At long last, here are some pictures from my trip to Lesotho last weekend. It turns out that some of the best pictures were taken with other peoples' cameras - some of which I've been able to get my hands on, and some I'm still awaiting receipt of.

As I've mentioned in all of my previous posts about Lesotho: it is a country with the most striking scenery. Huge mountains, blue skies, and green fields all contribute to Lesotho's natural beauty.


The huts in small town of Semongkong are built of stones with expertly thatched roofs


and these little corrugated tin (or is it aluminum) shacks comprised the vast majority of the commercial district. Each one was it's own small business with a hitching post outside for patrons to tie up their horses while they shopped.

Just 10 kilometers into the mountains from Semonkong is a 200+ meter waterfall plunging into a mountain stream. The rains hadn't yet come to Lesotho while I was there, meaning that the falls weren't as torrential as they might otherwise have been - but it was quite beautiful nonetheless.

It seems that all the stores in the whole of the country carry the exact same items. It was quite surprising at first, given that I'm living in a city in South Africa where - much like in the US - we are never at a loss for choices of brands/products in supermarkets. However, once it was explained to me that each of the towns are on one long supply route, with most of the goods being imported up through the difficult-to-navigate mountain passes, it all started to make sense. This reasoning also seems to explain why goods became more expensive as we moved further outside of the capital city of Maseru. More difficult destinations on the supple route = greater transportation costs = greater costs of goods for consumers.


On the way back down from Lesotho we were able to spend some time with a few of the shepards who were walking their sheep across the road as we were driving past. Many of the shepards were quite young, but were dressed in the Basotho uniform of rubber galoshes and a blanket of synthetic material wrapped around their shoulders to keep out the cold.



And if you are interested in looking at some more of my pictures, you can find them on Flikr,
or you can always e-mail me directly. I'm starting to take pics of my new place for everyone to see. Hopefully I can post them in the coming days.

Talk soon.