Mokhotlong-->Maseru-->Johannesburg

On Wednesday morning we started the long voyage back to DC! We drove the same bumpy roads 6 hours back to Maseru (which somehow seemed much more bearable after being in Lesotho a month.) We stopped on the way back at the Liphofung caves halfway to Maseru, and saw a historical Basotho village and some caves where King Moshoeshoe (the first king of Lesotho) hid when he was fighting the war for Lesotho's independence. The caves were pretty impressive, and there were some ancient bushman paintings on the cave walls.
In Maseru we were glad to finally get a decent meal, and celebrated being back in a (relatively) modern town by going to the movies. We saw This Means War (with Reese Witherspoon), but strangely all the scenes from the movie were out of order, and I'm pretty sure some were skipped as well. We enjoyed it anyhow, and were really in no position to complain. The movie costed about $2/person. I was also very excited, because in Maseru I found an advertisement for the Roof of Africa Motorcycle Rally. I made a list of things I wanted to do in Lesotho based on a guidebook I read, and this was the only thing I didn't make it to. So I settled for a picture next to the sign!
On Thursday morning we had a quick flight from Maseru to Johannesburg on our favorite airline, South African Airways. It is seriously the greatest! On Thursday, we checked into our adorable guesthouse near the airport in Jo'burg, and went to explore Sandton, which is one of the newer suburbs, which is home to Nelson Mandela Square, and tons of great shopping. We took pictures next to the giant statue of Mandela, like nerdy tourists! We even got brave and took the gautrain, which is this beautiful high-speed train they built in 2010 for the world cup. It was so fancy and fast! We had dinner back at the guesthouse under this authentic african tent. Dinner was a traditional South African braai (which is basically a barbecue with tons of different meats and vegetables.) The food was delicious, and we had fun chatting up the other guests!
This morning, we organized a tour to Lion Park, which is basically a mini version of a game park outside Jo'burg where you're guaranteed to see African animals in a short period of time. We wanted to do the full-fledged safari, but didn't have time. Lion park was basically one step up from a zoo, but we had a blast! The tour we went on picked us up at our guesthouse and drove us out to the park, and right through the animal exhibits. In the herbivore section we could have the windows down and take pictures of all the animals, but you had to have them up in the carnivore section, because the animals can come right up to the car! Most of the animals seemed pretty used to the cars coming through, but they still looked pretty ferocious and huge. After the driving tour, there was an exhibit where you could pet the cubs and feed the giraffes, which we naturally had to do. (I think we were their oldest guests, but we have no shame!)
In a few hours we'll head back to the airport to catch our plane back home. It's been a remarkably smooth trip, and I have loved Africa!
See you all back in the states.
Love,
Hannah