Day 13 - Sani Pass & “Lunch in Lesotho”

Pretty much like drinking beer, each one gets better than the previous! As we have progressed, so each day has got even better, than the previous too!

Today we left base camp and via Underberg and Himeville we set off to scale 'Sani Pass' and what an epic day it has been. Whilst I have been up Sani Pass once before, nearly twenty years ago, not a hell of a lot looked familiar. I did remember the scary vertical cliffs 2-3 hundred meters below😳less than a meter from the road edge. I had forgotten how bumpy and uneven the complete track is, top to bottom. The eroded gullies and the massive rocks all over the place, washed out stones and the numerous cave- a-ways. Exacerbated by the recent heavy rains in the Drakensberg, waterfalls on the mountainside of the path leave streams of water cascading over the road, and down the other side. Where the water cannot escape, car-size puddles form, making it anyones guess as to how deep it is, and how rocky it is under the water level.

What an absolutely beautiful day, blue skies and cloudless. At the top we checked in at the Lesotho border control where we had to present our valid and negetive Rapid Covid test result, which we had administered down at the RSA gate Very professionally conducted and generally the best Immigration and Customs post in the country, at a cost of R250 each😖 I saw the control book and we were the seventh entry at just after 10:30 for the day. Yesterday (Sunday) I noted 11 entries for the entire day.🤔 We only met up with three other vehicles on the entire route, up and down.

Initially the gradient commences at a respectable 12:1 but further up the canyon it escalates to an unreasonable 6:1 to an altitude of 2,873m amsl, at the Lesotho Border Post.

The way up took us 1h30 and back down again, only an hour. Much of the time up into Lesotho, was also taking it in and dozens of pics. Through the border we visited "Black Mountain", the highest point in the area at 3,240m amsl. The tar road condition until the RSA gate, probably the best on the entire trip so far, and then between the two posts epic, like nobody owns it... or even wants to, but that exactly why we came here today!

We had to have 'Lunch in Lesotho' and a 'Maluti' beer or two in the highest pub in Africa, which at anytime could have ended up being very far too festive, and equally irresponsible!Read more