South of Johannesburg on the way to Lesotho, one passes the Golden Gate National Park. This area is part of the rolling foothills of the Maluti Mountains that continue into Lesotho. The name of the Golden Gate park was derived from the spectacular golden orange and yellow colours of the sandstone rock faces. The park was established in 1963 to preserve the wildlife, rock shelters and rock art.

The landscape includes wooded ravines, gullies and sour grasslands with a wide variety of wild flowers in summer. Flowers include arum lily, watsonias, fire lilies and red-hot pokers.

Wildlife that can be seen in the area include oribi, eland, black wildebeest, red hartebeest, blesbok, springbok, Burchell’s zebra, oribi, grey rhebok and mountain reedbuck . Some of the more notable amongst the 140 identified bird species, are bearded vulture, bald ibis, black eagle, jackal buzzard, ground woodpecker and orange throated longclaw.

Further south on the way to the eastern Cape coast lies the small country of Lesotho, surrounded by South Africa on all sides. It is high country with snow-capped mountains at the highest part of the Drakensberg escarpment, with the highest point at Thabana-Ntlenyana, 3,841m. The folded mountainous terrain is cut by many valleys, making it a country of stark, dramatic beauty. The Orange, the Caledon and the Tugela rivers start in the Lesotho mountains. The junction of the Orange and Makhaleng Rivers is the lowest point in Lesotho.

The climate is temperate cool to cold with dry winters and wet summers. In spring, the mountains are covered with alpine flowers. Autumn days are long and warm. Both seasons are good for hiking and riding on Lesotho ponies. Sightseeing interests include bushman paintings, dinosaur footprints, eco- parks and pony trekking.

The left picture is of the mountains of Lesotho in the distance. The second and third pictures are of mountainous areas of the “kingdom in the sky”. The area was visited at the end of May, the start of winter which lasts till August.

Some of the views of the Lesotho mountains at the end of May. Some mountains are capped with snow throughout the year.

A view of a river bed on the way to the cave with the rock art shown in the next two pictures. Picture of a magnificent cave with a panoramic view.

Lesotho is well-known for wonderful woven products, including carpets and other items made from the wool of Merino sheep and mohair of Angora goats. A visit to one of the factories was a delight. The sale of these products is one of the major agricultural exports from Lesotho.

Lesotho is an often-surprising combination of rapidly developing modernity, and ancient culture.

Lesotho
During the time of the Zulu wars which affected the neighbouring Sotho from both the Zulu aggression and fleeing Nguni groups, a group of Sotho people led by Moshoeshoe found refuge on the mountain called Thaba Bosiu. Over the subsequent years, Sotho refugees and other ethnic groups joined them, and a strong tribe of organized people was built from these people. At Moshoeshoe's death, the country became part of the Cape Colony, but reverted to a British protectorate in 1884. In 1968, Lesotho became independent of Britain. Much of Lesotho's social structure is disrupted by the fact that many men spend long periods of time away from their families in the gold mines of South Africa

Sehlabathebe National Park
Excerpted from "African Wildlife", Volume 33, No. 5

"Sehlabathebe is high, cold, lonely. Among its peaks, the winds and clouds gust and churn, stirring up the weather for the world below........... Seven years ago [1970] Sehlabathebe became Leostho's first national park."

"Sehlabathebe is a place of wind and water which has shaped the mountains into caves and arches, scoops and hollows. Waterfalls freeze into columns of ice in winter, and in summer mists and rains fill the ponds and seeps and springs and streams and bogs, and turn the grasslands into fields of flowers, of daisies, orchids, lilies and everlastings."

" Up in the high rock pools at Sehlabathebe float the white stars of one beautiful small flower which Dr Fred Hoener, the Park bioligist, calls `the crown jewels of Sehlabathebe'."

"In Sehlabathebe's streams darts a small minnow-like fish, `oreadaimon quathlambae', `the spirit of the Drakensberg'. It is a rare indigenous fish adapted to survive these cold high mountain streams, and for 30 years was believed to be extinct until it was rediscovered in the Tsoelikana River at Sehlabathebe in 1970"

"Bird life is abundant and includes Rock Jumpers, Bald Ibis, Cape Vultures, Lammergeyers, and migrants such as the White Stork, Crowned Crane and Black-headed Herons."

Lesotho Government Website
http://www.lesotho.gov.ls

Friends of Lesotho
http://friendsoflesotho.org

National University of Lesotho
http://www.nul.ls

Africa InSites - Lesotho
http://www.africa-insites.com/lesotho

Golden Gate Highlands National Park
http://www.toursaa.com/saparks/other/golden.htm