The Kingdom of Lesotho

My friend who is  in the Peace Corps in Botswana visited The Kingdom of Lesotho and wrote to TheGardenLady:

I knew Lesotho would be beautiful, but I was completely unprepared for an environment that is truly untouched by man, a small mountain kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa. Most of the Drakenberg World Heritage Site is a spectacular and seemingly unpenetrable range of mountain and wilderness, looking exactly as it would have before humans walked the planet.  It was indeed a patchwork of quilt, stitched with time and aged with silence.   Hiking for 7 hours per day, and some pony trekking, was filled with intriguing vistas that touched every one of my senses.  The hills were adorned with yellow and purple wildflowers, the colors and shapes of the hills differed at each turn, water falls with swimming holes were set in valleys surrounded by rock formations that were stunning, and a small amount of 100,000 year old rock art was seen.  Apparently, the art was drawn with blood and dirt, and how this held up for all these years is just remarkable.  Most of the art was of human figures, but we did see an eland, and a few other animals.  The Basotho people are proud of their Kingdom, they plant local veggies and sorghum seasonally while living without electricity and most amenities.  Nine of us stayed at Malealea Lodge, which consisted of Eco friendly rondoval huts, and other structures for eating and lounging that were so welcoming to the eye.  Hiking is not easy in these parts, but the surrounding beauty made us all forget our legs!

(My friend did not see many flowering plants when she visited, but like South Africa, the Kingdom of Lesotho does have numerous wildflowers – see here.)

On another note, I came home to find out that one of my cats, Nikko, had to be put down, so I am extremely sad at this moment…but an interesting thing happened to me about Nikko—I left Thursday for Gabs, and we left quite early Friday for Lesotho—Nikko was put down at 2:30pm on Friday, so I had no idea, and I’m not sure of the time difference, but it must have been shortly after he passed, that a man who was staying at the lodge in Lesotho with his family came up to me and started chatting.  We really hit it off in the chat department, and we had another conversation the next day.  After he went to introduce me to his wife and kid, we were alone again, and I finally asked him his name—he warmly took my hand in both of his hands, stared deeply into my eyes—-and said, my name is Nikko! It was divine intervention and a definite synchronicity because had I not chosen to do the trip to Lesotho, I might not have had the opportunity to meet Nikko the gentleman—who turned out to be the vehicle to which my Nikko chose to say good bye or thank you.  It was a gift I’ll embrace the rest of my life!