A Stroll down the Sani

A Sunday or so ago found me in the company of a large group at the top of the Sani Pass in southern KwaZulu-Natal. The trip having been organised by a local walking club and the Wildlife Society and entailed was being driven up the Pass to be followed by a walk down to the South African Police post.

Although the road has been much improved in recent times I still found it somewhat scary standing on the back of 4x4 truck as we crawled, bumped and swayed around the top zigzags of the pass. But the expenditure of a little adrenalin was well worth it as the view from the ‘Roof of Africa’ is breathtaking, of vast scale, sweeping and way above the clouds below. Also at the top is what is reputed to be the ‘highest’ pub in Africa - a cosy place perched on the edge of the escarpment. The only other things up there are four rudimentary huts, a border post, chickens, goats and rocks as far as the eye can see.

The walk back allowed me to ponder the history of the Pass and its importance as it was, until recently, the only supply route into eastern Lesotho. Until 1933 it was but a game track until the Government introduced a relief labour scheme during the famine of that year. Workers improved the track to the status of a bridle path able to be used by pack animals taking supplies from Himeville to Mokhotlong in Lesotho.

The first recorded ascent of the pass by motor vehicle was in 1948 when a party led by Godfrey Edmonds went up in a Jeep. Not only did they climb the Pass but pressed on to Mokhlotlong and arrived there after a 13 hour trip. At this time David Alexander was planning the establishment of a motorised transport business up the pass. He and a party of seven others made the difficult trip in 1949. In those days some of the bends were so acute that it took nearly and hour to manoeuvre and bump the jeep around the sharpest of these. This was the first trip of what became Makhlotlong Mountain Transport and eventually vehicles replaced pack animals.

Today the pass is far easier to negotiate. Also the internal road system of Lesotho has been vastly improved and the people at the top of the pass are not as dependant on it as they were.

As I walked down I looked at the natural beauty of the place. The grass green after recent rains and clear streams running down over the rocks. Of the once 5000 pack animals and 300 transport riders who worked and died on the Pass, none remain. The days of the horse, mule and donkey on those vicious gradients, where carcases in various stages of decomposition and skeletons once littered the sides of the road, are finished. But a trip up the Pass still stirs the soul and quickens the spirit of adventure.