Life2 on-tour

21/06/2025

The Kingdom in the Sky - that’s what Lesotho is known as, and with good reason.

It has the highest lowest point of any country in the world. The whole country is above 1,400 metres.

Over 80% of the country lies above 1800 metres and it’s the highest country in Africa.

It is the southernmost landlocked country in the world and is the largest of the world’s three independent states completely surrounded by the territory of another country (Vatican City and San Marino are the other two).

The Orange and Tugela rivers, two of Southern Africa’s largest, originate in Lesotho’s Maloti Mountains.

Lesotho has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, with 85% of adults able to read and write. This is one of our favourite facts about Lesotho because almost half the country live below the poverty line, with around 47% of the population without access to electricity and 28% lacking access to basic drinking water, yet 85% of adults can read and write. That’s amazing.

We absolutely love Lesotho and its people. This country really has got under our skin.

We rode up to the Sky restaurant at the Afriski Mountain Resort, the highest restaurant in Africa for lunch. Not much snow lying yet but it was due within the fortnight! The roads were clear but icicles and black ice clung to the rocks in the shadows lining the road. A most beautiful ride.

19/06/2025

The following day the snow had gone so we left Semonkong and set off towards the west of the country.

However, the first pass we climbed was still covered with snow from the day before.

There was a set of tyre tracks that appeared to show tarmac so we tried to stay in those.

Interesting ride… !! ❄️

18/06/2025

It does snow in Africa!

After the fabulous donkey pub crawl, we woke the following morning to snow! Like a couple of kids in a sweet shop, we rushed outside with the cameras. Finally, we had a winter (Antarctica doesn’t count 😂).

We don’t need much persuasion sometimes - we booked another night! 😂 😂

16/06/2025

Anyone heard of a donkey pub crawl?? No, us neither. 😂 But in Semonkong it is a thing. Well, for us daft tourists it is anyway!

We had booked this the day before and in the afternoon Nthethe and Khoale duly arrived with two donkeys all saddled up and ready. So off we set.

We did feel a tad silly but it was such a hoot. As we ‘paraded’ through the high street of tin shack shops everyone waved and laughed. The children looked confused as to why we, tourists, were riding donkeys, especially ones with saddles (they all ride bare-back from as soon as they can walk) but everyone smiled and waved and shouted encouragement.

We called by the post office as I had a postcard to post and the security guard there could not stop laughing. He was sitting on a chair outside when we left and he almost fell off it. Proper belly laughs. It was so funny.

We arrived at pub no. 1 and it appeared to be shut but no problem, the guys just battered on the door and shouted around the back and the landlord appeared and opened up. No sooner had he done so guys turned up from nowhere and the place got busy. We watched while they played pool and then it was back onto our steeds and into the next pub.

Here Carl put his coin on the pool table (they play winner stays on) and had his turn against who was clearly this pub’s champion. It wasn’t a long game… 😂. We also surprised the landlord here by buying him a drink. It had never happened before and so we explained the custom we have in the UK of ‘putting one in the wood’ for the landlord/barman. He likes that idea! Haha.

The third pub had yet another pool table and also a wood burner in the middle of the room.

Three drinks was enough for us and so it was time to head back. What a brilliant afternoon and so many laughs. Nthethe and Khoale Looked after us well and we had a lot of fun.

We asked at the hotel who on earth came up with the idea of a donkey pub crawl and the answer was no surprise. A group were staying at the hotel several years ago and the hotel asked them what activities they could put on for tourists to do. No surprise then that the group were students! 😜

14/06/2025

Episode 86 is out folks.

This one was a toughie and I was just finishing the editing of it when our YouTube channel was taken down.

That, on top of editing this was pretty hard, but you always get through things in the end.

Give it a thumbs up on YouTube and leave a comment if you can. Thank you. 😊

We had another devastating bereavement just ten days before Christmas. At times this trip is incredibly difficult. https://www.sam-manicom.comIce 2 Fire is t...

13/06/2025

We decided to stay in Semonkong for a few days. The road in was, let’s say, interesting but we got down the hill. 😂

We had a lovely room, with a fireplace as the evenings were cold. The electricity went off every night at 10pm and came back on again around 8am. We had a candle for use in the dark. We liked it as the lights went out and we thought “oh, right. Bed time!” 🥱 😂 A good time keeper.

The first day was a trek across the mountains to the waterfall. We could have just ridden round and up to a visitor centre but where’s the fun in that? We took the two hour trek across the mountains.

As we rounded the first hilltop two girls came running down from where their families were getting the crops in by hand and separating the chaff from the grain.

The first thing they said was “take our picture”. They wanted their photo taken so that they could see themselves on the back of the camera. They were all giggles but they wanted to be filmed as well, so we conducted a little ‘interview’ on camera. They loved having their photos taken and were great fun. We chatted for a while. They couldn’t understand why we were walking to the waterfall when we could have taken a horse but I guess when you walk everywhere every day the idea of going for a walk isn’t that appealing! 😂 A beautiful encounter.

