An Alternative View of the Mountains

Philip Grant

Southern Secrets Hiking and Backpacking

I have been a Professional Mountain Guide since 2005. My view and perception of the South African Drakensberg Mountains and the Maluti Mountains of the independent Kingdom of Lesotho have changed in ways that I could never have realised. Let me explain…………

Once qualified as a guide, I imagined that I would swap my usual South African hiking club companions with paying clients from overseas countries, and that the hikes I would guide would be ones we generally all know well, or at least variations of them.

To some extent this has been true, but like most South African hikers, my knowledge of the mountains ended more or less at the Lesotho border. I had previously done some road trips within Lesotho, including visiting the obligatory Katse Dam and Mokhotlong, but my hiking experiences were still limited by the uneasy suspicion I felt when meeting Basotho people, mainly because of my own ignorance.

This started changing after I was approached by the owners of Sani Lodge Backpackers to guide their standard trips into Lesotho, with their tour company Drakensberg Adventures. These trips have evolved as an attraction for their clients, who come from all over the world, and are of any age group, the main essential requirement being an adventurous spirit.

All Drakensberg Adventures Lesotho trips involve as much interaction with the Basotho people as possible, sleeping in traditional huts and eating local food. They are designed to benefit as many people in the surrounding communities as possible. All support local community tourism initiatives that have developed and evolved within Lesotho. Examples are two and three day cultural visits, two, three and four day pony trekking trips, and trekking trips where kit is carried by pack animals, such as to Thabana Ntlenyana (3482m), the highest point in Southern Africa, from a Basotho village.

I now had the new pleasure of introducing visitors to the Drakensberg and Maluti Mountains who were prepared to pay for the sort of experiences that we take for granted! By closely observing their open minded, enquiring, interested and respectful interactions with the Basotho people, free of the sort of antiquated mental baggage that unfortunately a lot of us South Africans still carry around, and seeing how they were received and treated in return, showed me very quickly how I had been missing out hugely up until then. Since then, each visit to Lesotho adds more to my knowledge of the Basotho, their way of life and their culture. The more I get to know them, the more I am learning to understand and respect their age old traditional ways, and have now come to a point where I can abandon my suspicions. I have gained enough insight, to see for the first time in my life, how outsiders and the rest of the world must appear to Africans.

As my knowledge of the physical terrain increases, in place of a limited view of the Drakensberg as an escarpment ending at the Lesotho border, I now see the whole Drakensberg / Maluti massif as one unit, with the South African Drakensberg as the very beautiful wilderness edge to an area of such size and potential as to be almost limitless in scope. Now the paths leading up the Drakensberg passes which we as hikers are so familiar with make sense, and when I see the paths continuing and disappearing into the Lesotho interior, I want to follow them, to experience more of the tranquil, friendly, peaceful and welcoming village life that I know is not far away. A Drakensberg high traverse now seems to be like hiking against the natural flow of the mountains instead of with it, and conversely a hike over the Drakensberg escarpment into the Lesotho interior and back, makes absolute sense.

I am now increasingly frustrated when I overhear the general talk amongst South African hikers of Lesotho and the Basotho, much of it based on ignorance and suspicion, and dare I say it, plain old fashioned prejudice.

Philip Grant 2010

In response to an obvious interest from overseas visitors, I set up my own Southern Secrets Cross Border Cultural Hike (or Cross-Cultural Hike) in 2008, involving a night or nights in a wilderness cave with a night or nights in a Basotho Village across the border. The response has been very good, to the point that about half my own trips are Cross-Cultural hikes.

I would like to share my knowledge and experiences with South African hikers, as I know how it can increase the appreciation of the potential of our mountain surroundings. To this end I am putting together a three day (two night) version of my Cross-Cultural Hike for interested members from the Mountain Backpackers Club and the Midlands Hiking Club.

The hike would be;

· Day 1: Hike to the village over the Drakensberg (18kms 950m ascent and 300m descent, approximately 8hrs)

· Day 2: All day to experience a day in the life of a Basotho Village. There would be a guided walk around the village and the optional extra of pony riding.

· Day 3: Hike back on the third day by a different route (16kms 650m descent, approximately 7hrs).

The only costs would be the two nights in the village (currently R160.00 per person per night dinner bed and breakfast = R320.00, and tip for our village guide split between the participants). Additional costs would only be for optional extras such as pony trekking from the village and beers from the local shop! Numbers would be limited to six at a time. Packs would be light as we would only have to carry three lunches, personal clothing, warm and wet weather gear and a sleeping bag. VALID PASSPORTS ARE ESSENTIAL as is an open, enquiring mind and a sense of fun and adventure!

If anyone is interested in such a hiking experience, please phone me to discuss – based on the response, I will set a date. I reserve the right to telephonically interview all prospective participants.

Useful contacts

Philip Grant

Southern Secrets Hiking and Backpacking 033 9971817 Cell 0824179163

www.southernsecrets.co.za

www.drakensbergadventures.co.za

Recommended reading

‘Shepherd Boy of the Maloti’ by Thabo Makoa

Morija Museum and Archives

ISBN 99911-632-3-9