My only trip to Africa in 2024 came as a last minute request almost at the end of the year. As I was starting to prepare mentally for the end of the year, I got a request to help out another team. You know that kind of request you get on Thursday asking you if you can fly in 2 days to Lesotho 🙂
So, instead of doing some other stuff, the next two days were filled with gathering papers and documents (lot’s of papers and documents) to get a fast track VISA to Lesotho. Amazingly on Monday I got the VISA and on Tuesday (on the 5th day I found out I have to travel) I was already boarding the plane.
Now that was not some short travel. It took me literally 26 hours (more than half in the air) and 4 flights to get to Maseru:
Cluj-Napoca -> Munich -> Frankfurt -> Johannesburg -> Maseru.
Lucky for me I got plenty of time in the airports, so no running and stress 🙂 I had plenty of time to eat my robot served dinner in Frankfurt or to take a shower (yes they have that there) in Johannesburg Bidvest Premier Lounge (thanks to my Priority Pass card).
Lodging:
Maseru is a capital but is also a small city, with a population smaller than Cluj-Napoca. Probably the best place to stay in Maseru is the famous “Avani Lesotho Hotel and Casino
Lesotho kings in the background
The hotel is placed on a hill in the middle of the city of Maseru with stunning views.
As you can see above, WOW !!! These are just random pictures made with my phone from the hotel’s parking lot.
Again, I discovered an African country severely underrated for its turistic potential.
People were very friendly and laid back. As usually I had very good working relationships with the people I worked with. It always amazes me to find all around the world really great “unknown technocrats” that basically run the country and that have very similar interests and way of thinking.
Conclusion:
Lesotho is another undiscovered gem of Africa. It is a country that needs more tourism and I hope more people will discover this wonderful place. My only regrets are that I stayed there only two weeks (with no free days), so no visits outside the city of Maseru and that the local beers has no bottled version.
