A mountain kingdom of exceptional beauty, Lesotho is one of southern Africa’s true gems. Overshadowed (and literally enveloped) by South Africa, this little country rewards the visitor with truly gorgeous scenery and fascinating local culture.
Lesotho (along with Ethiopia, granted) is essentially the Tibet of Africa: It’s a rugged, mostly high-elevation country with the loftiest low point (some 4,600 feet at the confluence of the Orange and Makhaleng rivers) of any in the world. The terrain rises from the river valleys of the west through rugged foothills to the windswept plateaus and jagged escarpments of the Drakensberg and associated Maloti highlands.
The golden grasslands, basalt ledges, and sharp peaks of the Drakensberg-Maloti uplift, which climaxes in 11,424-foot Thabana Ntlenyana, constitute some of the most beautiful alpine country on the planet and one of the finest destinations for adventure trekking anywhere in Africa. Combine peak-bagging with glimpsing elands and bearded vultures, and admiring one of the continent’s most fantastic concentrations of rock art in Maloti-Drakensberg Park, which conjoins Lesotho’s Sehlathebe National Park and KwaZulu-Natal’s Drakensberg National Park. Rare high-country woodland and spectacular summits, meanwhile, are on display in the Maloti backcountry of Lesotho’s biggest national park, Ts’ehlanyane.
If the vertical scale of the Lesotho ramparts sobers your hiking fancies a little, take a horseback safari on an indigenous Basuto pony. Those hardscrabble and sure-footed steeds have ferried the Basuto (or Sotho) people through these highlands for centuries, and pony-trekking is now a widespread form of ecotourism. The mountain resorts of the Drakensberg-Masoti do an admirable job showcasing traditional Basuto culture while accommodating backpacking, skiing, and other recreation.
Lesotho’s a fine place to escape the clamor of neighboring South Africa’s more crowded hotspots. If raw scenery, outdoor adventure, and breathing mountain air are your bag, you couldn’t ask for a finer stomping-ground than this modest-sized but skyscraping country. Oh, and there are dinosaur footprints and fossils to be discovered…
8 things not to miss.
- Sani Pass into LesothoDrive the Sani Pass into Lesotho
- Maletsunyane FallsStand at Maletsunyane Falls
- Pony-trek the Maluti highlandsPony-trek the Maluti highlands
- Sehlabathebe National ParkRoam the remote high-elevation grasslands of the Maloti Mountains in this glorious park, part of a trans-border protected region on the South African line.
- Ts’ehlanyane National ParkScan for bearded vultures and explore some of Lesotho’s rare native forests in the Maloti highlands of this biggest of the country’s parks.
- Subeng River Dinosaur TracksWander in the footsteps of Mesozoic thunder-lizards near the village of Hlotse, one of the finest of several dinosaur pathways in Lesotho.
- Thaba BosiuThis noble mesa is famous as a historic stronghold of the Basotho and the site of the great chief Moshoeshoe I’s grave.
- Sani PassNearly 9,500 feet up in the Maloti Mountains, this pass awaits on one of Africa’s most harrowing and jaw-dropping drives.
