Losutho, the mountain kingdom

A few days ago we went to the mighty Drakensburgh mountains that border Losutho. Losutho is one of the smallest countries in the world and it is completely surrounded by South Africa. It is truly a mountain kingdom and their #1 export is Marijuana. On the eastern border of Losutho is the fore mentioned Drakensburgh mountains. It literally means Dragon mountains. The whole region is dirt roads and many of these roads you need a 4X4 to traverse. We went to the Sani Pass in the Lower Berg. Our goal was to cross the pass into Losutho early in the morning and return before the border closes at 4pm. On the day we were supposed to embark on our trip a massive thunderstorm blocked our way. This ended up being an omen because we spent the day lieing in hammocks, reading, relaxing, and watching the storm. It was a well needed rest as we have not stopped moving since we flew into the country.

The following day the weather behaved much better. We set out a little after daybreak to attempt the pass. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. The jagged mountains were covered in mist high on the horizon. We had been camping at 4,500 feet and the border crossing was at 6,000 feet. The road twisted through the mountains and was probably one of the scariest roads I have ever been on. When we reached the top the weather must have dropped to about 35 degrees. We went to a local village and ate some fresh made bread. The views had changed dramatically and the mountains gave way to open valleys with grazing sheep.

We headed back down to our camp site and passed through the border with South Africa with 10 minutes to spare. The next day we woke up early and headed back to the shore to get the chill out of our bones.