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A ride that was as spectacular as it was hard… And we stuck to tarmac! Cycling Lesotho comes at a price!
Telle Bridge – Mount Moorosi – Seforong – Orange River … Semongkong – Ramabanta – Maseru
260 km cycled
Nov 26th – Dec 10th, 2022
Watch the video!
We were warned!
You need lungs of steel and legs of thunder to cycle Lesotho! If you manage 50km a day, you’re doing well.
Being the only country in the world that lies completely above 1,000masl and famous for its steep inclines, this Mountain Kingdom in the clouds is a force to be reckoned with. We were curious, and news that many of the roads had been paved in recent years made it a whole lot more appealing for touring cyclists.
A little history
This tiny country totally surrounded by South Africa came into being in 1822 when King Moshoeshoe I led the Basotho tribe to settle in the mountains and call the area home. He proclaimed himself King of Basutoland but after losing some territory to the Boers, he sought help from the British in 1868 and the Kingdom became a British protectorate until independence in 1966. It is now a constitutional monarchy with the king serving a more ceremonial function. It’s a little smaller than Switzerland and has a population of about 2 million.
Traditional ways
Cycling through Lesotho is like entering a time machine and plonking yourself back in the 1950s. Oxen pull ploughs through meticulously kept terraces. December is planting season and while we were there it was all hands-on preparing the fields for soya, pinto and sugar beans, as well as maize. Subsistence farming is the name of the game.
The proud farmers sporting colourful Basotho blankets and balaclavas salute as they trot past on horseback. Young boys herd goats, sheep and cattle along the roadside and everyone has a friendly hello.
Traditional Lesotho houses are round and thatched and known as rondavels. Most are in clusters with an outside toilet known as a VIP: Ventilated Improved Pit latrine (long drop with ventilation pipe).
Special accommodation
We were lucky to spend a couple of nights in a rondavel. There was no running water or electricity, but we had access to a parafin lamp and stove, and had a couple of basins and a drum of water for washing. It was really very cosy inside, but the parafin stove emitted such strong fumes, we were happy to use our multi-fuel stove outside for cooking.
Lesotho is different!
Powerlines are conspicuous by their absence, and water gushes down mountain streams. Lesotho doesn’t have to deal with the same drought problems that scourge its neighbouring countries.
What also makes Lesotho different are the steep inclines. In fact, if they were any steeper, you’d be pushing up-side down! 18% is not unusual. Darina spent a considerable proportion of her time in Lesotho walking Feather uphill, and was delighted when able-bodied young shepherds or teenage girls lent a hand! Unfortunately, she came down with a nasty cold while in the mountains, and her coughing and wheezing made the climbs even more of an ordeal. On the worst day, we took a lift in a local mini-bus taxi.
The road surfaces in Lesotho are their saving grace. Some were built recently thanks to the Chinese, and are proper runway material.
Climate
Climate comes with temperatures well suited to an Irish lassie. Even in summer it never gets too hot, and the backpacker dorm in Semonkong Lodge has a roaring fire every evening. This was a great place for a few rest days. Actually, we were all packed up and ready to leave, when the Heavens opened and it bucketed down with rain. Management took pity on us and very kindly gave us a free upgrade to a lovely double room, saving us the strenuous climb back up to the dorm at the top of the hill! Cheers for that!
Food
Traditional food in Lesotho is similar to what we had in other African countries. Meat stews with pap (cornmeal porridge) cost 30-40 Maloti (2 Euros) in roadside stalls and main courses in restaurants were 100-300 Maloti (6-18 Euros). Kurt was always a happy camper when he got malva pudding and custard for dessert!
Lesothosaurus!
And we even got to see dinosaur footprints dating back 200 million years! These dinasours are locally referred to as Lesothosaurus; the baby measuring about 4m long!
The Mountain Kingdom of Happiness?
Cycling through Lesotho, you could easily think you’d arrived in the Mountain Kingdom of Happiness. Children rush from traditional huts to wave at the passing cyclists, and everyone has a friendly smile. It seems idyllic and prompts a nostalgic yearning for bygone years.
The youth weren’t long giving us a reality check, though. “Don’t be fooled!”; they warn. “It’s all a facade!” A closer look at the statistics reveals youth unemployment of 37%, life expectancy at birth is 55, the poverty rate stands at 35%, 25% of the population live with HIV, and the happiness index is 3.5, with only 5 countries scoring lower. Quite a few people would love Lesotho to become part of South Africa to facilitate working permits, but most young people set their horizons much further afield.
You can’t blame them. The country suffered real hard 10-15 years ago with AIDS, and again recently during Covid. There is some light at the end of the tunnel though. Sam Matekane, a diamond tycoon and multimillionaire, is the country’s new Prime Minister, and he vows to curb corruption and make Lesotho great again. Fingers crossed he can, and those smiles will become genuine gestures of a people, proud of their culture, content with their lives and confident for their future.
The verdict!
From a cyclists’ perspective, Darina had to conclude that she has neither lungs of steel nor legs of thunder, and Kurt reckons Lesotho is no country for old men! We certainly broke no records in these two weeks, but Darina has never received so many hugs as she did from the gentle, affectionate Basotho people in this very special Mountain Kingdom in the clouds.
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