Lesotho, Glandular Fever and Horse The Band

I've spent the last week in a place called Lesotho (leh-soo-too), a country that is completely enveloped by South Africa. The entire country is essentially one big mountain range, with the lowest point in the country at 1400 metres above sea level, and over 80% of the country above 1800 metres. Temperatures get really cold, and in the winter it snows.

Anyways,the reason why I went is because I was in Cape Town and was pissed off at how expensive everything was and still shocked at how developed the city was, so I decided to take an overnight bus up to the cheapest least developed place in the area: Maseru, the capital of Lesotho.

After a night on the bus, I was dropped off at the border to Lesotho at about 10am. I had no idea really where I was going or how to get in to town or whatever, so I walked through the border/customs etc, and then decided to try and hitch into town. Turns out I didn't have to wait more than about 5 seconds before a guy named Malbe picked me up in his truck and drove me in to town. He asked where I was going and when I said I didn't know, he invited me back to his place for some home-brewed "sarghom" beer and food. Obviously I didn't say no. We got back to his place and I found that a few of his friends/relatives had already been drinking for a few hours (it's only about 11am at this point). Malbe's brother, who would only tell me his name was "Love" insisted that I put on a traditional Basotho blanket and hat and get a picture taken.... "to show america the cool Lesotho" haha, so the picture here is of me, "Love" on the left, and the village chief in the middle...you see America! Lesotho is fucking cool!

That night I took a minibus taxi into a village called Malealea that Malbe said was especially nice and beautiful. It took the usual amount of time that it takes to go 80km in Africa...which is about 4 hours on 3 different minibuses/trucks. When I got into Malealea it had already been pouring with rain for about an hour and I was completely soaked.

That was the night I became sick. I woke up multiple times with a fever, headache etc...the cold weather and painfully loud thunder wasn't doing any help either. The entire next day I spent sitting in bed reading and poppin' pills.

My health came back somewhat, with the help of tylenol, and I was able to go on a few hikes around the gorgeous Lesotho mountain range and managed to arrange an amazing 1-day-long horseback ride through the Makhoarane Plateau with a Basotho guide. After Malealea, I took a bus to a place called Semongkong to visit the Maletsunyane Falls, which is probably one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen.

Then I remembered Horse the Band was playing in Grahamstown on the 11th...the last show of the tour. So the next day, I got on a bus from Semongkong to Maseru, and then from Maseru to Bloemfontein, South Africa. By the time I arrived in Bloem it was too late to keep going to Grahamstown but it was only the 9th so I had plenty of time. I met a Basotho guy, Tsepo, on the minibus from Maseru to Bloem who was studying graphic design in Bloem and offered for me to crash at his place for the night. The next day I went to a hospital in Bloem to get a check up and see what I had, seeing as it had been about 8 days and I was still really sick. I went and the doctor did X-rays, blood tests and a throat swab, and told me he'd phone me with the results.

5 hours ago I arrived into Grahamstown and met up with a friend of mine that's studying at Rhodes University, where I'm staying right now.

3 hours ago, the doctor phoned and told me I have something called Glandular Fever.

10 minutes ago, somebody here at the rez told me that Horse The Band bitched out and isn't come to play in Grahamstown. Meaning I essentially wasted two days on a bus, not to mention I left Lesotho prematurely. Fuck Horse.

I don't really know where I'm going at the moment, I think I'll spend a few more days in G-Town and try and rest up, and eventually I'm planning on going to Swaziland to get a visa for Mozambique...anyhow, I'll try and keep everybody posted, but I have the feeling that as soon as I leave South Africa, this blog is going to get 10,000 times harder to do.

Peace!