My first impressions of Lesotho were brown, a lot of brown, sprinkled with little specks of bright colours, like candy coated buttons on a caramel cake.

In retrospect, this perspective was right, as the vast mountainous highlands areas do appear brown at first sight.  It is only  on closer inspection that you see green brush, goats, sheep and birds and all kinds of wriggly and crawly things. However, the little specks of colour were in fact shepherds wondering through lonely terrain, all swaddled tightly in bright blankets read more

“On a good day you can see until tomorrow” is how views from the edge of the Sani Pass have been described.

Standing on the summit staring into deep crevices and across coloured walls of rock, it is daunting to imagine that 160 million years ago enormous internal pressures from the core of the earth tore apart Gondwanaland and resulted in vast cracks in the crust of the African Continent. Through these fractures molten lava flooded over the shores of Africa and through lakes and swamps where dinosaurs had lived and died. read more

 We all want to believe that the tribal dance in the village we travel so far to see is more “real” than the one performed at dinner at the airport hotel. We want to believe that the bread we had at the small Basotho village is more “authentic” than the overpriced snack that tourists pay for at the Waterfront markets.

Today authenticity has become the goal and measure of travel. “Real” travellers are avoiding expensive, posed tourist attractions, preferring to wander off the “beaten track”. Many avoid the “touristy” places and are discerning about wanting to have ‘real’ cultural experiences. read more