Chasing cloud shadows

If you haven't explored Lesotho yet, now is the time. It's accessible, the roads are good and the scenery is like nowhere else on earth. We joined a nine-day tour and vanished into the mountains.

- WILLEM VAN DER BERG

When you drive through the Sani border post and look up to where the peaks of the Drakensberg disappear into the clouds, your stomach does a flip. You know the climb up uKhahlamba - "the barrier of spears" - won't be easy.

A sea of serious faces looks back at me from our convoy of 12 vehicles. Here at the front, with guides Philip and Elrita Rawlins from Motsamai Tours, the atmosphere is a little less stressed. They've gone up Sani Pass many times. That's why 23 people met up at Resthaven Guesthouse in Matatiele last night, and why they're now following the silver Motsamai Prado. Over the next eight days, the Rawlinses will show us their favourite places in Lesotho.

It's March; late summer. Silver waterfalls stream down green slopes. We crawl our way up, bumping over washed-out sections, and eventually we all make it to the top, where we gather in "the highest pub in Africa" at Sani Mountain Escape.

The rest of the afternoon, our group explores the tar roads in the highest parts of Lesotho - along the Kotisephola (3 245 m), Menoaneng (3 080 m), Khalo La Lithunya (3 246 m) and Tlaeng (3 251 m) passes. The clouds are heavy. As they float over the vehicles, they leave a shiny layer of raindrops behind. A double rainbow spans the sky. Plumes of smoke twirl from shepherds' huts: ribbons of grey suspended between heaven and earth. Lesotho looks like an oil painting.

Our overnight stop is Oxbow Lodge, next to the Malibamatso River. The lodge is surrounded by mountain peaks: Marete, Ts'akholo, Nt'supe, Ramashala and Thaba-Chitja. Five of the hundreds you'll find in this tiny country. The air is thin and cold. Lesotho will take your breath away.

Peace, rain, prosperity