Country-hopping

After about 15 hours in transit, peppered with last-minute course corrections, I'm in Maseru, capital city of Lesotho. I arrived by walking over a road/rail bridge from South Africa, and climbed into a crowded VW van converted into a minibus. It roared with unintelligible but joyous South Sotho music. In order to fund my upcoming horseback trek into the deep mountains of this alpine country, I've just converted more money than most Basotho make in a year, which I suppose should make me feel guilty. Now I'm taking a few minutes at a Chinese-run broadband internet cafe (globalism rocks my world) and will have a tasty breakfast at Nando's in a few minutes.

This is one of the poorest countries in the world, but at this very instant I'm relatively comfortable, owing (I think) to my growing ease with the (on the surface) chaotic rhythyms of African life. I'm about to go in search of a bus to take me to Malealea, about 80km away, where I'll be staying in a thatched forest hut and befriending a real live pony. After that, I'll spend a night or two in a Basotho village in the far south of the country while touring the mountains.

This is, methinks, a very successful vacation.

P.S. I've not forgotten to write about my Cape Town adventures, but I don't have that much time at the moment. It'll have to wait until I get back to Gabs on the 31st or 1st. If I don't get on before then, Happy New Years!