Detour #332: The Road to Semonkong, Lesotho

Photo Bresmedia

Offering a twisting alpine-like road with an awe-inspiring waterfall at journey’s end, Lesotho’s A5 is one of Africa’s most exciting – if unsung – drives.

The Sani Pass is justly famous as a driving challenge, but if you’re entering Lesotho from the west, rather than the east, the road to Semonkong also has much to offer, including a destination that’s as magical as the drive.

But that’s later, first I have to negotiate Lesotho’s capital Maseru in the morning rush hour, following what is perhaps the easiest border crossing with a car in Africa (just eight minutes!), and then deal with the shock of being in real Africa after the almost European roads of South Africa’s Free State. It’s the usual sort of thing, chaos but fun, with the added element of drivers using both lanes of a dual carriageway to beat the jams, which, of course, just causes more congestion.

The traffic soon starts to thin, though, as I head south-east along the A2, and then along the A5 from Roma. For many years this was an unpaved road, but now there’s tarmac all the way to Semonkong. Rest assured that this is still very much an adventure, though, as the passage of the road is dictated by the geography, and Lesotho has a lot of geography – it’s the only country in the world that is wholly above 1,000 metres, for a start.

Because of this the road has a distinctly alpine feel in parts as it crosses the Thaba Putsoa mountains, and there are a couple of passes to negotiate – Nkesi’s Pass the high point at 2,000m – and some pretty steep climbs. But it’s a fun and rewarding drive, especially as there’s very little in the way of other cars or trucks.

There are delightful villages of thatched rondavels studded to the hillsides for much of the way, but there are no real stops on this route, just stunning scenery. There is also an intriguing geographical – or anatomical – feature around 18km from Roma: Thabana-li-Mele (translated as ‘hills with nipples’).

From Maseru it takes around two and half hours to travel the 113km to Semonkong, with the last 20 or so kilometres over areas of eerily desolate plateau land, where it honestly feels like driving across the roof of the world. It’s hauntingly beautiful, but not the place for a puncture, so concentration is required – while the road is in pretty good condition there are some potholes and errant small rocks that need to be avoided, as well as the odd flock of sheep and, on my journey, an overturned minibus.

Semonkong itself is a remote place, but you certainly could not call it a one-horse town, as ponies are the main form of transport here, I notice as I take the turn off the A5 to a sort of main street that’s largely made up of corrugated steel shops. These sell everything from sim cards to plastic bowls, and also the must-have climate-driven fashion items of balaclavas, traditional conical hats and wellies.

But I haven’t come here for wellies, and the roughish track down to Semonkong Lodge brings me to the jumping off point for the hike to Maletsunyane Falls. I had read, in one of those ‘I’ve been to every country in the world and this …’ clickbait posts that this was one of the last unspoilt attractions, and so I ask for directions and set out to trek across the amazing terrain, sucking in the thin air and rejoicing in the big sky vistas as people wrapped in blankets and riding ponies point me in the right direction.

There are a few streams to ford, and one that is bypassed by actually going around the spring that formed it – it’s enchanting to stumble upon the bubbling birth of a river – but within an hour and a quarter of hiking I’m there.

At 192m the falls are the highest in southern Africa, and they are truly breathtaking, an awesome sight, all the more enjoyable as there’s not another soul around. But sadly, there is a visitor centre now – thankfully set quite far back from the falls – and you can even drive there it seems, which somehow robs my adventure of its purity, a little.

That said, as I sip Maluti beer at the lodge later, with the sound of cowbells and the smell of woodsmoke filling the air, I reflect that driving the road to Semonkong is surely adventure enough anyway.

Words & Photography Mike Breslin

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ROADBOOK

CLASS: African Adventure

NAME: THe road to semonkong

ROUTE: Maseru to Semonkong Falls

COUNTRY: LEsotho

Distance: 78 Miles

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