Day 3-065
6 hrs, 15 .9
Day Totals: 16 hrs, 30.9 kms

There's somethings a bit troubling about this valley. I notice there's no traffic on the dirt road here. Just an occasional old lady walking past. And, although there is flat land suitable for farming, all around there are gorges where streams are eating away at the farmland and turning it into canyons. I would think something could be done to protect the farmland.

Later I learn that much of Lesotho's arable land lies fallow because so many men are off working in South Africa.

I also observe the many herdsmen throughout the valley, each with his 5-7 head of cattle. It just seems like a very inefficient use of man power. I mean, why couldn't one guy herd like 50 cows and the other guys do something more productive?

Lesotho feels so much more charming and "African" than South Africa... but when you take a closer look and start doing the math, it's clear that the herding/farming methods simply are not sustainable .

I continue on until I reach a larger village where I pass a boy, maybe 4 years old heading home from school all by himself... Soon crowds of children follow, kicking a makeshift ball made of plastic bags tied by a string...

My theory is that if I follow the base of the mountain eventually I'll get back to Morija. But as the hours stretch on, I wonder if I'll end up walking up to the guesthouse in the darkness again...

I pass a young couple who stop to greet me. He's carrying a big fish.

"Where'd you get that from?" I ask. Certainly haven't seen any big river in these parts.

"From the reservoir"

Nice to see another local food source other than corn and cattle...

I finally reach the sprawling town of Morija . No place to buy supper, just a makeshift shop where the best thing I can find is bread and sardines...

The Morija Museum

It's ironic that now that I've discovered my 2nd favorite African country, a country that I'd just like to hike from one end to the other, I'm leaving after just 3 days. But if I don't I risk getting stuck in South Africa on a holiday weekend... and I do still have one more country to visit.

So the next morning, I reluctantly head down the hill to catch a minibus to Maseru. Turns out the Morija Museum is already opened, so I gladly take a visit inside.

Inside is a display about dinosaurs (and the footprints I observed yesterday). It also has a poster gently encouraging people to not take the Genesis 6 day creation story literally...

The fellow who runs the museum, Stephen Gill, is one of the most fascinating people I've met on this trip . Like the guesthouse owner, and another artist I met earlier, he moved here to Morija decades ago and made it his home. But he took it to another level: He actually gave up his American citizen to become a citizen of Lesotho.

Yep. That means when he wants to go to the US (or just about anywhere else) he has to apply for a tourist visa and "prove" that he's not going to try to immigrate there illegally...

That's what I call "burning your bridges"!

The thing is Lesotho is a country consisting mainly of one tribe... so do people accept him as a "Basotho?"

"Some people do... some people never will... but it's OK. I get along fine here."

Now he's dedicated his life to creating an archive of books and information on Lesotho, also in this museum. His wife is from Zimbabwe and his daughter is now studying in South Africa .

"I expect to spend the rest of my life here..." he tells me.

I suddenly get a flashback to the "other life" I could have lived. I remember there was a time when I wanted to dedicate my life to one region: working with the indigenous tribes of Northwest Mexico. I also considered giving up my US citizenship to become a Mexican. I didn't follow through with this plan, and I feel a real admiration for this guy who did. And he seems like a happy, well-balanced fellow who has something substantial to show for his life of service to Lesotho.

Would I have been happy if I had chosen that "stay in one place life?" I think I could've been. But now that I've got this itch for exploring the world in its totality, I would have a real hard time going back to that life...