Bon Echo Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Ottawa, Canada.


Wednesday, February 19, 2014

40 kms (25 miles) in two days... (part 2)

Okay, in Part 1, we had told you that we were about to go to sleep in our fancy accommodation. Actually, it was not bad. We had sleeping bags that we had rented from the lodge, and they had foam mattresses for us to sleep on.

And because there is no electricity (although we did have a candle!), you pretty much go to sleep when the sun goes down.

Besides which, we had to be ready for our hike to the waterfall at 6:00am! So going to bed well before 9:00pm didn't seem like such a bad idea, especially since we had hiked 18.5 kms (11.5 miles) and we were pretty much exhausted.

Oh, regarding food, we had to bring everything with us. They provided a gas burner and the propane, but we had to bring our own food. Ruth had made a sausage and rice pasta dish ahead of time, so we just needed to warm it up.

We actually slept fine. Well, until the first rooster crowed at about 3:30am!

Then after that, it was a chorus between the roosters crowing and the donkeys braying. Add in all of the other farm animals and birds, and we had no problem being awake in time for our 6:00am departure to the waterfalls!

Our new friend Arianne joined us for the hike. This is the American girl who showed up on horseback with her guide shortly after we had arrived ourselves.

By 6:50am, we had a decent view of the falls.

Our guide to the falls.

Our guide didn't speak any English. Except, we figured out that he wanted a copy of this picture! We will try and get him one. We can mail it to the lodge, and the next time a group goes to the falls, they will bring this photo along with them!

Oh, and he wanted to know how old we are. When we told him 52, he couldn't believe it. Must have something to do with the fact that average life expectancy in Lesotho is only 48!!!

Getting closer.

From this point on...he told us we had to go in bare feet!

His three dogs came along on the hike.

The water was like ice!

The water was so cold. It was the kind of cold where you feel your feet throbbing after only 30 seconds in the water! Just like ice.

Kevin, at the bottom of the falls.

Yes Kevin, you have to go in the cold water again!

Kevin, crossing the ice cold water.

Following our guide back to the village.

Looking back towards the falls.

Back at the village.

We arrived back at the village at around 8:30am. We made a quick coffee and a bowl of porridge, and then we had some hiking to do.

Keep in mind, we had already done a two hour and a half hour hike! Now, the real trek began as we had another 18.5 kms to do to get back to the main lodge. 

Arianne and her guide coming up behind us.

Walking, we had pretty much no problem keeping up with the horses. In fact, on flat sections we were even a little bit faster than the horses. It was the uphill sections where we slowed down a little bit!

Heading up hill!

The view looking back.

At the end of one of these uphill sections, Arianne called back "Kevin, they have cold beer here!" Hey, it was after 12 noon by this point in time and the thought of a cold beer sounded pretty good!

The local pub! Ruth had a Savannah Dry cider.

The facilities!

Ruth, Kevin, and Arianne, having a cold drink in the mountains of Lesotho.

Arianne bought our guides a beer as well.

The bar selection.

Almost home!

We arrived back at Malealea Lodge at around 4:00pm. We figure we did about 23 kms (14.3) miles that day, and about 40 kms (25 miles) over the two day weekend.

Monday? That was a day of rest!


  1. WOW how exciting. The waterfall is beautiful and could almost feel how cold that water must have been.

  2. You sure hot a nice hike over the weekend, and the cold beer would have tasted so good out there near the end.

    1. Yep, the beer and cider went down real nice!

  3. I love the pictures at the waterfall. But you made my feet cold just reading about it. Pups sure didn't seem to mind. I think Arianne s one brave gal to be doing the exploring on her own. 25 miles - I could probably do that in 20 days. Gorgeous pictures.

    1. Nope the dogs didn't mind the temperature of the water at all. Arianne has been to many, many countries through her work and at the moment has been working in South Africa and has had many opportunities to visit many of the countries here. We think that it is great that she is doing this.

  4. Your photos are wonderful. Thanks once again for letting us enjoy your adventures. Now if only we can somehow become as fit as you are are via blogland?

    1. Thank you Contessa, we love sharing them! As for becoming fit, it is something that we have had to work at and we keep on working at.

  5. Wonderful hike, beautiful pictures. If I had had a beer at the time in the hike I would have crashed and burned on the spot. I used to walk like that, but the hips don't like it anymore.

    1. I wasn't sure how the drinks would affect us either, I kept thinking that my stomach would feel like a lead weight as we did that last stretch, luckily it didn't bother us at all.

  6. wasn't a "three dog night", but rather a three dog hike? Is that correct?

    Couldn't resist that one, sorry.

    You *old folks* must really impress all the young 'uns I'm sure. Especially considering the life expectancy there.

    1. You are funny, Bob!

      By the look on the guide's face, he couldn't believe that we were 52 years old.

  7. Can't wait to see their expression when they hear my age....thinking that I must be a ghost from hell !

  8. Nice to be in good shape. Must be the lifestyle!

    1. Yep, we have to admit that we are happy to be in good enough shape for these hikes as we would miss so much beautiful scenery if we couldn't hike. Love this life!

