Testies Survival Kit: Whistle

ITEM USED: Whistle

COUNTRY USED IN: Lesotho

CHALLENGE OVERCOME: Herding Beasts

Lesotho is famed for its ponies, who are often being ridden by blanket wrapped Basotho whilst they climb up and down the mountainous areas.

And it's also something of a status symbol to own cows here (it used to be goats, maybe burgers are now more popular here, I don't know?).

So it made sense to me to utilize the whistle from my Testies Survival Kit to help these cowboys out in their daily routines.

So, I got myself onto a pony and headed off into the countryside:

I put whistle to mouth and blew, in the hope of attracting lots of cows by way of assisting the local herdsmen:

I blew and I blew, but nothing seemed to come:

Until I was suddenly knocked off my pony by a blurred mass:

It appears the only thing my Testies Survival Kit whistle attracts are the local canines.... I wonder if they're worth as much as a cow?

Things To Do in Lesotho

Our first two Lesotho destinations were Quacha's Nek and Quthing. We arrived in Quacha's Nek (the border town) in the cold, misty, drizzly dark after a day of no less than 3 minibuses and an overpacked covered pick-up, and since you can see the town from the border post we decided to walk there. Sean and I made our way to the Lonely Planet's cheapest recommendation only to discover that it's no longer cheap. And neither is anywhere else. We ended up going from one place to another as prices got higher and the drizzle got heavier. We picked up the only food we could find - a loaf of bread and some apples - and headed to one more place (deciding that we'd take it regardless of cost as we were both now a bit grumpy). But we couldn't find it in the dark and ended up stumbling into what was the local police station who kindly offered to drive us there - now that's service!

Okay, so the place was pricey. But it was lovely with a bed so rugged up that it didn't matter how cold it was outside. And waking up the next morning to the blue skies and sunshine and seeing for the first time the mountains of Lesotho was incredible. As was their free breakfast!

We hadn't planned to stay in Quacha's Nek very long as we wanted to head to Quthing (pronounced "'click'-ting" - I'll never get the hang of the clicks!). Our guest house gave us a lift to the bus station and we waited. We understand you have to wait for minibus journeys. We don't mind doing that. What we do mind is when they change the minibus at the last moment before leaving and you go from a seat of relative comfort to one squished into the back where people over 5 foot tall should not have to venture. We were then kicked off that minibus onto another one where we managed to get slightly comfier seats, but where the price had gone up by 10 maloti. Oh well. Fortunately we were dropped off just down the hill from the thing we'd come to see - fossilised dinosaur footprints. Since it was still light, we decided to go and visit them straight off the minibus so that we could save a day. We thought initially that the place was closed (padlocks have a habit of giving you that impression), but a local girl soon arrived and called up the man who ran the place and in we went. We were expecting maybe one footprint, but it turned out to be a small shed's worth with a balcony around the outside and a small bridge across the middle. The chap who ran it started to get very excited when we got excited and told us all sorts of things. For example, these are 200 million years old. They were found only recently in the early '60s. They were preserved on a riverbed sandwiched between sandstone layers and discovered when the road was built. There are only 3 sites in Lesotho where dinosaur footprints have been found. These footprints are of a smaller ostrich-sized tridactyl type (i.e. stands on hind legs, has tail) - look! there's the tail print. It was fascinating!

We said our goodbyes feeling very happy and made our way the few km to Quthing centre where in the dark we managed to get directed to a semi-decent lodge, got some pretty shoddy food and made our way to the local bar. It's name was Lantern Pub and upon arrival the bar-man pretty quickly got us playing pool. Turns out that the locals all wanted to play the winner of our game and even though I managed to make 3 awesome pots in a row (one of which was a double rebound) I managed to follow it up with three complete misses which gave Sean time to win.

He then managed to beat his next 2 opponents before handing over to someone else to play so as not to monopolise the table. Good job too 'cause the next guy he would have played was some kind of genius player (Sean insists he would have beaten him too and that he retired as Lesotho's undefeated pool champion)!!! We met some really lovely, friendly people that night (Mary and her husband, the ref of the pool and the drunk teacher). It's a night I'll remember fondly.

