Basotho Cultural Village

Today Victor, his wife, and my roommate traveled to visit the Basotho Cultural Village located in Golden Gate National Park. On the way we stopped to take pictures of some spectacular views and then a few minutes down the road stopped to take more pictures when Victor noticed that his camera was missing! We then all remembered that we had heard a very loud boom on the roof of the car, but didn’t realize what the sound was until just that moment. We retraced our steps and were walking up and down the road looking in the bushes to no avail when a boy passed on a bike and asked Thamae in Sesotho if we were looking for a camera. We then yelled down the road to Victor and his wife to come back to the car and we started up a rocky path following the boy on the bike. We came to a small farming settlement at the top of the hill and met the boy’s brother who had the camera in hand. After giving us back the camera, we all took pictures with the children of the town. I am going to have to post all the pictures of my trip to the blog when I get back because the connection is too slow here, so please check back to see them because I have the cutest picture of a small boy we saw in the town. Everyone waved goodbye as we started down the hill, but then we heard a clanging noise coming from the back tire. Victor got out to investigate and found a long wire stuck in the hubcap, and after we removed it we had no further incidents! Arriving at Golden Gate National Park reminded me of the Southwest or the terrain of the Grand Canyon. We had already seen antelopes while driving to the park, so when we stopped the car again I thought it was to see more antelope, but then I heard Victor say zebra! I scrambled out of the car, and luckily Brad had given me binoculars before leaving and I had thrown them in my bag at the last minute. I looked through them amazed. There were three and they were lazily grazing and whipping their tails and we heard their high pitched brays even from the distance we were standing. After tearing myself away from looking at the zebra (best wildlife I have seen so far), we headed to the Cultural Village. We took a guided tour with some other tourists from Johannesburg that explained the evolution of the Basotho tribe from the 16th century to the 19thcentury; they no longer live in this way, so it is akin to visiting Colonial Williamsburg in the US. We first met the chief and his advisor and we tasted a fermented cider that was a traditional drink. We then saw a traditional healer who used bones to diagnose aliments. Next we saw the different homes for the first, second, and third wives of the chief and the huts were amazing – they used a grass roof that is waterproof, so it also stays cool when it is warm and warm when it is cool. The walls are made of a mixture of cow dung and mud and just at the next hut we see a woman laying the floor with the mixture. As we travel through the village we see that the huts became more colorful through the centuries, adding windows and eventually installing tin roofs. As we leave the Cultural Village, we are on a quest to see the elusive baboons that Victor has said are in the park. Victor’s wife has the best eye for finding any of the wildlife, and she spots them first. As we get out of the car they all start to run away, but not before I get a picture. Then we see them crossing the road further down and see a mother carrying a baby on her back! Is there any doubt that this was the best day yet!