A small group of us spent the long weekend tackling Baboon’s Pass near Roma in Lesotho . We spent Thursday night (20 March 2003) at the trading post near Roma , and left Friday morning to tackle the pass . Our original idea was to start at the bottom of the pass , camp somewhere near the top and continue down the next day . Unfortunately when we arrived at the river at the bottom of the pass , we had to turn around as the river was in flood . We then decided to do the pass from the other side , and hopefully by the time we reached the river again , we would be able to get across .

We headed off down the pass , and where doing quite well (about 7km in 6 hours ) when we reached a point on the pass that was totally no go . Koos decided to try find an alternative route , but only ended up wrecking his transfer case . Read all about it here .

We decided to turn around and head back up the pass , camping at a section of flat road we had seen earlier . We camped the night in poring rain , and headed out quite easily the next day to our starting point , as we had done a lot of road building the previous day .

We did another small pass (Jockstrap) on the way back to Roma . As it turned out , the road wasn’t quite finished , and we had to do quite a bit of construction to get down , as it wasn’t possible to turn around and go back up the pass .

We spent an enjoyable night back at the trading post , before departing home the next day .

The trip was great fun , despite the appalling weather , and I must thank Michele Zimmerman for organising the trip , and Ashley Thorn for guiding us .

Click on thumbnail for a (slightly) bigger picture

The weather looked fairly harmless on Friday morning as we left Roma Waiting for Ashley to join us
Koos’ Land Cruiser
The river at the bottom of the pass
This local is convinced he knows the way through Koos takes a dunking while walking the river
Our view up the pass
The last we saw of Koos under his own power
Water everywhere
More water and some more
What can I say all the water makes me want to go
Michel getting back onto the right track after bit of a wrong turn
Niel in his hilux Barry Michele showing me the line
4 degrees at 12:30 pm !
The river , erhm road
Getting Barry off a rock
The root of the problem Graham going up one of the trickier obstacles Barry follows – who says diesels don’t smoke Dirk coming up the same obstacle I had to help Barry out after we decided to turn around Graham off to fetch Koos Our “campsite” Not happy campers The next morning the weather looked pretty much the same as the night before
Giving Barry a hand up one of the more difficult obstacles The start of Jockstrap Pass The village halfway down Paying the “toll fee” Finishing the road a bit further down the pass Barry
Some more roadworks
Paul on the new “road” Michele’ (my one) getting the festivities started And another one Back in Roma The rivers where still pretty full on the way home Michele (the other one) dissecting the trip Just before we left Lesotho , the weather really improved  Tracklog

Graham Wild’s Trip Report