Mokhotlong travel guide

Mokhotlong Town or Camp is one of Lesotho’s remotest towns and is the administrative and economic centre of the northern mountain area. The town’s name means ‘the place of the bald ibis’, and these birds can still be seen along the river and in the surrounding valleys. The town was established as a police post in 1905 and grew as a trading centre supplied by pack ponies coming over the Drakensberg from KwaZulu Natal. Until 1947 when radio contact was established with Maseru, it had no connections with the rest of the country and until the 1950s it had no road connection with the outside world. Despite the arrival of the tarred road, in winter, Mokhotlong can still be cut off for many weeks by snow.

There is little of great interest in the town itself, but it retains something of an isolated outpost atmosphere. Sheep and goats are still shorn by hand in the surrounding sheds. An interesting sight is the Basotho in their striking blankets, hitching their horses outside and entering the modern bank. This is also the logical place from which to start exploring the remote valleys and high mountains of this area. The main supply stores are either near the bank or next to the airfield. There is a petrol station opposite the bank.