I
’ve never really been a horsey type.
I prefer my transport to respond
predictably and promptly. Stop
means stop and go means go, sort of
thing. Left is left and right is right.
No kicking you in the face as you load the
groceries.
“But dad,” whined Mia, my typically
angelic, nine-year-old daughter, “I don’t want
to go hiking again. I’d rather ride.” I was
online, searching for a family holiday and,
as usual, the internet had led me to a list ofslackpacking trails. It’s what we do as
a family. We hike.
But my daughter stamped her feet and
moaned about blisters, while my son Sam
just glared. So I made a compromise, which
is how, two weeks later, we found ourselves
in the charming little town of Underberg in
the Southern Drakensberg of KwaZulu-Natal,
from where we would set off on a four-day
expedition into Lesotho.
“You can ride or walk. Or you can do
a bit of both. It’s up to you,” said Steve Black,owner of Khotso Lodge and Horse Trails, as
we saddled up our Basotho ponies close to the
entrance to the Maloti-Drakensberg Park. The
giant transboundary park and Unesco World
Heritage Site is made up of the uKhahlamba
Drakensberg National Park in South Africa,
and the Sehlathebe National Park in Lesotho.
I was to ride a mare named Mzanzi while
the rest of the family was assigned to Ranger,
Bruce and Kuduzela. Charles Molatelle,
a horsey type from Lesotho, was perched on his
own steed and looked every bit the competentOPPOSITE: Fresh mountain air and unrestricted freedom to ride where you wish on the Khotso horse trail into Lesotho. ABOVE: Khotso Farm near Underberg is situated
beneath the sculpted Drakensberg peaks. BELOW: A family affair: enjoying the vast open spaces of the Lesotho Mountain Kingdom.