Maloti Mountain Range as seen from Malealea Lodge, Lesotho.

Panorama stitched from ten photos.

The Maloti mountains are a mountain range of the highlands of the Kingdom of Lesotho. They extend for about 100 km into the Free State. The Maloti Range is part of the Drakensberg system that includes ranges across large areas of South Africa.

View of the Maloti Mountains from Malealea Lodge.

Meeting this Mosotho shepherd was a rather uncanny encounter. Our stay in Lesotho included a visit to the village right next to our lodge and although we were told that we were free to take pictures of everything we fancied, we were also told that we should ask permission if we wanted to take photos of grown-ups, which seemed fair enough for just because you allow someone to visit your home and take photos of whatever they deem worthy to be photographed, why should that include pictures of yourself.

However, I thought that limitation only applied to portrait shots and when I saw this Mosotho shepherd looking after his cows at the edge of the village, I just grabbed my camera and fired away. All of a sudden, while we were still standing next to the two rondavels where I'd taken my photos from, he waved over another shepherd from the village and came straight at us. For a while he just stood about five metres away from our group and stared at me, which really gave me the creeps with him clad in the traditional balaclava that Basotho shepherds wear in winter. After a short while I turned away and looked at our guide, hoping she would notice the somewhat menacing apparition in the background, but she just kept chattering away to the rest of our group. When I finally mustered the courage to look back in the shepherd's direction he was gone ... only to reappear on the other side of the rondavel and disappear inside without even looking at me. Still a little rattled I spoke to our guide and she sorted things out for me. It turned out that the shepherd didn't object to being photographed at all but lived in one of the two rondavels and simply didn't want to get in the way of our group. So he decided to try to sneak into his own home when we did not move on.

View of the Golden Gate National Park with the Maloti Mountains in the background

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