Three Kinds of Flight

He's Number One!!

This weekend was likely the best weekend so far, especially since it was a little longer than most for me. In our Human Growth and Development class, we had a field trip to Lesotho (luh-SOE-toe), which is the small country completely surrounded by South Africa. We got up at 5:00 on Friday morning to head out around 6:00, since it was several hours away. There are only nine of us in that class (ten including the professor) so we only took one bus. This ended up being really nice because we could then all stretch out on the extra seats to sleep. The trip there was fairly quick and easy; especially since we all slept most of the way.

When we got to the border after stamping our passports, we had to break into two smaller groups to cross the 8 kilometers of no man’s land. This stretch was the bumpiest bit of road I have ever been on, and our driver, Miya, told us we were receiving a real South African massage, free of charge! This stretch then led up to Sani Pass, which is the third steepest pass in the world, and on every turn of the pass, Miya shared what each turn was notorious for. After the first, “suicide corner”, I was a bit skeptical, and by the time we passed “whiskey”, “ice”, “reverse”, “hemorrhoid”, and “God’s grace” corner, I was definitely ready for  “Amen”! Despite this however, it was a very beautiful drive.

Once at the top, we got our Lesotho stamps, and dropped our stuff off in the Highest Pub in Africa. Then, it was outside for our horseback riding tour. I was the first to get my horse, and I am pretty sure I got the best one. He was the only white horse, so naturally I named him Shadow (short for Shadowfax for all you LOTR fans), and he loved racing. What more do you need in a horse? The tour was less of a tour and more of free reigns in the same direction as our guide. So, we were able to fly on our horses if we wanted, and if the horse let us. Luckily, both Shadow and I were on the same page in that regard.

After riding into the mountains of Lesotho for a while, it started to rain and got pretty cold. Our guide just kept going though, so we really had no choice but to follow. We followed him up a very rocky mountain for a good two hours, and after a while we all started to get miserable. The rain turned to hail and the wind picked up, making us even colder. The scenery was beautiful, but the constantly tinkling of sheep’s bells all around us started to get on our nerves. At the top of the ridge, we were finally able to stop our guide long enough to gesture that we were way too tired, cold, and hungry to continue. Turns out he was taking us to the highest point in all of southern Africa, which would have been an extra two-three hours on the overall trek. As I’m sure you can imagine, we weren’t too keen on continuing.

So, we headed back at that point, and were even more miserable than before. Since the mountain was so steep on the way up, we had to all get off our horses and walk them down ourselves. Talking to my horse was the only thing that kept me sane at the point of near hypothermia, especially since I knew we had at least two hours ride back. When we finally got down the mountain, we were able to ride our horses again, which both Shadow and I were ready for.

There was one point when we got to the open valleys near the end that Mitch, Zach, and I decided to race. We were a little bit ahead of the rest of our group, and our horses were rested enough, so we gave it a shot. Also, at this point we didn’t have hills and rocks to try and maneuver around, so we really had freedom to ride wherever. What I loved about my horse was that it took two clicks to get him to speed up. So, once he got trotting fast enough, I would click twice again, and then we would be flying. Nothing was so freeing as hitting that perfect gallop where both Shadow and I were breathing in unison. There was something so beautiful about being in the middle of a gorgeous meadow, flying with the complete trust of a beautiful animal beneath you. Not everyone had this experience unfortunately, but like I said, I got lucky with the best horse.

Zach’s horse and mine were more competitive than any others, and there was one point when we were careening toward a pile of rocks at break-neck speed, but our horses were able to dodge them enough, and we made it back into the meadow just fine. In the end, galloping back towards the pub, with rain from the sixth storm falling on my face, made the entire five-hour journey on the horses completely worth it. My love for those animals was completely renewed.

However, it was still very stormy throughout, so I was sufficiently chilled to the bone. Even after hot chocolate, sitting by the fire, soup, and the best dinner I have had since being here, I was still cold. I honestly don’t think my hands and feet thawed out until morning. It didn’t take long for us all to decide sleeping was a good idea, so we all left the pub and rode a flatbed truck down to the backpacker’s lodge. To end a phenomenal day, we were bid ‘goodnight’ by all the stars the universe could give us. The Milky Way was clearly visible, and even though it was still cold, all nine of us ended the night by standing outside and stargazing. I’m sure you can guess that we all slept incredibly well that night.

When we woke up, we had a gorgeous view of the valley, a delicious breakfast, and very dirty, wet clothes. But that was the extent of our trip, so we got our passports stamped again, and headed down the pass in the open bed of the truck that drove us the night before. This was because the people who were supposed to pick us up just never showed, so we had to arrange a different ride. Oh well. This is Africa. The truck was very old, however, so I was legitimately scared for my life as the seven corner names passed through my mind. We made it safely though, and after getting our fourth stamp, we made our way back to Pietermaritzburg. Driving from Lesotho to PMB was the most beautiful drive I have ever been on, and I rode the whole way back to school with my head out the window, another freeing and flying feeling.

After showering, washing all the dirt out of my clothes, and enjoying a wonderful conversation with my dear friend Debs, I slept like a baby. This morning, the nine of us who were in a different country yesterday were given the opportunity to do the canopy tour today. So we all went zip lining for a couple hours over the tall trees of Africa. It was yet another great feeling of flying, and another amazing day! I think I am running out of adjectives to describe the absolute raw beauty of this place.

Content doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. God is great, the nature here is full of Him, and I am too.