The hike up to Sehlabathebe Lodge in Lesotho has always been a popular hike with the club members and no wonder! It is a magnificent hike that everyone should do, and even if you have done it previously, it is certainly worth a re-visit! Initially there were over 22 people who booked for this hike but we could only accommodate 18 people and put the rest on a waiting list. We went onto the internet to find a contact person to make a booking for the lodge and were interested to find that there were several postings about the difficulty of booking for the lodge and that in most cases the reservations were ill administered resulting in double bookings. Little did we know that we would become another such statistic! Anyway, on the recommendation of an article that appeared on the Getaway website, we chose a tourist operator who specialised in Lesotho bookings. Everything was confirmed on email and we were promised that although the lodge only had 14 beds, they would provide us with 4 extra mattresses at a reduced rate per person. One final email from the tour operator was a request for a 15% commission on handling the booking, which we promptly paid before departing.

We set off from Durban at 5.30am on Saturday 29^th January 2011, with Alice who needed a lift. It had been raining in Durban for the previous two weeks and although we encountered thick mist almost all the way to the midlands, it was clear, sunny skies when we arrived at the Bushmans Nek Parks Board Office. A couple of days before the hike started nine people had cancelled and some others booked making the final total a group of 11 who were to meet us at the Parks Board parking area. Surprisingly, when we arrived at the parking area, there was only one other car – Chris & Sheila Seddon who had travelled down from Centurion, Johannesburg just to join our hike for the weekend! We arrived there just before 8am and waited until 8.30am, but there was still no sign of the other six people.  We tried calling them but got no answer and started to get really concerned that they may had encountered problems on the road so we waited another 15 minutes until 8.45am and then decided they were not going to come and we set off for the border post. Once we checked through the border post we started the hike and just a couple of meters in we crossed the first river and there were the rest of our party who we had been waiting for! They parked at the camp site instead of the Parks Board office and thought that we may be stuck somewhere, so they set off without us! A quick introduction followed and the party continued along the path, happy that everyone was together. The party consisted of Eddie (the leader of the hike), Alice who plays the French Horn for the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, Pam who has broken many long distance running records, completed 10 Comrades Marathons and is soon to compete in Washington in the Grand Masters, (whew!) her friend Claire; Barry who recently retired as CEO of Amafa – KZN provincial heritage conservation agency and was recovering from Chemotherapy; his wife Maggie who is also an adrenaline junkie (at age 60 something!) and daughter Cheryl who does skydiving, deep sea diving and is a tourist operator – they travelled down from Eshowe and picked up their friend, Vicky, who is a Microbiologist, the couple from Johannesburg and me! (my claim to fame is that I have given FOUR donations of Platelets to the SA National Blood Service for people who have cancer!)  A very interesting group indeed!

The river needed crossing a few more times as we made our way along the hike. At Cedric’s Pool we stopped for a small break before ascending up the steep mountain to get onto the Lesotho escarpment. The pool was named after Cedric Biggs who was a leader for the Mountain Backpackers club many years ago became known for jumping through the ice in the frozen pool below the waterfall. All too soon it was time to pack up and head for the steep ascent to an altitude of roughly 2400m above sea level – our start altitude was 1600m. It was a very long climb up and we took it slowly stopping regularly to take in the breathtaking views all the way up. The mountains are so majestic! Once up on the escarpment, we could still look down and see the camp site and the border post where the hike started, now seven kms away! A short while further we could see Sehlabathebe Lodge way in the distance but the walk from there on was completely flat – our party of 11 had done very well! My pedometer measured a total of 20,588 steps for the day and recorded 21 grams of fat burned!  As we got to the gate to the lodge at 3.30pm, we saw a vehicle parked in front of the lodge and we immediately knew that the place had been double booked and another group/family had arrived there before us! Fortunately, it was only one couple so there was enough room for us but not even an hour we had arrived another vehicle drove in from the North with a group of young people. Luckily they had brought their tent and set up camp beside the gorgeous dam near the lodge.

The afternoon was spent just catching our breath while everyone got cleaned up and lazed around on the veranda of the lodge right in front of the Devil’s Knuckles. What a fantastic view of the Southern Drakensberg! The other couple who were also staying at the lodge were very keen botanists and were able to show us no less than 27 different types of orchids that grew amongst the grasses right around the lodge! The lodge has 14 beds, two bathrooms, a well equipped kitchen (with gas stove), dining room table for eight and a large lounge with a fire place in the middle. The large windows of the lounge look straight onto the mountain. In the winter months it gets bitterly cold when the temps drop to well below freezing and it becomes very difficult to find running water! For the price of R150pp per night, it was absolutely worth the walk up the mountain! Whether it was the fresh mountain air or just the 12km slog, we were all in bed by 8.30pm and once the lights were out, it was so dark you could not see your hand in front of your face! Something that we could not identify with in the city with its street lights and city noises that continue 24/7!

In the early hours of the morning I woke to hear a chorus of jackal calling outside – it was brilliant! A little while later there was some light coming through the curtains, so I sat up to look outside and it took my breath away when I saw the mountains tainted orange with the early sunrise! I woke my husband and we went to sit outside on the veranda to take some photos. Two of the ladies, Alice and Pam already had their boots on and at 5am they took a walk towards the Devil’s Knuckles, they wanted to take an early advantage of the beauty we found ourselves surrounded by. The rest of the group slowly emerged from their cuddly duvets and we followed the ladies with binoculars as they took the path into the mountain. They were back three hours later and quickly had their breakfast and once we were all packed up we left the lodge at about 8.30am. Not far from the lodge we took a detour to have a look at the old shepherd’s huts that were made from hand cut stone. We wanted to take the group to see Irish Cave, but could not find it. We walked along to the famous “arch” through which you could see a perfect view of Devil’s Knuckles and put all our backpacks down to take some photos. The men were determined to find Irish Cave, so they scouted the area and called the rest of us a little while later when they had found it. It became very clear why we had missed it – the front of the cave with the path leading into it was completely under water! All the tarns in the area were completely full of water – there was so much water everywhere! Nevertheless, three of us ladies stripped down and took a swim right into the cave! The water was so refreshingly cool, it was a great swim! From there, we packed up and ascended up one last steep hill before starting the long way down. We stopped off to look at the magnificent views from Tarn Cave and then headed down into the valley. Earlier on when we left the lodge, it was bright and sunny and the temperature was already in the low thirties but soon it had become cloudy and about five kilometres from the end the heavens opened and we had some large raindrops coming down. All the way back to the border post, we were amazed at the volumes of water all over the place from the recent rainy season. Some areas we had to walk through were extremely muddy and there was no way of avoiding the thick slush that most often was ankle deep!

Everyone finally arrived safe and sound at the border post where we said our fond farewells – another great hike had been successfully completed!