We had plans to drive to Semonkong today....a small community in the mountains where there is a children's centre which Beautiful Gate are building a relationship with in the hope of maybe working closer with them in due course and of course there is the highest single drop water fall in Africa ...just a beautiful place lay reached by unmade road but now only about 8 miles of rough track compared with about 40 miles back when I visited in 2012.
A few people who were due to come dropped out due to sickness which meant we didn't need to take our car which I think would have struggled to make it as most of the journey is pretty vertical and my car doesn't have a lot of power. The 3 of us travelled with Lindiwe and the other 7 travelled in the 4 x4. It took a good couple of hours as we had to drive in thick cloud and we were up in it and the rain barely eased. We were cold when we finally got to the children's centre where we met with the social worker who showed us round. They have 44 children there between the ages of 4 and 18 and work on a very different model to us but they children seemed happy and cared for. There are 2 children there who used to be at Beautiful gate and we saw them, they had moved to be near family. It was an interesting visit and we were happy to be shown around before driving down more muddy roads and bumpy tracks to semonkong lodge where we had lunch.
The menu was small but plenty of choice except they had not got half the things on it so most of us settled for a burger and we sat in front of a roaring fire which was much appreciated. Last time I had been had been glorious sunshine (same time of year) and I underestimated how cold the mountains could be.
After lunch we had a brief look round the shop where our very own Edward sells some of his handicrafts that I also sell at home, and us 3 British people and 1 Basotho, along with 2 Americans set off on the 5 km walk to the waterfall. The others opted to go in the car....no stamina, these Americans! It took a good couple of hours to reach the most beautiful waterfall imaginable as we had a lot of up hill walking, plus muddy swamps, and rivers to cross.... fortunately I stayed on my own 2 feet despite them being covered in mud, unlike Fred who did a pretty good stunt fall into the mud. Fortunately i had been in GB leader mode and had packed all sorts of useful things for first aid!
Our destination made the journey worth while and we met the car riders who had only to walk down a steep hill. We took lots of pictures and I met a very lovely gentleman who wanted his picture taken with me, as well as a local herdsman who allowed me to take his picture, wanted a selfie with me and then asked for money, which I had nOt got with me. I told him he had to be grateful for my thanks...he was vaguely happy with that.
Having sponsored donkeys at school after our ks1 Christmas play, I promised the children I would take pictures of donkeys and I never seen so many as I saw this afternoon...I have so many photos of donkeys carrying children, maize meal and everything in between.
We left to come home about 4.15 and lindiwe drove the journey home through much more rain, which had stopped just for our hike....we could not see a lot which is a shame as the mountains are so spectacular.
We got home covered in mud and tired to find that we had No power. The whole campus was out, the generator was working butwe are not affected by that so we were in darkness. Nell and I lit candles to have a candlelight shower and then proceeded to cook a meal on the gas stove by candle and torch light. We didn't do bad and before the lights came back on we had created an appetising steak sandwich which we sat and ate indoors as it was quite chilly and wet outside.
We had our nightly game of UNO and Gin Rummy and amazingly I am the first to bed tonight...not sure the others have registered we are going to church in 8 hours.
We have had an amazing day and really enjoyed ourselves.
I am certainly exhausted now and I am going to sleep to the sound of the rain falling outside my window...
Sala hantle....stay well and thank you for sharing this journey with us by reading our blog.
Love
Jenny xxx
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