Over this past summer, the Michael W Travels family spent a few weeks traveling around Africa, visiting a bunch of different countries.
After arriving in Johannesburg, we flew to Lesotho the following day. Here is what we did during our short, 3 night visit to the landlocked Kingdom of Lesotho!
Our first touristy stop was Basotho Hat in downtown Maseru.
The craft shop is a pretty interesting attraction as the building is shaped like a traditional mokorotlo hat. At the shop, you can buy an authentic mokorotlo and other crafts for very reasonable prices.
While I would’ve loved to have added one of these hats to my collection, it would’ve been a pain to carry around during our trip. We opted for a few small handmade crafts instead.
We then drove around a half hour away to Thaba Bosiu Cultural Village, “a National Monument and Lesotho’s foremost tourist destination holding great historical significance as the birthplace of the Basotho People“.
Before going on our guided tour, Lucas and I went horseback riding. This was nothing special but it was a good way to kill a little time while waiting for our tour to start.
When we got back, our guide (dressed in traditional hat & robe) was ready to show us around. Along the way, we saw a traditional village and go to go in some of the structures.
A visit to Thaba Bosiu Cultural Village is a must if you want to learn a bit about the country.
You can also spend a night at Thaba Bosiu (we were supposed to, but it didn’t work out) or have a meal. We had lunch there which was pretty decent.
On the drive to and from Thaba Bosiu, we spotted Lion Rock Mountain.
The rock formation is a pretty awesome sight to see. On the way back from Thaba Bosiu, we pulled into the grounds of Leqele High School to stop for a better view. (Great tip from Atlas Obscura!)
For our second day in Lesotho, we planned to visit a couple of interesting sites but we had a little problem. To reach them, we’d need a 4×4 vehicle. This wasn’t even an option when I checked rental car agencies.
Luckily, the concierge at our hotel was able to find a driver for a reasonable price.
On the way to our first stop, our guide got a bit lost. Along the way, we passed this friendly shepherd and we stopped for a photo.
We finally made it after driving for quite some time to Ha Baroana to see the cave paintings.
The visitor center looked pretty nice but it seemed to be abandoned. Luckily, a woman in the area called the local guide for us.
It was a bit of a hike and a shady crossing across a steam (our guide made a little path out of rocks) but we made it. The cave paintings were awesome and there were definitely a lot more than we expected.
The trek to get to Ha Baroana was definitely worth it. I’d just recommend not trying to get here on your own.
Next up, we made our way to the Kome Caves.
The caves didn’t look too far from Ha Baroana but the roads (I’m being polite calling them that) were just awful. Dusty dirt roads filled with potholes and drops, I’m still amazed we made it there.
After paying a small fee at the visitor’s center (a room), we took a walk down to the cave dwellings.
Surprisingly, the dwellings are still inhabited by descendants of the original group who built the caves. According to Wikipedia, “The main purpose for the cave dwellings was to serve as a hideout from adversaries during the drought in the late 18th century”.
As we arrived, a friendly woman was cooking outside her cave home. The kitchen was nothing more than a metal pot over a fire. We went into a couple of the homes and they were very basic which wasn’t very surprising.
The cave dwellings were really cool to see in person and worth the crazy effort. We loved seeing this very unique way of living.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, we were happy with our short visit to Lesotho. We got to see some unique and interesting sites in just a couple of long days. It would’ve been nice to have a little more time but what can you do?
