass Lodge where we were shown to our dorm and wolfed down a re-heated meal. It was raining that evening, just to make a change so we got a lift with some Germans to the local hotel to watch the football.
We got up the on the Wednesday early to go on a hike around the Drakensberg Mountains. We were given a map and some written instructions and told it should take us about 3 hours to complete the walk. The first part of the hike was mainly up hill so we stopped quite a lot but once we were on the straight we only really stopped for lunch and taking photo's. The route took us around this river that meanders it's way through the valley and tight gorges. It was pretty amazing views and a really enjoyable walk. Sorry sounding like an old man but did not know what else to put! We got back to the lodge in good time and made some dinner and headed off to bed quite early as we was all knackered from the hike.

Woke up early again this morning to head out on an organized tour up the Sani Pass to Lesotho (pronounced Lesouto). We were driven up the pass in a Land Drover defender as any normal car would never make it up. The road it a dirt track which has massive potholes most of the way up it (especially when you get into Lesotho itself). They are trying to get planning permission to have a proper road installed, but as the area is a world heritage side they are hitting some issues with getting it authorized. Plus the bit of road they have already started on (which is about 2 miles long and outside of the heritage area) has taken them 4 years so far and it's not even close to being finished. Sani Pass must be at least 30 miles long so there target for 2010 would appear to be miles out!

As Lesotho is independent from South Africa we had to pass through a border control where I got another visa stamp in my passport. Once we were reaching the top of the pass (about 4000 m above sea level, I think) we started seeing snow. At one point we left the 4X4's and had a massive snowball fight with the other people in the vehicles. I never thought I would be able to have a real snow ball fight in Africa!. We had some lunch at the top of a mountain which was really cold and then headed back down the pass to a farming village to learn about life in Lesotho.

We were introduced to a local lady who farms sheep for a living in the mountains and were shown around her mud hut home (very similar to the ones we had seen on the way to Coffee Bay). The huts are made from mud bricks and a thatched roof. The thatch and timer to make the roofs does not grown in these harsh mountain conditions so it's dragged up by donkey from further down the valley. So you can imagine the timber and hatch are very precious to them.
The floor of the hut works as a sort of underground heating system with the heat of the fire (which is in the middle of the floor) heating up the stones that make up the base of the structure. The reason why the huts are round is because square structures can become cold in the corners but a round hut does not have corners and believe me it was really nice and worm in there. We were given some home made bread which tasted amazing and some home made beer that taste horrible (far to sweet) and were shown by our guide some simple greetings and hand shakes. All in all it was a really interesting visit and makes me want to head up into real Africa even more.

We left the village and headed on down the pass to the highest pub in Africa where I had a beer and got chatting to a National Geographic film crow who were making a documentary on the roughest roads in the world. They had had some issues with the Lesotho border control because the previous day they had entered into Lesotho airspace with a helicopter without permission. So when they tried to leave they had it confiscated and were in the process, with the help from there guide to negotiate a bribe with the border police to allow them back into South Africa. You really can buy your way out of everything in Africa. When we got back to the Hostel we had some grub and headed to the hotel to watch more football. Booked the Underberg Express to take us back to Durban.