But we'd already seen what we'd come to see here, so there was no reason to hang around another day. So we headed off the next day towards Malealea. And another adventurous Lesotho journey awaited us! We started walking towards the junction, but a minibus passed us and so in we hopped. The driver then immediately turned around to us and said "I hope you don't mind me drinking" and held up a beer can. We then noticed 2 or 3 other empty cans. Oh dear. But we were in now and so we just closed our eyes and wished for safety. A few km down the road the driver was stopped by a police check. "Oh good", we thought, "he's going to get done for drink driving and we can get into another minibus. Sure enough the police man came up to the minibus and explained our driver had been arrested.... for not having the right paperwork. It seems no one cares about drink driving here. After a quick bribe the driver got back in again and we continued to Mohale's Hoek where we needed to get a connection. Now our Lonely Planet maps aren't all that great and it took us a while to figure out how we were going to get to Malealea. We didn't really know what to do, so took the majority advice and hopped on this big bus (just in time to get the last two seats) to Motsekuoa. Turned out to be a great decision as we got there in record time for next to nothing. We stopped into a shop to pick up some staples (rice, tinned goods, packet soup) for us to eat for the next 3 days and then waited for our next minibus to Malealea. And it arrived quickly and said it was going direct. But obviously half way it changed its mind because we were dropped off 7km away at a junction. Great. So we started to walk, not knowing if minibuses did this leg at all. But this turned out to be great too, because we walked through the Gates of Paradise Pass (something our Lonely Planet map had told us was somewhere else by the way).

And after about 3.5km of walking another minibus picked us up and took us the rest of the way to our destination - Malealea Lodge. As soon as we walked through the gates we were stunned. This place was beautiful. It had little bungalows, a huge games room and bar, braai area, coffee shop, self-catering kitchen and the most stunning views of the mountains. A chap called Bob booked us in and even gave us a free upgrade! Even the weather seemed to be on our side as the sunshine was out in all its glory after a couple of drizzly days.

Every evening a local choir sings, followed by a band which plays home-made instruments. They were incredibly talented and gave us a great hours entertainment. The drummer especially was very passionate about his music and was great to watch. We got some great video clips which are better than the photos, but will have to wait to be loaded to be shared.

The lodge is run by Debbie & Michael and they have two lovely children, Bryce and Jemma, with whom I took a bit of a shine in the bar that evening. They were adorable and said the funniest things. Turns out that we were to be rewarded for my few minutes of child watching as Debbie invited us to join them for dinner, for free. Blimey! This place just keeps on giving! So we ate more food in an hour than Sean and I have eaten in weeks and chatted away with Debbie & Michael and their other guest, Paul Gosselin. Now Paul was extremely insightful on all topics and had a particular love of Lesotho. It was fascinating to hear him talk about the Besotho people and their country. In fact, we could have done so all night had we not been compelled to bed by the imminent lights out as the generators were turned off.

The next day we headed off on a pony trek into the mountains. We first rode down towards some cave paintings and could see in them many things that we had learned on our 'behind the scenes of archeology' tour in Cape Town. In fact, even the blurb sheet we had been given sounded familiar... Hang on! It was written by the curator that had given us our tour - Sven Ouzman. What a small world! We laughed as we realised we knew the author!

We then continued our ride towards Botsoela waterfall where we stopped for lunch of fat cakes and apples then headed home.

Sean's pony riding skills have definitely improved as he didn't fall off once as we went down the steepest rockiest tiniest little paths. It was a really great day.

More guests had turned up that evening, including a South African couple and 3 overlanders. We had a good old chin wag in the bar as Sean polished off a second bottle of wine all to himself - nothing one of their Amarula Coffees / Hot Chocolates wouldn't sort out the next morning though! And it turned out that the guest we'd met last night was the photographer for a famous book on Lesotho that was on the bar as a 'coffee table' display. Crazy! His photos were amazing! No wonder he was so insightful about the country.

