Archive For September 5, 2026

Dee from Gqeberha, or Port Elizabeth as it used to be, was banging out rock classics on a genuine vintage Les Paul to a receptive, and fairly well-oiled audience.  It was past closing time but he was enjoying the fun as much as we were so, keeping him fueled with Maluti premium lager ‘Pride of Lesotho’ and plenty of tips in his plastic cup, the songs kept coming.  We had arrived at Afriski late, catching the end of a very good Scotland, Springboks rugby match before dinner.  However, we almost didn’t make it at all….

The main access to Afriski is by the A1 highway which has 91 bends including 11 ‘extreme harpin bends, two full horseshoes and a further 16 bends in excess of 90°’.  It’s the major highway across the northern part of Lesotho, now tarmac’d by the Chinese, but still very steep and twisty.  All went smoothly for us on the A1 until we came to a long, but entertaining halt on one of the sharpest and steepest hairpins leading up to the Moteng Pass.  A heavily laden Mercedes coal truck had ground to a halt on the apex of the bend.  Chaos.  When we finally arrived at Afriski and explained why we were so late the reply was ‘coal trucks from the Letseng mine, happens all the time’.  The problem had been solved by one of the mine’s huge dumper trucks hauling the Mercedes out of the way as if it were a toy!

Since the closing of Oukaimeden in Morocco and Tiffindell in South Africa, the only operating ski resort in the whole continent of Africa is Afriski in Lesotho.  Snow-crazy South Africans drive six hours from Johannesberg, or fly from even further Cape Town, to ski a short ribbon of artificial snow cutting though the yellow grass and brown rock of the Lesotho winter mountains.  Our journey to Lesotho was even longer, but was absolutely worth it, and we enjoyed one of the best day’s ‘resort’ skiing ever…..