Circumnavigating Lesotho

We visited the Women's War Memorial in Bloemfontein in anticipation of Women's Day on August 9. The memorial is dedicated to the over 127,000 women  and children who perished in the British concentration camps in South Africa during the Anglo Boer Wars. Brutal. 

Bloemfontein is the capital of the Free State which we drove through to get to Tiffindell to go skiing for the long weekend. We skirted around the western side of Lesotho where it borders the Free State to get to the Drakensberg Mountains which forms the southern border of Lesotho with the northern border of the East Cape. Lesotho is an independent country which is located in the middle of South Africa and is completely land-locked. 

 


After our ski adventure, we drove back to Joburg a different way, going east through the Drakensberg and then up along the eastern side of Lesotho bordering on the western side of KwaZulu-Natal and through Clarens and Golden Gate Highlands National Park. We basically circumnavigated Lesotho. Beautiful country! Dramatic mountain range, big sky, rock art caves, trout-filled lakes, and except when we were on the highway, some really crappy roads.

Much of the area we drove through surrounding Lesotho in the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal was a war zone during the Anglo Boer conflicts and there are many historic sights and memorials dedicated to its significant battles as well as the Battle of Vegkop between the Vooktreckers and the Ndebele, and the Battle of Blood River with the Zulu.

I must admit I do not know much about these conflicts since the United States was not directly involved. In fact the sum total of my acquired knowledge about the Anglo Boer Wars was only derived from repeatedly watching one of my favorite movies, Breaker Morant.

But just like the years of apartheid, it was a formative era in South African history and I am sure my book club can suggest a few novels which may help me better understand it.