Thabana Ntlenyana

"We woke up quite early in the morning. While we were breaking the camp one of the older Basuthu shepherds came down to us, playing an improvised violin built out of steel wire, some branches, horse hair and an oil can. He seemed to take artistic pride in both his self-made instrument and ability to play for an international audience.

After the concert we started ascending the mountain side. After a two hour climb, we reached the highest peak south of Kilimanjaro, Thabana-Ntlenyana, 3482m (29°28'10 S, 29°16'15 E). We took a long rest on the top, taking some pictures and sun bathing. I smoke some pipe and Ryan prepared us a bowl of vegetable curry. Five Basuthu shepherds came up to talk with us, and we prepared some cheese sandwiches for them. When we started our descent from the mountain two of them asked us not to go to the nearby valley, as their sheep were grazing there."