The Five Foot Traveler

Sarah Gallo

Tag Archives: clouds


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Drinking in the Clouds: Africa’s Highest Pub

If you’re going to Lesotho, you absolutely must go to the highest pub in Africa. It is technically located in Lesotho (atop the Sani Pass), but on the border of South Africa. It is legitimately a bar in the clouds. So, we drank a beer high in the sky.

Travelers Tip: Bring a small amount of your national currency to leave on the wall of the pub.

Driving down the Sani Pass was quite cool because there was zero visibility the clouds. We could see about five feet in front of our car going down the narrow, winding dirt roads that make up the Sani Pass. I was just happy that I wasn’t the one driving!

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See that foggy, high peak in the first photo? Well, we were supposed to hike Wayna Picchu on Sunday…but we woke up to weather like this. The only disappointment in our travels was the fact that it was raining and foggy, so the trail was closed since it’s extremely dangerous to complete even on a sunny day. It was actually pretty neat seeing this iconic place looking so eery. Luckily, it was safe enough for us to hike to the Incan bridge. Oh well, all the more reason for me to go back!

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The next morning we didn’t have time to whitewater raft, so we decided to climb the world’s second highest active volcano, Cotopaxi, to the 5000 meter (16,000 feet) mark. We were warned that it would be windy at the volcano, but it definitely was not stressed enough. Upon arriving, I stepped out of the car and was immediately blown back; I could barely walk forward, and barely breathe, and the wind was stronger than anything I have ever felt. The climb lasted an hour, fifteen minutes, and my grandpa said that was more difficult than running a marathon (mind you, he has run six marathons). The ground was all loose ash, so every two steps only accomplished one. We had to stop every ten meters to catch our breath though, and at first I believed that I was just much more out of shape than I had thought, until I realized that we were at a much higher altitude  than my body was used to. The views from the top were amazing – we were higher than the clouds! Descending, on the other hand, took only twenty minutes and I finally got the hang of going downhill!

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