Climbing to the Bushmen

On our first day in Lesotho it is raining and freezing cold. We have to stay in the tent and dormitory of the Sani Top Chalet all day. To bide the time we play scrabble with another couple and read a book. It’s so cold that even the ice rats don’t want to leave their holes but stay underground at their little campfires.

The next day, Sunday February 13th, the sky is heavenly blue, the best weather to cycle! We finally cycle into Lesotho. The road to Mokhotlong is rock-strewn but good enough for us. The only problem is some parts of the Kotisephola Pas, where the gradient of the road increases to 24%. Two young shepherds watch us struggle and voluntarily help Karin to push up her bike to the summit. This never happened before anywhere in Africa! Most Basotho like sweets and these boys really deserve it. Beaming for joy they accept the treats.

The silence and span of the pure landscape form a great contrast with the surrounding neighbour South Africa. Here are almost no cars; fences, telephone poles and electric wires are not ruining the view. Everywhere we see herds of Angora goat, horses, donkeys, cows and Merino sheep roam around freely. From a great distance shepherds shout things we don’t understand, except when it’s about sweets and money. They are dressed only in underpants and a blanket, sometimes with a hat and a lot of them wear the popular rubber boots.

In Mokhotlong we find a place for the night in the Farm Training Centre, one of the many centres for education in Lesotho, where young boys learn how to be a farmer.
From Mokhotlong we cycle westward on a tar road that’s badly maintained. Flocks of school children in nice uniforms pursue us; they seem to think that all of our twelve panniers are filled with sweets for all the children of Lesotho. Alas…

Lesotho is one of the poorest countries in the world. After decennia of wars in the 19th century between King Moshoeshoe I and the Brits, Boer, Ndebele and Griqua, the country became a British protectorate. The Basotho (the people of Lesotho) had to give up a lot of their fertile land. After refusing to become a part of the South African Union in 1910, Lesotho only became independent officially in 1966. The constitutional monarchy was declared, with Moshoeshoe II as king. In the following years the country was still unstable for a long time. Until 1998, when military forces from South Africa and Botswana had to shun an internal military takeover, the country kept being unsteady. Many buildings in and around the business area of Maseru were damaged or burnt to the ground. It was in May 2002, only three years ago, that the first open elections were held, which led to a stable parliamentary democracy until today. The moral seems to have returned indefinitely and foreign organisations finally dare to invest.
Cycling through the mountains and traditional hut villages with their cattle kraals recent history doesn’t seem to have happened here, it’s like nothing’s changed the last centuries.

The mountains also remained unchanged by the recent political and military violence; they’re all still here and we feel this very good whilst climbing without end. The Maluti Mountains, with a summit of over 3.700 metres, rise majestically above the green countryside. The hills are always steep with gradients that are not afraid to rise above the 20%. We take a break in the village of Mapholaneng, where the locals do their shopping on horseback, something we’ve never seen before.

In the afternoon, on our way to Letseng la Terae, the sky gets overcast, like every day. Just before it starts raining we find a small stretch of level terrain to put our tent. We bath in the ice cold water of the river and sleep at high altitude this night.

At nine degrees Celsius we have a cold start this morning. Peter took over my cold last night; coughing and barking we pursue the long climb to the highest pas in Lesotho: the Tlaeeng Pas at 3.270 metres. Three shepherds, who strongly smell of sweat and charcoal fires, are eager to be photographed. Whilst posing they pull away their blankets, showing a bare upper body and a slip of crude material full of safety pins. It’s freezing cold up here, so those Lesotho blankets must be really warming.

In rain and cold we climb another two passes today at 3.240 and 3.220 metre altitude and then it’s enough. The owner of the Oxbow Lodge permits us to pitch our tent for free, and we cough ourselves lungtearingly through the night.

I feel better the next morning; Peter’s health is going downhill very fast. The cold has nestled deep into his lungs and every coughing fit results in a multi coloured spit that actually suits the landscape. We climb the Moteng Pas, where gradients of 22% are nothing. The climb serves us magnificent views and a descent that make our brakes work overtime.

Liphofung Nature Reserve is one of the three Nature Reserves that are developed with funds from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. The site consists of a huge, naturally formed cave and a cultural village. The entrance fee is two euro per person, which buys us an interesting and large tour of the complex.

We descend into the cave and for the first time in our lives see rock paintings of the over ten thousand year old San-people, commonly called Bushmen. The San, who are almost extinct, were a very social, peace loving and environmentally friendly people of hunter-gatherers. Their knowledge of nature was phenomenal. The women knew everything about the healing qualities of plants and roots, knew in the Kalahari-desert exactly where to find the nutritious tsamo-melons and used ostrich-eggs to store water. During times of plenty the eggs were buried at secret places and sometimes dug up years later in times of drought. The men were known as legendary hunters and were able to follow the tracks of antelope and eland for days and sometimes weeks. To prevent making sounds during the hunt they developed an ingenious system of hand signs.

The San-people had a strong tradition where rituals and the supernatural played an important part. In their belief all animals were once human, like they were. A fight between their God Cagn and his wife caused the separation between human and animal. Out of anger his wife gave birth to an eland. Cagn’s sons killed the eland, but every drop of blood that spilled created another eland. And so the complete animal world was created, with jackal and hyena as last members.

After every successful hunt the San held a feast with lots of music and dance. A special dance was the transcendental dance. Accompanied by the rhythmical clapping and singing of the women, the men were driven to a hypnotic pace, after which they went into a trance. During this trance they came into contact with the supernatural and were able to drive away evil spirits, which caused illnesses and bad luck. In the form of rock paintings the San depicted their daily life, and especially their sensory experiences during the trance.

So for us it’s very special to be standing at one metre distance of this century old art form. The drawings, mostly of humans, elands, elephants, hunters and antelope, give insight in their way of life.

In a few months time we will cycle through Botswana, Namibia and the northwestern part of South Africa through the Kalahari-desert. Only in this area, which partly has been returned to the San that are still alive, these people live according to their ancient traditions.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could meet them there and taste something of the balanced way in which they deal with plants, animals and the earth?