Lesotho: Day 3 of 3 Maletsunyane Falls

Yes! Read this! It will help you figure out what's going on under my hair :-). Join us as we go on a third day of enjoying the Lesotho landscape in the Semonkong area, which is home to the Maletsunyane Falls and the bearded vulture (which we saw at pixel size). The Basotho use horses and donkeys quite extensively and they are as often seen as certain minibus taxis in our cities. The animals are found at different spots in the village, where they are “parked” while the owner is off to the shops. I forgot to ask whether they also had “donkey guards” the same way we have car guards, who only pitch up just as you are about to leave. We went to see the Maletsunyane Falls, but there have been some changes since the last time that we were here. For one, there is now a boom gate across the dirt road leading up to the falls, where you involuntarily part with some digits in your bank balance. Unfortunately I noted this unexpected phenomenon with such childlike amazement, that I just swiped my card without paying attention to the price. It might have been about one hundred or two hundred bucks per person. I am unable to access my bank statement at the moment, so I cannot confirm exactly how much. Just know that you and your money will take leave of each other. Secondly, we then proceeded from there to a huge fenced off and gated building that has the nice name, Visitors Comfort Facility. It does have a few facilities that can enhance your comfort, even though the empty field that was there before served just as well. I guess that the authorities or the locals might have gotten a bit fed up with the tourists’ biological contributions to the environment and reckoned that financial upkeep of the area was more desirable. There is a restaurant in the building too and it has a beautiful balcony overlooking the waterfall and the gorge. The building is really modern with lots of glass, so it was easy to see that it was so absolutely ready to be properly occupied. I have no idea how long this state of readiness has persisted, but I hope that the building does not turn out to be of the pale pachyderm variety so often seen when people start getting ideas. Following our visit to the falls, we went to see mme Elizabeth Letsie. She does presentations on the origin and significance of the Basotho blanket and she has quite a collection, so you can see many examples of different types of blankets. She told us when Basotho receive blankets and what types of blankets they receive. Like us, you might well be so inspired to acquire a blanket, that you end up at the nearest trading store determined to relinquish your left over cash in exchange for a blankie. And that’s almost all we saw. Byeeee Music: artlist.io