"Welcome to the Mountain Kingdom"

So after two full days of travel I finally reached TTL in Mokhotlong on Wednesday night.  I was not only super exhausted from the trip, but pretty overwhelmed by everything that's happened!

The flight from Johannesburg to Maseru was surprisingly the easiest part of the trip.  I stepped off the plane in Joberg, headed straight for Gate A29 to Maseru, handed the gate attendant my ticket, and got on a bus (What?? A bus?? I thought I was supposed to be flying??).  Turns out we took this bus to the plane, but not before driving, in traffic, under jetways and huge aircrafts.  The plane to Maseru was super small, and I was very excited to have a window seat because the views coming into Lesotho were beautiful - it went from mid-west style farms to plateaus covered with small homes to a never-ending mountain range.

Plane from Johannesburg, South Africa to Maseru, Lesotho.

Maseru's airport (called "Moshoeshoe I" after the founding king of Lesotho) was reminiscent of South Bend, except I didn't actually see a terminal while I was there.  Customs was quick and easy, nothing like security at home in the US.  The Basotho in the airport were also extremely friendly.  Seeing a white girl with light hair is just a bit out of the ordinary for them, so I got tons of questions about where I was going and if I'd ever been to Lesotho before.  I also got laughed at some for completely butchering Mokhlotlong's name...apparently the "k" is silent!  While I was sitting alone waiting for Jenn (a TTL fellow) to pick me up, about 4 people asked if I wanted to use their phone to call her; they were all quite shocked when I told them I didn't have her number (in hindsight, it might've been good to have).

Driving through Maseru with Jenn was a very interesting experience.  First off, I was completely thrown off guard when I walked up to the car and the passenger seat was on the left.  I kept feeling like we were driving on the wrong side of the road.  I also quickly learned that the rules of the road are very loose in Lesotho, it's kind of a free-for-all out there!  I was highly impressed with how Jenn handled it considering it was as if she was driving backwards.

Our first stop in Maseru was the mall (of course), where we went grocery shopping at "Pick n' Pay" to stock up on food for the next 3 weeks.  It actually had a lot of American food, which was exciting for this picky eater.  I almost had a heart attack, though, when the girl at checkout said to me, "916 please."  WHAT?!?  It took me a minute to realize we were talking 916 Maloti, which is actually less than US$100...phew!  My first meal in Lesotho was also at the mall, a cheeseburger and fries (or "chips" as they are called here) - could I be any more American??  My only other options in the food court were pizza and KFC though, so I'm chalking it up to the limited selection.

Finally after running a bunch of errands we took off for TTL in Mokhotlong.  I had no idea until I got here, but the drive from Maseru to Mokhotlong is 6 hours long!  I found out that because of all the mountains, you actually have to drive northeast to the South African border site called Butha Buthe (pronounced "boota bootay") before heading back southeast to Mokhotlong.  I dozed off a bunch on the trip because I was so tired from traveling, but the drive was still pretty incredible.  It seemed as if everywhere I looked there was a shepherd herding cattle or sheep in the fields.  We actually had to stop at one point for a shepherd chasing his cattle that decided to cross the road.

Cattle crossing the dirt roads.  He didn't stop for us, that's for sure!

I was also surprised how much the homes along the road reminded me of the homes in southern Quito, Ecuador.  Although less colorful, many of them were the same shape with rocks holding on tin roofs.  The homes in Mokhotlong are mostly this fashion, too.  I hear it's not until you reach the more rural areas where you begin to see the more traditional style homes (with thatched roofs and all!).  The other thing that amazed me was the number of children walking home from school in the dark at 6:30pm.  It gets dark pretty early because it's winter here, but one of the local workers from TTL told me that many kids have to walk between 2 and 3 hours to get to school each day.  I get the feeling that people have to pretty much walk anywhere they want to go here.

So as I mentioned the drive to TTL is basically entirely through mountains, but the craziest part is that halfway through the trip the paved road becomes spotted with big patches of dirt until finally the road is entirely made of dirt.  Most of the road was actually smooth, but there were a ton of big ruts and I was pleasantly surprised when the car tires didn't pop when we hit some of them.  I got a bit frightened as night fell and all we had between us and rolling down the mountain were some high-beam headlights.  Almost all of Mokhotlong is also unpaved.  It was relieving when we finally arrived at TTL and I was able to unwind before bed.  I fell asleep reflecting on the day, especially thinking about how one quote from an immigration officer in the airport pretty much summed up the trip for me.  Short and simple, all he said to me was, "Welcome to the Mountain Kingdom."

View on the drive from Maseru to Mokhotlong.