Maliba lodgde at Tsehlanyane National Park

We had an amazing weekend at the Maliba (pronounced Madeeba) lodge at the Tsehlanyane National Park in Lesotho. My Dad dubbed it "Almost Heaven." I could not agree more.
After an early morning and afternoon spent in my classroom, we hit the road and headed North/East of Maseru, for about 2 1/2 hours. The trip up was easy, and the scenery on a Lesotho road trip is always fabulous. The peach trees have just begun to bloom, adding splashes of pink everywhere. At first I thought these tree were something similar to cherry blossoms, but it turns out that they are peach trees, and will grow delicious peaches on them as well.




Besides the breathtaking natural scenery, I love to people watch from out the window, and since we were driving up on a Friday evening, everyone was out and about.
The mountains got higher and the roads got more bumpy and winding as we approached Tsehlanyane. We arrived at dusk, so we could not fully appreciate the incredible mountains surrounding us.

Maliba is a brand new 5 star resort in Lesotho. It officially opens in two weeks, but the Lesotho Minister of Tourism invited members of the diplomatic corp up this past weekend for a special rate. We were very happy to be "guinea pigs" as she referred to us, at such a lovely place!

Beautiful view from the deck at the lodge
Our chalet

The lodge is run by a wonderful couple, Floyd and Joanne, from Zimbabwe. They really made the lodge feel like we were staying there as their close friends.

I won't describe the lodge in too much detail, I will let the pictures talk instead. There is a small river that runs through the mountains, and creates several waterfalls and natural pools. The constant sound of the water was so striking. My Mom and I felt like we were at the beach, you could hear the water coming down the mountain all day and night, even from our chalet.

I cannot make a post without describing the FOOD! It was absolutely fantastic. It's a good thing that this lodge is in the mountains, because we were able to hike off all of the yummy meals we had. I had Lesotho trout, ostrich, lamb, sausage, apple crisp, chicken curry, chocolate meringues with amarula sauce, delicious homemade soups, etcetera, etcetera!


The highlight of the trip was our horse trek. We rode horses deep into the mountains to an impressive 3 cascade waterfall- which took us FIVE hours! We rode horses from the local village, and had a great guide that lead us up, down, and almost sideways on the mountains! I have not been on a horse since I was about 9 years old, and boy was it fun. It was so peaceful- and exciting. We kept getting higher and higher, and closer to the edge of the cliffs. Our horses were literally inches away from the edge of the cliff- with thousands of feet below us. At one point I could not even look to the side, that's how close to the edge we were! It was definitely a thrill- much better than a roller coaster! After we reached our destination- the waterfalls, we spent some time resting and enjoying the view. There was a good portion of the trek that we had to walk back down; it was too steep to ride downhill, if the horses slipped that would be the end of the both of us! Riding the horses deep into the mountains was such an awe inspiring experience. I wish I could better describe the rush and contentment you get from the experience.

To sum up the trip, we ate wonderful food, took in breathtaking scenery, and wore ourselves out with horse trekking and hiking galore.

Rest stop
Can you believe we took horses up that teeny tiny STEEP path!?

Dad is not as sure footed as Basotho horses!

Now can you see why we call Maliba "Almost Heaven?"


NOTE: I took so many beautiful pictures on this trip and I have been trying to add them to the blog. However when I try to upload them the server times out most of the times. I will try to add more pictures to the post as much as possible!