Sani Pass - Durban

Leaving to Maseru straight after school on Wednesday, waiting 45 min for the combi to move from Mohale’s Hoek as the bus took so long to fill up. Reaching Maseru in the dark, Catherine and me were relieved we have trustworthy friends to pick us up and get us to safety…

The next morning we meet our driver for the trip – Teboho – that managed to squeeze 7 of us and all our luggage into his 4X4 drive heading for Sani Pass and Durban. Yehaaa…the sea, here we come!

We drove through the Northern districts of Lesotho, Leribe and Bhuta Bhute on our way to the Sani Pass top nearly 3000m high. Beautiful little roundavel villages, breathtaking views and high raised mountains. We fitted in some altitude training on the highest point, running up the last hill, the muscles completely seizing up and very little air passing down to the lungs. We reached destination around 6 pm in a thick mist, nearly missing the sign for our mountain chalet.

Met some fellow Norwegians on the top. Somehow I was not surprised. Mountain chalet, cold and misty, rough and rugged… Lovely inside though, around the wood fire, and dinner and breakfast was deliciously homemade.

Driving down Sani Pass was an experience in itself. A steep, winding, zigzag gravel road nearly 2000m down. Glad the mist hadn’t disappeared in the morning. The road was too tough for our car in places, so we walked parts of it. I loved it… felt like the mountains at home. Same fresh air, light breeze and smell of mountain herbs. We saw little waterfalls, rivers, birds and plants. .. want to go there again!

Reaching the bottom we had a 2 hour drive to reach Durban, and we managed to squeeze in a puncture on the way. On the motorway that is, not on the dirty gravel roads! Good Teboho knew what he was doing.

We stayed at Banana Backpackers in Durban, a great, friendly hostel where we stayed for four days. The staff took us out to a local mixed bar after we had a lovely SEAFOOD meal by the beach! (ohh… been longing for that for ages…) We were pleased to find much less race issues in Durban than other places in South Africa (Bloemfontein). We met a lot of interesting people from different Southern African tribes; Qosas, Sothos, Zulus… starting to understand the differences.

Other great things to say about Durban… Great mix of people, rough and pulsating, great beaches, GREAT seafood, great shopping. Literally we had a GREAT time there! Wanna go back! Just the holiday we needed!



Hope your Easter was good!