Monday 26 May 2014

Ha Baroane

Saving the best for last: perhaps the most extraordinary thing we did/saw while in Lesotho was to visit Ha Baroane.  It's not the easiest place to get to and eventually we abandoned the car and walked ... but luckily the way was scenic.


Here is my archaeologist sister getting very excited at the sign for Ha Baroane.


To our surprise (because nothing about the road in led us to expect it), just beyond the sign was a very picturesque interpretive centre - with car park, but (understandably) no cars.


But where was the rock art?  To get to it, we followed a guide down a hill, through the fields,


over a narrow bridge across a gorge,



to our first view of some rock art.  This being an example of the contemporary rock painting scene.


We then walked along the river for a few minutes, passing lots of wattle bushes on the way.


And finally we reached an overhanging slab and there, on the underside, were colourful animals,




not to mention people.


The art might be thousands of years old or hundreds of years old or simply decades old (or a combination of all of the above) - but it was wonderful.  Detailed, vivid, witty - absolutely worth the effort to get to it.

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