Scenes from the top of Sani. This is one of the nicest places I have stayed in, anywhere, ever. 

At this point I was hollow-eyed and contemplating suicide - ie. driving down 1:6 gradients in the dead of night. Fortunately the pass closed at 5pm so I was unable to entertain my madness. 

 

It became a race against the light. I was thinking, "Has anyone ever driven down Sani at night? I might be the first person to ever do it!" I took this shot shortly before I got swallowed by low lying clouds, and then the dark. I never saw Thaba Ntleyana, Southern Africa's highest mountain. It was swallowed in the gloom. But I saw huge shadows rising around me, and I'd already climbed very high. Here, I knew I was very high. The cars headlights swam through dense, cold fog, struggling to penetrate... 

One of many Hobbit-like houses. There were plenty a lot cuter than this one. While I was shooting this one, a local invited me inside another house. I found them to be very clean - there was even a green foily thing poking out from behind a table that turned out to be a half-packed away Christmas tree. 

 

After driving from about 10:30 to beyond 20:00 I felt fleeting impulses to simply drive down the mountain. It is an extremely brutal experience - a dirt road for more than 10 hours. 

Almost on top... 

The weather changes constantly. 

Even grass struggles to grow this high. The amazing thing, when you get out the car, is you can hear the crackle of dry grass as you step on to it. Every step is a scrunch scrunch, and you can hear the crisp calls of birds, and the lifting of the breeze. It's very quiet and peaceful. Take a deep breath and be restored. 

 

Some of the local cowboys. 

One of many river crossings. Only a few days earlier, these bridges would have been completely under raging floodwaters. 

Rugged terrain. 

Going Big and Getting High. I'm thinking of using that as the title for my story on Lesotho. I got to really enjoy the Isuzu - it rises quite high off the ground, which helps to fly over rocks and ditches, and windows are big, offering useful views of the passing scenery. All this, in air conditioned comfort, although this high, mountain air is jeven better; it's cool and refreshing. 

Not quite - I didn't often have a signal once I was inside Lesotho. 

These bikers have my respect! They convinced me that the Senqu river was fjordable, and also to take a much tougher route - a route no one seemed to know anything about. They warned me I might get lost - and I nearly did. The further you go into Lesotho, the less civilised it becomes, until eventually even the signboards give up trying to tell you where you. Where are? In a far away land, over the hills, and getting even further away. The lady is Canadian and her friend is Dutch. They chose some of the most difficult terrain in the world to ride their bikes. 

Lesotho is charming, because life in the mountains is entirely different to the lives we are used to - it requires a hardiness and resilience that is rewarded only by the mountain's freshness, it's own vigor and muscular beauty. 

Just inside the Lesotho border. Shortly before I took this picture I noticed a liquorice black face, wearing icecream pink cycling clothes, straining up one of the steep climbs. It was the first of many eye popping and frankly charming sights. Lesotho may be landlocked by South Africa, but it feels quite different. 

Lily, a Thia pig, eats dogfood and has the run of the farm. I wonder if she knows another pig, called Babe? 

 

go POLO

Franshoek farm is about 20km (lots of it tough dirt road) outside Ficksburg. It's set in a valley of gold sandstone and green grasses, the cottage is very warm, cute, with a uniquely Anglo-African feel. 

 

Ficksburg reminds me of a frontier town, the type you find in cowboy movies. In a way it is, it's just outside the Roof Of Africa, Lesotho, a mountain kingdom completely surrounded by South African territory.