Greetings from the Kingdom of Lesotho!

Well, we made our way to Lesotho via Beaufort-West, which is in the middle of the Karoo. It was very hot but luckily we got to stay in a lovely little house that was thatched and because the curtains weren't up yet we got a 25% discount! Bonus! I loved it there and I do have some pictures though once again I can't upload them yet. We did, however, have no electricity for the night because it fused somewhere, so we had to go cook in one of the other houses! Lol! Luckily the problem was resolved the next morning so we could still have a hot shower in the morning! From there we went to meet a good friend of ours, the Champion, in Douglas. This is where two very large rivers of South Africa meet: the Vaal and the Orange River. So here you - all of a sudden - have a lot of farming activity in the middle of the Karoo! Lots of Vineyards too! We stayed with Maree (aka: the Champion) on the farm where he is staying. The people there were so nice to take us in! Thank you!

The next morning we got up very early and went to Kimberly where I saw the big diamond hole for the first time (it's massive!). I've been through Kimberly several times but had never really seen the infamous "BIG HOLE". They dug out so much dirt (thousands of tons!) and left a huge hole only to dig up less than 3000kgs of diamonds (though I have to admit, getting so many diamonds was really amazing)! It's amazing to see though.... We only stayed in Kimberly for a short while and immediately went on to Ladybrand, which is a town just 15kms from the Lesotho Border. We stayed in not such a nice place, but hey, it was a roof above our heads! We went to the tourist information office there and found a very enthusiastic man there, trying to promote tourism in Lesotho! I tell you, after being back here for 3 days now, I totally agree!

We arrived in Maseru (capital of Lesotho) on Friday and were confronted with enormous change: almost 15 years after we'd left, there was a new bridge crossing the river in to the country (there used to be a narrow bridge where the train and cars had to go over!) and then several new tar roads! It’s amazing! Because of the riots in 1998, several buildings had been destroyed and in their place several new once have risen...we have been staying for the last 3 days in Roma (about 25kms outside Maseru). On Saturday we went to the Blue Mountains where I used to go very often with my father and sister for a weekend. Yesterday we met up with Gerard (a very old friend of ours.... we even stayed with him for a couple of years) and because of all the changes I wasn't sure on how to get there anymore! How terrible is that???? Lol! Mum: you'll be glad to hear that part of that road is now tarred!

Gerard is very busy with several projects. He showed us the locations of two of them. One was a center for people to come and study and learn in lovely quiet surroundings. This is a building set up on a mountain/hill (depending what country you're from!!!!) where you can look over the whole of Maseru. Gerard is a Genius! He’s always using natural ways to produce electricity. His house is like a technology museum.... he has a borehole where he pumps the water from energy produced from solar panels, and has under-floor heating by using solar panels too.... etc….and he uses the same technology in the buildings of his projects.

Another project I went to see is a project which intends to support HIV/AIDS infected people which are too sick to be looked after at home, to help them get better enough to then send them home again if possible. This center hasn't opened yet because funds still need to be raised to finish parts of the project. The lovely thing about this project is that it's totally sustainable since it's got it's animals (pigs, cows, ducks, geese, chickens) and a lot of space for agricultural activities to produce it's own food (to use, sell for some income and also to teach people in the area how to grow enough food for themselves). Sorry Gerard if I haven't explained the project well enough...I’m trying to type quickly now because my time is running out and this keyboard is very temperamental!

Well, now I’m off to the Katse Dam. This is one of the three dams – and the largest of the three – of the water project in Lesotho. Lesotho sells its water to Johannesburg and this way intends to generate money though the investment is tremendous. Another nice fact is that Lesotho has the “highest lowest point” in the world (I guess you need to think about that carefully to make sense of it!). I’ve been enjoying a trip down memory lane herein Lesotho, including going to old houses (which have changed a lot) and visiting places we haven’t seen for a long time! People: come to Lesotho! It’s gorgeous!

I hope all you people are great… will write emails this weekend because then I have access to the Internet for free! Take care all you lovely people! Miss ya all! Hugs.XHXHXHX