After a 5.45 am phone call from Cheeseboy to tell us we could not go to Mantasonyane today! I then had to wake everyone else up at 6 to tell them not to worry about waking up at 6! They were delighted! It was great to be able to sleep in a bit though and we finally got up at around 8. We decided to just go as far as Mohale Dam which was about a 2 hour drive. In true African fashion we waited for Cheeseboy to join us at 9 as arranged and at 9.30 I phoned him to find where he was and he asked us to pick him up at KFC! There are 5 in maseru! We eventually found him and he asked me if he could talk to me. He told me he could not come with us into the mountains to mohale but could we take his mum! I had never met his mum before and was slightly confused but it turned out that his mum used to work for the Lesotho tourist board and she knew everything there was to know about Maseru, Lesotho, Basotho customs and all the villages we passed through. What an amazing lady. Steve drove on the way up and we passed through the 3 main passes - Bushmans Pass, God Help me Pass (I love that one) and the Blue Mountain Pass. I had always seen the mountains before in Spring or summer but seeing them in Winter was amazing! Snow lay thick by the sides of the roads, icicles hang from the rock face and the mountains were covered in snow.It was really beautiful but pretty nippy!
We got to the dam and had a tour of the visitor centre which explained all the workings of this feat of engineering! We then managed to drive down to the Dam itself and go down underneath it to see it in more detail. The dam had been at 98% capacity when i had visited before and now it was at 65% - it was very different! There was also a pile of snow on the side which was very different from my shorts and t-shirt experience before. I drove home - 80km down hairpin bends and steep gradients and we stopped for a picnic trying to get out the wind but failing miserably. The winds were so strong the minibus was in danger of being blown across the road and I had to hang on to the steering wheel for dear life sometimes to keep us on the left!
It took me back to 2007 when i had first driven along those passes on my first visit. My colleague from work and I had shared a car and I had driven up the mountain but the difference then was that the road had not been tarmaced. It had been a terrifying experience and he and I had wondered at times if we would ever make it down alive.Now there are crash barriers on the edge of the road seperating the driver from a very steep valley which would lead to certain death if you made a mistake and took a corner too fast. Strangely there are few crash barriers on the sharp bends and one can only assume that someone has already broken them and probably lie at the bottom of the valley!
Anyway we made it down safely and brought Augustine (our tour guide!) back to beautiful Gate for a cup of English tea while Annette started to paint her amazing mural!
Some of the group went into their houses to help with tea time while Steve and I and some younger members of the group took Augustine home and then popped into the supermarket to buy a few necessities and to give in to the demand of KFC! Us oldies stayed with our plan of Jacket Potatoes which I had already put into the oven and how I wish I had turned it on earlier when 2 hours later they were still not cooked! We ate in shifts - the KFC group ate first and then we enjoyed our jacket potatoes before welcoming Bryan and family in for the rest of the evening to sit around and talk and play a couple of games before lots of deep and meaningful conversations before bed.
As usual I seem to be the last one up and about although the younger element are not yet asleep - lots of noise coming from their room! It feels like i am mum to about 6 children this week - sort of a mixture between a family trip and Girls Brigade camp! It is going well though and tomorrow should be another good day with a trip to Church in a cinema, a visit to the local market and lunch over in South AFrica.
Hope my readers in England are enjoying their summer!
Thank you for your prayers and comments and messages, you have no idea how much it matters.
Jenny x
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