Travelling North along the A1 from Maseru and passing through the town of Teyateyaneng .Turn right onto the Nelson Mandela road.Bokong Nature Reserve is one of the highest reserves in Africa. It lies at the top of the Mafika-Lisiu Pass, leading to Katse Dam and reaches an altitude of 3090 m above sea level.
There are some outstanding views across the highlands. However, the reserves highlight is the Lepaqoa Waterfall, which freezes in winter to form a column of ice.
The visitors’ centre (open between 08:00 and 17:00 daily) at the Bokong Nature Reserve is perched on the edge of a 100 m cliff, was built with the aim of educating visitors to the kingdom about the ecology, geological and palaeontological history of the Lesotho Highlands. You may see cattle posts (metebo) which are the ruins of interconnected cattle shelters and kraals for stock that were built from stone.
Reasonable populations of Rebuck still occur on the plateau grass and heartlands, and the whole area abounds with colonies of the endemic ice rat which despite its cute appearance is heavily predated by all the small and medium mammalian carnivores and avian raptors in the area.
Descending towards the Katse Dam.
Mafika Lisiu Pass is without question one of the most dramatic and beautiful tarred passes in Lesotho. It was built ahead of the construction of the Katse Dam to provide an all-weather road suitable for the large trucks carrying fly-ash and cement from Ficksburg to the Katse construction site. It won an international engineering award for its design and engineering excellence.
The statistics of this pass are impressive. Firstly its a very long pass at 26.2 km with a summit height of 3091m and an altitude variance of 1104m. It snows regularly on the pass, making it dangerous for non 4WD vehicles. Black ice occurs on the pass too, rendering a highly dangerous situation; even for 4WD vehicles.
The scenery is breathtaking, especially on the western side, offering a smorgasbord of deep valleys, gullies, waterfalls and burbling streams, towering cliffs and in winter it's a snowy wonderland.
It connects Hlotse and Pitseng in the west with Ha Lejone in the east. Allow an hour to drive the route and more if you want to stop for photos. There is a large, safe and well constructed viewing point at the summit (12 km mark) with magnificent views down the valley to the west, as well as the famous built-up hairpin bend near the summit.
