Friday 25 May 2012

Art, R&R, and Culture in Clarens And Lesotho!





In my last entry I mentioned Clarens (Martini Class 101 reference). April 26th Peter’s mother Irene booked a trip to Clarens to celebrate our birthdays, which turned out to be a very nice gift indeed. Clarens is a small town, almost a village, who’s industry seems to centre around people looking for quiet weekends away from the neighboring cities of Durban and Johannesburg. It is very close to Lesotho (pronounced Lesootoo), which is a mountain kingdom (country in it’s own right) landlocked within South Africa’s borders.
Clarens is nestled in the foothills of a South African mountain range called the Maluti Mountains. Beautiful country, high altitude, with stunning views every way you look. The main part of town is centered around a square, with galleries, restaurants, pubs, and shops all facing the large grass expanse than sometimes hosts flea markets and events. Although the pubs and restaurants all have different atmospheres, they all seem to have similar Afrikaans fare with lots of meat (Oxtail, Pork Neck, Steaks) and a few oddly placed Indian dishes – odd because there doesn’t seem to be an Indian population in the area. The galleries have amazing paintings, ceramics, and some interesting African crafts. Overall it’s a very quaint little town and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Our B&B was lovely, located at the bottom of Clarens on a quiet street. The B&B owner Delyse, or Dee, was very attentive and friendly, and the breakfast was great every day (she warmed the plates which is a small detail but one that I appreciate to no end).  The view from the B&B actually looked like a backdrop at certain times of day - it was stunning and could be enjoyed from a large well kept garden with a glass of complimentary sherry.
Peter and Irene at our B&B in Clarens.  No, it's not a backdrop, it's the real thing!
A highlight of the trip was going across the boarders to Lesotho – such a great place to visit. I thought South Africa was Africa, until I went to Lesotho (in the best sense). We decided to play it safe and ensure we’d see everything we wanted with minimal hassle and booked a tour with Oliver Esplin (Ollie), the owner of ClarensXtreme. Such a good idea. Ollie was a fountain of knowledge on Lesotho culture, customs and roads, meaning we didn’t have to worry about where to go, or how to get there AND had pleasant, informative stories to accompany our journey.
The boarder crossing into Lesotho
The day started with being collected from our B&B. We drove the short 20mins to the Ha Belo boarder crossing (I think – sorry if I got any of the names wrong here…), a relaxed boarder where we had to show our passport to the boarder guards of both countries, each sitting a short drive from each other, across a small river. Relatively easy and quick. We then drove through the western most part of the country on winding country roads (paved and pretty exceptional with one or two potholes), slowly going up in altitude.
We made our way to Liphofung Historical Site where you can see 5000 yr old Bushman Cave Drawings and learn a bit about the Lesotho history. Our guide, Mashoeshoe (also the name of the most famous Lesotho king who went to London to visit Queen Victoria but never got to see her – long story…) was very quiet and seemed a bit shy but was full of knowledge and had a good working relationship with Ollie. The drawings were done 5000 years ago by Sangoma, or traditional spiritual healers and depict their spiritual journeys, journeys accessed through the ritual hunting of an Eland (type of large Antelope about the size of a moose) in order to divine the answers to important questions from locals or whole villages. Very interesting information about the history of the people and the area as a historical site. It was also a very pretty hike down into the small valley containing the overhanging cliff where the drawings were found. This is another item I studied during my art history education that I can happily tick off as ‘Seen in Person’.

Our guide Mashoeshoe at the Bushman Cave Drawings Site

Rinkhal snake is just to the right of the black pole...

On the way up from the caves we saw a baby snake cross the path and hide in a concrete block just off the side of where we had to walk by. Ollie wanted to see what kind it was, so he moved the block (with a stick). We found out it was a Rinkhal, one of the only true spitting snakes in the world, and a relative of the Cobra, though not in a type of Cobra, and also about a meter long, so not a baby. Pretty poisonous but very non-aggressive. When we tried to get a better look it hissed, spread it’s head thingies and high-tailed it away from us. Cool but also a bit unnerving, as we would have been directly in it’s path had we been 5 steps further up the path.
It makes me look young, right?
After this exciting encounter I’ll admit that it was hard to focus on the historical talk Mashoeshoe gave, but it was very interesting and I think everyone perked up when I asked about the marriage customs of the Lesotho (hey a girl has to know!). We went into a traditional hut where we learned more about the day to day customs. Pete was pretty intrigued as the Lesotho can often have 3 wives depending on finances. I was intrigued by the traditional head gear and got to try on the skirt a Lesotho girl under the age of 16 (so close!) would wear before marriage.
Most of the Lesotho are sheep, goat, and cattle herders with wealth increasing with the size and numbers of the animals. They wear traditional blankets, a garment that is earned and highly respected, with type of bottoms dependent on where you are in life. It is interesting to note that the Lesotho are a people with a lot of honor and pride. They are different from many Southern Africans in that they do not want to bring shame on their families – as a result the crime rates in Lesotho are minimal compared to any country, and non-existent compared to South Africa.

The scenery of Lesotho was amazing and the small city Butha-Buthe, pronounced 'Boota Boota' was what I can only describe as very African. It was more like the small African towns you see in the movies (shoddy stalls with music blaring, buildings constructed with corrugated steel, older concrete buildings all mixed together in a visually stimulating collage and peppered with lots of people). Never thought major companies like Vodafone would consent to stores made out of a bit of steel, rebar and plywood but if it works why not… Actually Pete tells me these might not be ‘authorized dealers’.
We had one last stop before leaving Lesotho and pulled over at a gas station. I’ll admit I was a little nervous because you could say we sort of stood out. But the people didn’t stare or seem intimidating. We stopped for a very good reason – Vetkoeks, pronounced 'FetCooks'. These are wonderful deep fried dough balls that went down a treat after trekking through a bit of Lesotho. What a great experience.
After getting back we had one more night to enjoy the town. Although we were pretty tired we decided to go out for a nice dinner at Hotel d’Or, which was great, including the interesting martini interpretation (anything for a good anecdote eh?).

All in all a fantastic trip. A big thanks to Pete’s Mother and Yiayia for showing us an arty, laid back part of South Africa. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, potholes and all.

xx
Cool old car
Cat that Peter fell in love with. It was reciprocated!

Another amazing view in Clarens
A female spiral aloe plant-girls spiral counter clockwise
Ice cream and espresso.  Yummy!




2 comments:

  1. looks like you are having a wonderful, I enjoy looking at your photos!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So beautiful! South Africa keeps growing and growing oh so much and glad they're getting tourists!
    Clarens free state

    ReplyDelete