Soaring high above South Africa, this rugged “Kingdom in the Sky” rewards adventurous travelers with dramatic mountain peaks, traditional stone villages, and the proud, welcoming spirit of the Basotho people.
Today we started really early, determined to complete our planned route from Malealea Lodge in Lesotho to Queenstown — officially renamed Komani — in South Africa’s Eastern Cape before darkness. It turned out to be a remarkably scenic road trip, taking us from the dramatic and rugged...
Malealea is a scenic mountain village and valley in the Mafeteng District of southwestern Lesotho, tucked deep into the Makhaleng (also known as Makhomalong) Valley, among the foothills of the Maluti and Thaba-Putsoa mountain ranges. The landscape is classic Lesotho: rugged basalt ridges...
The drive from Morija to Malealea was beautiful and increasingly adventurous, with the final 7 km taking us over the famous Gates of Paradise Pass. The rugged section begins where the paved road ends, and we turned left onto the unpaved track. Within the first 1.8 km, we climbed to the...
We made a short detour to Morija, the historic cultural heart of Lesotho, known as the country’s first mission station and an important centre of art, education and heritage. French Protestant missionaries from the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society established the settlement in...
Maletsunyane Falls is a spectacular 192-metre single-drop waterfall plunging dramatically into a deep gorge near Semonkong. It is one of Africa’s highest single-drop waterfalls (🎟️160 LSL). The enormous curtain of falling water creates a permanent cloud of mist around the gorge...
We spent one day and two nights in Semonkong, a remote mountain town in the heart of Lesotho, best known for the spectacular 200-metre-high Maletsunyane Falls. Finding suitable parking for our expedition truck wasn’t easy, but we eventually managed to reverse through a narrow path...
The drive from Thaba Bosiu to Semonkong was a stunning mountain journey of roughly 120 kilometres, which took us about 3.5 hours on a surprisingly perfect tar road. The route climbed into Lesotho’s high-altitude landscapes, crossing dramatic mountain ranges including the Thaba...
We discovered a small wine estate on the road to Semonkong, so we made a quick stop at Sani Wines in Ha Ntsi, near Nazareth on the southern outskirts of Maseru. It is Lesotho’s first and, so far, only commercial winery. The project began around 2008, when the Thamae family, led by...
Thaba Bosiu was just an overnight stop for us on our way to Semonkong. We were kindly allowed to park next to the village, near the restaurant where we had dinner. Thaba Bosiu is a historic sandstone plateau and one of the most important places in Lesotho, regarded as the spiritual and...
Today we took the shortest route from Ts’ehlanyane National Park towards Thaba Bosiu, passing around the Kome Caves and through the rural tracks near Fako. The route was a real mix of paved main roads, gravel and rugged unpaved mountain tracks, some of which would normally require a...