Lesotho| South Africa, Day 9

Sunday, September 23, 2018
We had about 7.5 hours of driving planned today, and we would be doing our first African border crossing from South Africa to Lesotho.

There is a balance I try to strike when researching our travel destinations. I want to feel prepared, but I also want to leave room for surprise. I leaned a little too far towards the underprepared side of things for this part of the journey. We pulled up to the Maseru Bridge Border Post and were pretty clueless on how to actually go about crossing the border.

Letter of Authority from Bidvest Car Rental to cross from South Africa to Lesotho

We parked the car and walked over to the Customs Office.

We walked in, but there was no one there.

We probably should've paid more attention to the sign that said "Immigration Departures" above, but we walked back out to the car instead and proceeded to drive forward until we eventually paid the border crossing toll and were in Lesotho. Only one man stopped us along the way and looked at our passports; he basically said something that sounded a whole lot like "go away" and we accepted that as permission to move along.

Maseru is the capital and largest city of Lesotho.  There were some market stalls lining the road and several people milling about the area near the border crossing.

We realized we should stop at a grocery store for some bottled water, so we swung by the Pioneer Mall to visit the Pick N Pay and pick up lunch at Barcelo's Flame Grilled Chicken. We got the Vegetarian Schwarma with fries.

Our first stop was supposed to be at the Ha Kome Caves, a group of cave dwellings made out of mud.  We tried driving the road leading to this attraction, but the road was just too questionable and we didn't want to risk getting stuck.

Then things got really fun when we went to find our airbnb. We thought we'd go get checked in first and then head to the nearby attraction we had slated for that afternoon. Some of the signs we were passing were conflicting with the GPS instructions, and my husband has a vast preference to follow electronic directions. We ended up driving too far up what you would questionably call a "road". We called our host Isaac to see if he could give us instructions. We were able to connect with him and started driving back the other direction and seemed to be on the right track to the Monokotsoaing Guest House. Suddenly, a guy comes walking up to the car and waving us down, basically insisting that he should get in the car. He had a local accent, so we weren't understanding him too clearly at first. We thought he was just looking for a ride, but then thought maybe he was with the guest house, but then second-guessed that. He finally explained that we had been talking to his father Isaac, and we could call him Isaac Jr. (I don't think that was actually his name, but he probably thought we could pronounce that more easily). We scooted our mess over in the backseat, and he hopped in the car. He got us checked in at the lodge and showed us around the property, starting with the view, which he seemed very proud of.

We explained that we wanted to go see the Subeng Dinosaur Footprints, and he basically decided that he would accompany us there. At first he suggested that we drop him off at his girlfriend's house, but then said she wouldn't be available, so he would just come with us to this attraction. He seemed like he really wanted to hang out and have fun, but we were kind of like, "dude, we've driven over 8 hours today, and this country has been overwhelming, and we're both major introverts", but really we just said "sure, no problem".

We showed up at the location, but there was no one there running the check-in area. Isaac chatted with some of the local children in the local language of Sesotho, and they must have summoned the man who runs the place because he came running back over to collect our payment of 60 rand each to see the worn footprints of at least three species of dinosaurs.

 Some of them were submerged, so it wasn't easy to see all the details.

Our conversation with Isaac covered a wide variety of topics on our trip together. Isaac informed us that marijuana had recently been legalized in Lesotho and he was wondering if we might want to buy a joint. Doing some research now it looks like while it is legal for medicinal use, I don't think it's legal for recreational use. When the topic of alcohol came up and we explained that we don't like beer, he was quick to voice his surprise since we are American lol. I explained that I much prefer tequila or rum instead, and he said those types of liquors are hard to come by out there.  Speaking of being American, he was quite surprised to see Francisco driving a manual car, "I thought Americans couldn't drive stick!" Hahaha, it's true, but Francisco pushed himself to make it through Africa in a manual car anyway.

As the conversation turned to politics, he asked what our thoughts were of Trump [he's a joke] and he was quick to voice his [negative] opinions about Hillary. I asked him what the biggest problem facing Lesotho was, fully expecting him to say poverty, and he responded with corruption. He said the Prime Minister makes 50,000, and he makes far more than the general public. He didn't elaborate on what he meant by that or what currency he was referring to, but I don't think it amounts to a whole heck of a lot.

I've done some digging, and I found an article from 2012 that pegs Prime Minister Thomas Thabane's annual salary at M469,844. I also found this mention in the Google results, but the link is invalid.

If this is all accurate, the Prime Minister makes $33,000 USD annually. I know I went down a major rabbit hole here, but it is striking to actually look at this information. Isaac actually explained that he has an ongoing business relationship with the Prime Minister and he is often asked to host guests of his at the lodge, and he is not compensated for everything.

As we were driving back to the lodge, he asked if we could pull over so he could buy something for the Wi-Fi. We pulled over by one of the little vendor stands, and he got out to do his business. This was one of the moments where we definitely felt uncomfortable pulling over and were worried someone might come up to the car. He came back and asked if he could give us something. He was almost sheepish in asking us not to say no, and he handed us each a small bag of some kind of popcorn/puffed wheat snack. I asked him what it was called, and he said something like "kip kip", but I couldn't find anything about that snack when I Googled it.

He was on the phone getting the Wi-Fi set up and then with his dad, and he informed us that we had been ripped off at the dinosaur footprints. Apparently, it should have been 60 Rand for the both of us, not each. Oh, well, that's the gamble you take being a tourist, especially in undeveloped areas like this.

We were finally able to retreat to our room, and I can't speak for Francisco, but my nerves were fried. Spending so much confined time with a stranger was not planned, and it really just added to our anxieties. BUT nothing bad happened, and honestly, Isaac gave us one of our most memorable experiences of this entire trip.

Our room was very small and basic, but it had running water and amenities that I question whether the average Mosotho (person from Lesotho) would have.  We couldn't get the Wi-Fi to work at first, and Isaac ended up just bringing the router to our room since we were the only ones staying there.

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