After winning the battle of international transfers at Johannesburg airport I finally got on to the connecting plane to Lesotho. Joining the plane there were the usual safety instructions but as we were about to take off the steward, Khanya, encouraged us to: “Sit back and enjoy the freedom of African skies.” Don’t remember any similar sentiment when flying out of Birmingham I thought.
The plane then climbed and we were treated with a bird’s eye view of the rolling plane’s below. As we approached our arrival time however the view out of the window changed and the landscape became peppered with unusual escarpments and rock formation giving way eventually to the peaks of the mountain kingdom- a truly impressive sight.
Landing went smoothly and in stark contrast to Johannesburg we found ourselves the only plane on the ground. Bags were loaded onto a trolley and pulled, by hand, into the baggage claim area. Immigration procedures completed I was met by the local programme manager, Manyanye, who drove me to my accommodation pointing out areas of interest whilst avoiding cars pulling out without warning and pedestrians selling a wide range of fruit.
The welcome at the Haven of Peace guesthouse was warm and I was shown to a room with a view of the South African hills in the distance (Maseru is situated on the North West border of Lesotho). There is another participant on the ILO/Doylend Cymru scheme who has given me some tips on settling in and I’m now off to get a local SIM so I can establish links with the outside world.
First impressions are of a beautiful, friendly country and people. I am looking forward to learning more over the next 8 weeks.