Lesotho was surely one of the more remote and desolate countries I have ever visited up until now. Being landlocked entirely by the country of South Africa it almost seems that because it was so high and without that much vegetation, that no one wanted to go snooping around over there. That left the mountain population in their own little country, which often is called 'Kingdom in the sky'.
And I get it! Lesotho feels so totally different. Towns are relatively small, but the cool thing is that towns are very independent and they take care of themselves. All with a little bit of land and people are hurding their cattle around. People looked in good shape and also in good spirit, everyone was super friendly. Honestly, Lesotho was nothing but friendly faces and everyone really seemed to be being quite good in life!
At a certain point we needed a place for an overnight stay and we ended up on this mountain ridge overlooking the river which had formed a nice valley through the erosion over millions of years. A stone house with even a small bathroom attached which even had a small heater running on gas to get some hot water which apparently often had frozen over in the cold winter nights. There is not a lot of infrastructure at this place. The water comes from the rain as said, when it freezes, the pipes which are above ground freeze and pop. No electricity is here, except for when the generator runs 3 hours a day when the sun is setting. The rest is wood fire and candles. I like the idea of this!
At night there was thunder and lightning and the wind was whirling around the little stone cabin which did made me think a bit about being up over 3000 meters altitude and how close by these thunderstorms were. On the other hand, it fitted the setting perfectly.
Getting towards here was not an option without having a 4x4 or at least a car with high clearance. There were no roads towards these houses. And although the entirely road system in Lesotho had been renewed recently to fanastic flat tar (the Chinese government invested in the roadsystem. At first I had no idea why but after driving past a diamond mine, I started to get an idea all of a sudden), once you leave the main road it is all just sand and gravel and crossing rivers.
I just can not stress enough on how sweet everyone here was. These little houses were run by a couple where the girl prepared some fantastic for us with just the little amount of ingredients and options that she had, and the guy helped up making a fire (which was super necessary and is really a skill I would want to work on) and they were just so sweet even though we had a big language barrier.
It all doesnt matter when everyones intentions are right. It was only one night in Lesotho, but surely one that I won't forget very soon
Thanks for the find!