So we've done what we'd come to Lesotho to do and now all that is left is to journey towards Sani Pass back into South Africa to make our way to Swaziland. We will be incredibly sad to leave this lovely place and are sincerely grateful to Debbie, Michael and Bob for making our stay so warm and welcoming. I highly recommend a visit here if you're ever in the area. You won't be disappointed!

Other things Jennie will remember:

1) The old fat lady on the minibus from Kokstad to Matatielle that shouted when she talked on her mobile phone.

2) The baby with the lady next to me on that same journey who was very smiley

3) That I want to send a roll of new pool table cloth covering to the pub in Quthing (Lantern Public Bar, PO Box 16, Quthing)

4) Bryce & Jemma (and Jemma's great new fringe haircut courtesy of her mum!)

5) The dogs of course! Jonty the big soppy dog, Jessie the little bulldog who'd just had the small op and the other dog that we were never formally introduced to.

6) The peacocks:

7) The Malealea weather station:

Here are the photos:

BT80_Lesotho 11 - 16 June 2011

Coast To Coast

When you've gotten up at stupid o'clock to take an early morning long-distance bus, it's difficult to find positives in anything whatsoever. However, looking back on our still-dark start at Cape Town before our bus to Knysna, Jen and I had quite the stroke of luck. On our bus was a girl named Shannon, who informed us that she worked at Ubuntu Backpackers in Jeffrey's Bay, which we'd decided was to be our stop on South Africa's Sunshine Coast. She sold the place so well to us that we stayed there, and what a fantastic little hostel it proved to be - a cosy converted house with good people (including another Sean, an American surfer/skater working his way around the world, and Maria - a lovely Swedish girl studying in Stellenbosch who we intend to swap travel notes with in the near future), a great vibe, pool table, movies and free breakfast, and it was right near the beach - the perfect place to us to hole up for a few days and do as little as possible.

Jeffrey's Bay is the surfing mecca of South Africa which, given my exceptional lack of talent on a surf board, wasn't of any real use or interest to me personally, but it did give us the chance to see some people who actually have a modicum of balance do stuff like this:

We had no real plans at J-Bay (as the locals call it) which meant we could spend a few days of guilt-free chilling before it was time to move on. Three relaxing days later, we said goodbye to our new friends and made our way from the Sunshine Coast to the appealingly named Wild Coast.

Many locals still call this area the Transkei, which is the name the region was known by during the Apartheid era. However, the stigma attached to this name - it was one of the more infamous relocation zones during those dark days, and was set up as a "homeland" for the local Xhosa people, essentially to keep them out of the way - remains quite strong and so every effort is being made to refer to this part of the country as the Wild Coast.

And wild it most certainly is - rocky outcrops and sheer cliffs against which the waves of the Indian Ocean crash make this one of the more scenically dramatic stretches of coastline in the country. Settling in at Sugarloaf Backpackers in Coffee Bay, the weather wasn't great but that just made the views of the coastline still more dramatic.

We'd come to Coffee Bay for the coastal scenery, and also to make the hike to its famous natural landmark, the Hole in the Wall. However, on our first couple of days there the heavens were frequently open, meaning that instead of making the all-day hike we had to content ourselves with playing with Sugarloaf's plethora of dogs and discovering Bunny Chow, the signature dish of the Eastern Cape's Indian community - a half loaf of bread, scooped out and filled with curry. It's bloody magnificent.

Jen and I had pretty much decided that the weather here was a lost cause and were going to call it and move on after two days, but we decided at the last minute to give the weather gods of Coffee Bay one last chance to let us worship at their altar - and the next morning were rewarded with a day like this.

Not being two to look a gift horse in the mouth, we set off on the three-hour hike to the Hole in the Wall, most of which was along the side of the hills tumbling down to the ocean. The walk was as much of a highlight as the destination, though it must be said that when we got there, the Hole in the Wall itself was pretty damn cool.

And now for something completely different...after coasts and bays and oceans and beaches, we're heading inland to the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. You gotta love variety.

Things Jennie will Remember:

1) The taxi driver from Humansdorp to Jeffrey's Bay who couldn't help but brag about the 900 rand PROFIT he had made that day. He flashed it to us and then showed us where he hid it (in his ashtray).

