Day 3-065
2 hrs, 5 kms

Finally it's time to reconnect with the present day . I have a country to discover. I was told that I can follow a mule path up the cliff to the top of the plateau, so that's where I'm headed. On my way up I pass a couple of folks hiking down. It looks like they do this on a regular basis.

I follow a narrow gorge, wind through some cool round rock formations and then...

It feels like I've entered another world. At the top is a vast rolling, treeless plain. Lush green grass. A little village with a couple of guys putting a thatch roof on a round hut. No paved roads, no electric lines... This is life in the Lesotho highlands.

All across the plateau I see activity. Guys wrapped in blankets tending to their small herds. I pass one and he asks me if I have any food... unfotunately I don't...

It's amazing what a climb up a cliff on a mule path can do. This feels like a completely different country from Morija valley below . Here life is very hard and very basic. No protection from the cold and the heat. And water? We're on the top of a plateau remember.

I could just keep walking and walking across this plateau forever it seems. But I know I'm not equipped for this type of adventure. Right now I'm just getting a taste of this world... And it's completely changed the way I look at Lesotho.

After walking a ways, I start to veer south. It's not long and suddenly the landscape opens up in front of me. A long valley stretching of to the horizon lined with cliffs all the way. Villages scattered all over it.

I've discovered a new civilization. It's completely different from going somewhere by following a map, a road, or someone giving you directions. I just walked through an vast empty landscape and... suddenly, civilization! It's an unforgettable experience. I know I have to go down and explore this valley.

Getting down is a challenge. There are some serious cliffs to negotiate and although there are goat trails crisscrossing, I don't see a clear trail that leads me down. I try one direction, then the other... I try following a dry streambed, but find myself stuck at the top of a ledge... I head back uphill to a couple of houses and goat pens on the steep mountainside. Surely folks here have a way of getting down to the valley...

Finally I find a way down, and my plateau adventure comes to an end.