Malealea/Bethlehem, South Africa, Day 50-The access road to Malealea is the worst we’ve driven without 4 wheel drive. Pete had an interesting conversation with Moke (Mo-key) about why it isn’t improved. Moke grew up in a small village in Lesotho. He and his family are back visiting from Ireland where they now live. His theory is that if the road were anymore passable, people would start buying up the surrounding land for development. So the lodge and local villages keep things just the way they are with their road. Anyway we creeped slowly out the 12 km or so to the main highway, where there was almost no traffic and the road superb. No potholes, whoo hoo!

One of the things we read about and noticed was the lack of fences in the Lesotho countryside. The free ranging herds and herders were everywhere. The Basotho herders do seem to keep their animals out of areas under cultivation, but it would be very interesting to know how they proportion the use of the land.

So, now we are back in South Africa where we can tear along at 120 km/h. It was only a couple hours to Bethlehem from the Lesotho border, the first of three towns on our way to Kruger National Park for three days of safari. Can’t wait, we are both very excited to see animals in their natural habitat. Still a bit puny…. tried a small dinner last night. That didn’t turn out well. We are staying at Times Square guesthouse, which is an absolute delight. The first thing on the agenda was a shower. Ahhhh, clean hair…. our hostess Zandra was so warm and welcoming. She asked what we wanted for breakfast. When I told her just some bread, because of my problem, she made me a big pot of African tea. It is actually settling things down.

More gorgeous countryside during our drive today.