No 1 Adventurers travel blog » Greg

Maloraneng Lesotho

Greg — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 06:54:18 +0000

Looking across the valley from St James

Senqu River the start of the Orange river which we crossed a thousand kilometres to the west when we entered Namibia

Villages in the sky

The steep 4WD track into the Lost Valley of Khubelu

Footbridge across the Khubelu river so schools kids and villages can get across the river when it is in flood

Looking back to the Roundavals we stayed in

Diamond mine tailings on the A1

Shephards Hut and kraal (animal enclosure)

The next village on from where are staying

Judy warming in front of the coal fire. Yes it really is coal and the fire was set by a local villager

Sani Pass Lesotho

Greg — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 07:31:22 +0000

After two days of driving from Johannessburg we left Himmeville and headed up Sani Pass into Lesotho. Sani Pass is the only eastern access to Lesotho and is 2900 metres high. It is 4WD only, the customs post will not let you past if you don’t have a 4WD.
The road is a rough track in places, but not that hard. The most difficult part is the last kilometre that is a series of switchbacks up to the summit of the pass.
We then went though customs into Lesotho paying $3 road tax. We then drove on a brand new road (still being built) that was using chinese trucks and construction equipment, with the Lesotho workers supervised with Chinese supervisors. We then crossed an even higher pass Kotisephola at 3241 metres. It was a 50km drive to Mokhotlong passing Basotho villages along the way, as well as herders with their anogora goats and donkeys and horses. We passed 3 cars.

After reaching Mokhotlong with people riding horses down the main street we realised we needed to retrace our course back a few kilometres to reach the turnoff to St James Lodge.
St James Lodge is fairly basic accommodation (no power) next to St James school and has several nearby villages that the school children come from.

The road up Sani Pass

The switch-backs on Sani pass

working up the hairpin bends on Sani Pass

Border post into Lesotho Sani Pass

Looking back from Kotisephola pass

Stopped on Kotisephola pass with ice still around

St James Lodge up the hill

Kids at Assembly at St James

A traditional musician playing for us, that Judy gave some food and money to him

His instrument made with a horse hair string and he blew into the hollowed wood

Puros

Greg — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 07:58:44 +0000

Lunch on the Crowthers 4WD track (pictures are small because they are all we can upload with our really limited internet)

Desert Zebras

Welwitschia plant which survive drought by absorbing the moisture from coastal fogs, and live for thousands of years, a living fossil.

Blackthorn campsite. Very isolated, we had seen only 1 other car on the road all day

The camp at sunset, keeping and eye out for lions, elephants and other dangerous creatures

mother and baby Giraffe in the desert

Lunch in Puros Canyon with the first surface water we have seen for a while

Camped at Puros. A nice campsite but dusty when the wind blew

Getting some sun at Breakfast

Cape Cross

Greg — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 17:34:57 +0000

Zeila Wreck 2008. Broke away from its towing vessel while being towed to India for scrap. Another victim of the Skeleton Coast

Windy lunch stop on the Atlantic ocean at Henties Bay

Crosses at Cape Cross. One is a replica of a cross left by Portuguese navigator Deigo Cao in 1485

Thousands of Cape Fur Seals at Cape Cross, part of a colony that numbers up to 250,000

The walkway for viewing the seals

It might look like seaweed floating on the water, but its actually hundreds of Cape fur seals

Camped at the windy camping ground at Cape Cross Lodge. Wind generators in the background

The streets are alive with the sound of generators

Greg — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 18:10:40 +0000

We have been in South Africa for 3 days but have suffered load-shedding 4 times already. South Africa is suffering load-shedding because it cannot generate enough electricity, so suburbs have power cut off for two hour blocks. The first night we were here the power went of for 2 hours from 6pm to 8pm, but we were zoned out from jet-lag so it didn’t matter.

Friday night getting ready to cook dinner, and bang the power goes off for another two hours. Then Saturday morning we get up early because we are collecting our 4WD, we leave the apartment at 8am and bang the power is off again. On the way north we stop at a supermarket to get more supplies, but we knew driving through town that the power was off, as the traffic lights were all out. The supermarket has a huge generator screaming outside, and inside is half -dark with only some of the lights operating. This is South Africa 2015, but they are building new power stations and it will all be fixed – in 2020!

UPDATE: As I wrote this post I wondered why someone was running a generator in a powered Caravan Park, until I realised – off course the power is off- and we are load-shedding again!

Camped at the Vanrhynsdorp caravan park.

Khayelitsha Township

Greg — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 16:19:10 +0000

Khayelitsha Township which spreads as far as the eye can see, picture taken 30km from the centre of Cape Town. Located on the Cape Town flats home to nearly 400,000 people (click on image for a larger version)