As we walked across the mountains we passed herdsmen with their cattle and sheep. The cattle nearly all wore cowbells and the ringing across the hills was so musical. It was lovely. Up close it was really loud.

The waterfall was beautiful and we sat and had our packed lunch sitting on a rock on the edge of the mountain.

On our return we had a drink in the bar, where we left our adornment, and a lovely meal in the restaurant.

We were now really looking forward to our ‘activity’ the next day…

11/06/2025

WE’RE BACK!!!

YouTube realised the error of their ways and our channel has been reinstated. We still have no idea why or what triggered their AI algorithms.

Anyway, we’re back and this was where you all got to, episode 85.

In the 11 day silence I’ve been creating the next videos and they will be shared in due course.

Happy viewing! Can’t tell you how relieved we are! 😊

We would like the channel "re-birth" to bounce back with renewed vigour and ask you ALL to like, subscribe and leave a comment - if only to say its good to be back. Obviously, we would want you to like, subscribe and comment on ALL the videos but even if you only do it to next one you watch, that will give us a boost.

Subscribing costs you nothing but helps us grow! :-)

We rode up the famous Caracoles on our way to Santiago, where we met new friends, old friends, did a wine tour and saw some trains. A fabulous time and mini ...

10/06/2025

Lesotho - wow!!

These are our impressions from our second day of travel, taken from our notes with an added follow up -

Such friendly people. Constantly waving. Children’s faces light up when they see us.

They really did. This country is on another level of friendliness. We spent most of the time riding one handed and waving!! 👋

They live spread out so almost constant housing. Communities are spaced rather than living close together. This is in stark contrast to South Africa.

People walking everywhere but where from/to?

There are not many vehicles and so obviously everyone walks everywhere. But where are they going and where have they come from? Quite smartly dressed, they stride along the road but very often this is in the middle of nowhere!

The landscape is to die for. This place is beautiful, it really is.

By the time we reached Semonkong we really were in process overload with everything.

07/06/2025

Border crossing day. We were off to Lesotho. 🇱🇸

We don’t tend to go too far after a border just in case we run out of daylight if the border proves complicated, but this was the easiest so far out of 26 borders!

No need to show the carnet for the bikes as Lesotho is an enclave and we were just stamped out of South Africa and into Lesotho within about 10 minutes! Woo hoo. 🙌

We stayed in Alwyns Kop at a guesthouse run by the owners of the village trading post, fuel station and liquor store. We decided to eat at the local ‘fast food’ takeaway each night, supporting the locals and put money into the community. Well, it said fast food on the handwritten sign outside, and it was; as long as you ordered it about three hours in advance… 😂 Chicken, vegetables and pap; pap being made from maize meal and cut into slices. It’s plain but is tasty with salt and pepper.

We also met Francis, a local chap who stopped us and asked where we were from. We chatted for ages and he was so keen that when we return to the UK we encourage everyone to visit Lesotho. They want and need tourism. Lesotho is very poor, on a level we haven’t witnessed until now. They want tourism and they want investment. He encouraged us, when we’ve finished this trip, to go and settle in Lesotho and invest in their community, in the same way as the owners of our guesthouse. He was absolutely genuine and couldn’t have been more sincere and actually, Lesotho, after first impressions, is somewhere we could certainly spend several months a year.

Our hearts, in just a couple of days and only a few miles were already being won.

04/06/2025

Nieu-Bethesda was founded in 1875 as a church town, like many other Karoo villages.

It’s a quirky place. Very quiet.

We stopped by a cafe and had some brunch whilst watching some road repairs. It seemed that the whole village was there, some armed with shovels, some brooms. A truck would arrive with a load of dirt, tip it and then everyone would barrow it up and fill in the various pot holes.

It definitely appeared to be a whole community project and everyone joined in and did their little bit. Oh, except for the guy hiding behind the bus shelter… 😂

03/06/2025

While we were in Graaff-Reinet Carl got to ride a zebra…

02/06/2025

“Sheer cliffs and precariously balanced columns of Dolerite rise 120 metres from the valley floor, against the timeless backdrop of the vast plains of the Camdeboo. This is the product of volcanic and erosive forces of nature over 100 million years.”

The Valley of Desolation just outside Graaff Reinet was a great ride. Apart from the awesome scenery and stunning rock formations, we saw our first zebras 🦓!! Also vervet monkeys and lots of kudu, mountain reedbuck, grey rhebok, and springbok.

We had the viewpoints all to ourselves and could sit and drink in the total silence from man. Just nature and its sounds.

We wanted to also enter the other side of Camdeboo National Park but they don’t allow motorcycles (most parks don’t) as we’re kind of ‘meals on wheels’. 😂

Our dream for Africa is to see monkeys, zebras, giraffes and elephants in their natural habitat from the bikes whilst riding along. We’re halfway to that goal! 😊 🐵 🦓

(No photos of the animals, sorry. They were too far away and as soon as we stopped they didn’t like the change in the sound of the motorbike engine and ran off… 😂 😝).