We drove through a national park full of springbok, zebras, and some leopards on our way into the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. The drive was beautiful and appeared similar to desert areas of Utah in the southwestern U.S. Lesotho is a very poor country with few resources other than water and some diamond mining. The border crossing was much busier than the two we encountered going into Swaziland and Mozambique due to the fact that we were arriving in the capital of the country, Maseru.
Inside, the place seemed poorer than other countries we have visited. Not sure about Mozambique though since I only saw a sliver of it. In Lesotho the landscape was barren and void of much agriculture. It appeared as though some people were scavenging through harvested fields of corn to find any loose ears that may have been left behind. We drove for about an hour before reaching our resort at the end of a long bumpy dirt road.
The resort is very nice and full of thatched roofed cottages with private bathrooms. There are no ceilings. When you look up from your bed you just see the underside of the thatched roof. There is no electricity except for what is generated between the hours of 5pm and 9:30pm. It will be a very cold sub-freezing night, but I do, thankfully, have my very warm sleeping bag with me.
Every evening the resort is entertained by a few local African bands. There were two that performed tonight: a choir and a traditional African music band that played on homemade instruments. I missed the choir, unfortunately, but the band was great and very enjoyable. It was great to hear their homemade instruments and see their unique dances while that sang in the local Lesotho language.
