Border hopping on Horseback

One of my ‘must-dos’ when I star­ted trav­el­ling in South Africa was to exper­i­ence the wild moun­tain ter­rain of the Drakensberg. The only thing put­ting me off was that hik­ing up peaks soun­ded like extremely hard work, so when the oppor­tun­ity presen­ted itself to explore on horse­back it seemed like the per­fect answer. I booked a 3 day ride out­ride with the highly recom­men­ded Khotso Horse Trails in Underberg in nervous anti­cip­a­tion. Will the horses be safe? Will the guides know what they are doing? All the usual fears that nag ahead of an adven­tur­ous expedition.

My mind was put at rest as soon as I met Steve Black who owns the horse trails as he explained that Khotso means ‘Peace’ in Sesotho. As he drove me through the beau­ti­ful KwaZulu Natal Midlands, trees gil­ded with autumn col­ours, I could already feel myself unwind­ing from the fren­etic pace of Durban. We arrived in Underberg in the late after­noon to a refresh­ingly cooler cli­mate than the coast. At 1,500m above sea-level Underberg is the height of many European ski resorts and on this April even­ing there was a def­in­ite nip in the air ...

My arrival at Khotso Backpackers pro­duced a warm wel­come from staff and anim­als alike. One of the horses has even learned to stick his head through bed­room win­dows look­ing for treats. Steve and Lulu Black are the most gen­er­ous, kind and fun hosts. Their good example means that their whole team are super-friendly and the lodge has a relaxed and informal feel, with comfy sofas and log fires to warm up by. There is a beau­ti­ful log cabin with dorms for the back­pack­ers and romantic ron­davels for couples and fam­il­ies. Khotso is the kind of ‘home from home’ where you could go for two nights and end up stay­ing for two weeks. But I had to tear myself away from the cosy sur­round­ings as I wasn’t here to stay at the main lodge for long. The next morn­ing we were due to leave the civil­isa­tion and head off for a 3 day horse exped­i­tion into Lesotho.

We arrived at the Bushmansnek bor­der post and were intro­duced to our horses who had been trans­por­ted by truck from Underberg. We crossed the bor­der on horse­back (a first for me) and set off into a deep val­ley, with the ominous-sounding ‘Devil’s Knuckles’ rising above us. The group I was with included a couple of exper­i­enced riders, but for the major­ity it was their first time on horse­back. Talk about in at the deep end — within 30 minutes we had trot­ted, cantered, forded rivers and even jumped across small ditches. Suprisingly the total begin­ners were totally relaxed and took everything in their stride – I guess if you don’t know any dif­fer­ent then you assume that this is how rid­ing nor­mally is.

The ter­rain itself is hard-core and I had some of the most exhil­ar­at­ing rid­ing of my life. The Basotho ponies are incred­ibly tough and you simply would not believe some of the moun­tain passes that we had to tra­verse. Think ‘rock climb­ing on horse­back’. It was hard to shake off the nag­ging thought in my mind that what goes up must come down. These amaz­ing creatures hopped from crag to crag like nimble baller­inas. We did get off and lead them over the steep­est sec­tions and they put us to shame by organ­ising their four legs far bet­ter than we could coordin­ate our two. We had some breath­tak­ingly fast canters and gal­lops with the horses always eager and care­ful to pick them­selves the safest terrain.

We arrived at the Khotso satel­lite lodge, 2500m above sea level and sur­roun­ded by the moun­tains of the Sehlabathebe Wilderness Area of Lesotho. The horses were turned and settled down to gorge them­selves on the lush grass, whilst we filled our own stom­achs with deli­cious roast chicken. The fel­low guests that I rode with were all fun and really good sports, espe­cially con­sid­er­ing the lack of rid­ing exper­i­ence that some of them had. The over­all ambi­ence reminded me of a ski­ing hol­i­day with every­one exer­cising in the moun­tains dur­ing the day and then relax­ing in a chalet with a beer and a few good stor­ies by the fire in the evening.

The next morn­ing we enjoyed a hearty break­fast and rode through the stun­ning Leqoa River gorge, cross­ing and re-crossing the river as we went. Every so often we would stop to rest the horses and admire the 5,000-year-old San rock paint­ings along the cave walls. As the horses crushed the grass beneath their feet the sweet scent of thyme and wild lav­ender filled the air. Our music was the sound of the bub­bling brook, punc­tu­ated with the calls of the many rap­tors that live in these moun­tains (we were lucky enough to spot Jackal Buzzards and a won­der­ful Eagle Owl who hooted haught­ily as we rode past in the late evening).

Smaller sun­birds fluttered around, and in the mead­ows we saw smal­ler ante­lope such as moun­tain reed­buck and duiker. There are also wild horses in the area who some­times join in with the ride, although the mist that we encountered on the way back meant that we didn’t see them on this trip. We pic­nicked by streams and in caves, whilst the horses were turned loose to graze amongst us. Each day we enjoyed observing how the Basotho people live on a day to day basis and always saw some­thing unusual. One day we were miles from any­where and saw a man run­ning with his two dogs, rolling a metal hoop with a stick as he went. Why? Well... why not?

Generally we had lovely weather — blue skies and sun­shine, but because of the alti­tude it was never uncom­fort­ably hot for us or the horses. On the last day the mist des­cen­ded and although it was damp and chilly some­how the moun­tains became even more dra­matic. We had to ride like the clap­pers to beat the thun­der­storm to the bor­der, but made it just in time. Steve, who owns Khotso, is a very keen mara­thon run­ner and man­aged to eas­ily beat us back on his two legs. That said, he’s the kind of crazy man who will run 1,000km races for fun. Each to their own — I’ll stick with 4 legs doing the work for me I think. Safely back in South Africa we were trans­por­ted back to Underberg feel­ing weary but exhilarated.

I have to say that the team at Khotso also did an amaz­ing job of match­ing riders to exactly the right tem­pera­ment of horse. Over the four days I rode out with two groups – 20 people in total – and every horse was hand-picked tak­ing into account the rider’s exper­i­ence. It was won­der­ful to see how people bon­ded with their respect­ive mounts and there were some very sad farewells at the end of the trip.

Khotso is well-named. I truly felt at peace at the end of this trip and the Lesotho out­ride from Underberg is a unique exper­i­ence that I would recom­mend to anyone.

Contact details for Khotso
Khotso Backpackers & Horse Trails
Steve & Lulu Black
Telephone: +27 (0)33 701‑1502
Mobile: +27 (0)82 412‑5540

Photographs — click to enlarge (Photos © Kate Nelson)

Useful Drakensberg Links:
Drakensberg Attractions
Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park
Things to Do in the Drakensberg
Drakensberg Hotels
Drakensberg Accommodation