Africa Beautiful Africa 14 - by @mambaman

Hiking up to the highest point in Southern Africa, Thabana Ntlenyana 3482 m above sea level in Lesotho.

We did this as a three day hike.

1st Day - We (my daughter and I) got dropped off at the South African border post at the bottom of Sani Pass.

We hiked the 8km pass in freezing conditions. Visibility was poor with thick mist. The waterfalls were frozen solid.

That night we stayed at the Sani Pass Chalets. The mist was so thick that when we went through the Lesotho Border Post, we asked for directions to the Sani Top Chalets - the official working there looked at us strangely and pointed across the road - the entrance to the Chalets was clearly marked with a huge sign across the road from the border post! But we had not seen it because of the mist.

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful clear day. We had hired a local guide to take us to Thabana Ntlenyana. A good long day walk there and back from the Sani Top Chalets. We paid an extra fee to be dropped off and picked up 5km closer to Thabana Ntlenyana.

The hike was wonderful as we hiked up never ending mountains through the snow and eventually made it to the highest point in Southern Africa. It was beautiful, the views, the air, the feeling.

The guide picked up a stone and gave us a marking pen to write our names on - we declined - but there were many stones with names on from other people whom he had guided up there.

That night we stayed in the Back Packers Lodge and met other hikers who had also summit-ed Thabana Ntlenyana, they were rather surprised that we had got back as early as we did. It had taken them a lot longer. They did not take a guide. By chance we exchanged photos and to our shock we discovered that we had not summit-ed Thabana Ntlenyana but the guide had taken us to another peak. We worked out on a map that it was about 5km before the real Thabana Ntlenyana !!!

The next morning the guide was nowhere to be found and as we had to be back at the South African border post early for our collection, we could stay to resolve the problem.

We hiked back down Sani Pass

So we still need to go back and hike to the highest point in Southern Africa.