Civilization (Slight Return)

Here's a surprise for you. Yet another crappy Lesotho minibus journey was up next!

We left the lodge in Mokhotlong at about 8.30am. We waited in one minibus until about 11am. Then, yep, we moved to another minibus and left to go down Sani pass just before lunchtime. We then moved at about 20km an hour down some incredibly stupid roads (I'm not sure they can actually be called roads) towards the border post at Sani. Sean and I were squashed into a back seat as normal (where leg room is much less than the middle) and I even had a broken seat that meant I had to sit bolt upright whilst the seat in front of me was also broken and sat at full recline crushing my knees. Those travellers who say they enjoy the local style of transport are just plain mad. It's not fun. But it is cheap. That's the only reason any sane person uses it.

The final views of Lesotho didn't disappoint as we made our way through the high snow covered peaks, topping 2865m at Sani pass itself.

As we left Lesotho I'll never forget the crazy woman who was screaming that we wouldn't wait for Sean who had just popped into a loo full of goats. I told her flatly that we would!

We then made our way down the hairpin 180 degree bends - and 30 degree gradients!! - of the Sani pass. Wow. This is one crazy road! We even passed a crazy man trying to go up in a normal sedan - pretty sure he didn't make it to the top.

It was also very lucky that at the South African border at the other end I checked my passport when it was handed back to me. No one believed we didn't have our own 4wd (being white this seems to be obligatory and here we were without one!) and in all that confusion, they forgot to stamp my passport. Now that would have been interesting explaining when trying to exit the country! However, I do have to admit that I would have enjoyed the Sani pass drive a bit more had we been in our own car (or if our previous day had worked out and we'd made it here that night). Our own car would have allowed us to stop and take it in rather than rush off quickly. But regardless, it was stunning (although my knees have a different opinion about it).

When we arrived at Underberg everyone rushed out into the next minibus and that meant Sean and I had to wait for another. I wasn't too upset to leave crazy bossy woman behind as she was beginning to piss me off especially as she pushed me out of the way to get off the bus. Turns out that this was a great thing to happen. The next minibus was empty. Just me and Sean. All the way baby! Yee-ha! The driver even took us right to the door of our hostel. Now that is service - welcome back to South Africa!

It's a shame we didn't stay in Pietermaritzberg more than the one night. Andre, the manager of the hostel we stayed in was very welcoming. And his two dogs were beautiful, just like the colonial style building. But we had to get to Swaziland quickly as for some reason I was only given a 30 day visa for South Africa and they don't restart this after a visit to Lesotho.

So the next day we got an early minibus to Durban. Unfortunately by the time we arrived we'd missed the mid-morning minibuses into Swaziland, so we decided to enjoy the day in Durban and head off early tomorrow.

They say Durban is known for having the friendliest people in South Africa. I think that's true. The taxi drive who drove us to our hostel from the station was lovely. He almost gave us an impromptu tour! And the hostel we stayed at was amazing and run by a really lovely lady.

We've spent the day walking up and down the beach discussing our adventures in Lesotho and what Swaziland might hold for us whilst eating chocolate cake at local cafes in the sunshine.

It was also here in Durban that we've decided we were tired of the long, cramped journeys and after everything we'd been through in Lesotho we agreed that the only way we'd enjoy our last month in Mozambique was if we only travelled its length once - so we booked a flight back to Johannesburg from the north of Mozambique. Well sometimes you just have to treat yourselves!

It's a shame we won't be in Durban for another day - but can't help the visa situation! And poor old Swaziland has already had a couple of days shaved off it by the fact that we couldn't get around Lesotho quick enough!