2) How incredibly lucky we were with weather to get that one amazing sunny day at Coffee Bay so that we could hike to Hole in the Wall (the reason we came)

3) The people! Chris and Janene at Sugarloaf in Coffee Bay (you guys made our stay and are super top people!), the Sugarloaf owners Brian & Judy and their children Crystal and Kyan. And then additionally from Ubuntu; Toby (Nepalese Ceramics guy), Shannon (the reason we went to Ubunto and who also introduced us to Montesory) and Darren (we hope you managed to get your money back and has anyone told you you look like Smith Jarad?)

4) The dogs at Sugarloaf! Bindi - Slobber Doggy, Java - Big Black Doggy, Diesel - Other Doggy, Sugar - Friendly Overlooked Doggy, Channi - Puppy Doggy and the one whose name we can't remember but called White Doggy.

5) Just how open everyone was on both coasts about pot and mushrooms. They didn't mention this in the guidebooks. ;)

6) I'm also almost certainly convinced that there were little men moving the arrow markers on our hike to Hole in the Wall, just like in the film Labyrinth with David Bowie:

7) The dogs that tried to eat us whilst on the hike at Coffee Bay. The one bit, but didn't penetrate Sean's trousers and the other had to be called off by his owner. Oh my! What big teeth he had!

Here are the photos:

BT78_Jeffreys Bay 4 - 6 June 2011

BT79_Coffee Bay 7 - 10 June 2011

Knysna Of Us Wanted To Leave

It was an early start for Sean and I leaving Cape Town and our first experience of South African public transport. I have to say that the bus station in Cape Town is beautiful, gated to keep out hawkers and so polished it shines. The bus was also on time, we were given tickets for our checked in bag and the driver was polite and greeted us with a smile. The bus itself was clean and new. We had seatbelts, rubbish bags and lots of leg room. We arrived in Knysna around 3pm, a little later than scheduled, but hey - we were happy customers! We also got a pretty decent view of this 'Garden Route' as we travelled, the hillside views that suddenly turned into seaside.

We walked up from the waterfront where the bus dropped us off and immediately remarked on how posh everything was here. Boutiques, cafes, restaurants with table cloths. It was quite surreal to see such a relatively small town be so up market. Certainly not in line with most of our African experiences to date.

The lodge we had picked was called African Jewel. And a jewel it certainly was. A huge old colonial style property with beautiful grounds, wooden floors, high ceilings, a wonderful friendly manager called Bev, a big fluffy cat (called funnily enough Fu-Fu Fluffy Pots) and a little terrier dog called Aribella. And we pretty much had the place to ourselves, except for Ron the boat captain who was there deciding whether he should buy the place and Dean a travelling South African who was considering staying in Knysna for a few years (a big move for him as he hasn't ever put his roots down anywhere).

We needed cheap things to do in Knysna having over indulged considerably in Cape Town so occupied ourselves by walking. Lots of walking. We made a day hike down the 8km to The Heads where the bay begins. And it didn't disappoint as we were greated with stunning views and the whole top of it to ourselves!

Having long since discovered the joys of self-catering as a big cost saving exercise we only went out one night on the town. Which as it turned out was all you needed during Winter. The place was hardly throbbing, but we did have a very lovely pub meal and a few drinks of the local Knysna brew with Dean, who entertained us with his philosophies on existentialism. He's a very deep thinking gentleman!

Having gotten our stride on, we took another walk down the 9km to a little town called Belvidere as we'd read that the church there was very quaint. And quaint it certainly was. A tiny little thing (a miniature 11th/12th century Norman style church) that was built and consecrated in 1855 by Thomas Henry Duthie who founded the surrounding estate. It was a lovely little place to saunter through for the afternoon. By the time we returned from that we'd walked over 30km in three days, so were feeling rather pleased with ourselves!

We'd stayed longer in Knysna than we'd planned to and had to tear ourselves away in the end. I can see why people love to 'do the Garden Route'. The places through which we travelled, the amount of activities that there are to do, the beautiful landscapes that there are to see have certainly sparked our interest. But next time, we have to come back with a car!

Here are the photos:

BT77_Knysna 31 May - 3 June 2011