Autumn

The landscape is ochre-brown. Vast open spaces yield to no other hue. Only at a few places do we see trees that have turned lime-yellow. They will rather shed leaves than to make any further concession to autumn.

It is cold now. There is a dryness in the air that carries no intimation of rain, much less snow. But we are expecting to see whiteness on the mountains around us. I believe, a couple of years ago, it even snowed in Maseru. We await that with expectation that has hardly dimmed since childhood.

Yesterday we drove to the North, past TY and Leribe (and the dinosaur foot-prints) and to Liphophung (DI-pho-fung) caves where King Moshoeshoe I had taken shelter. In the coming few days we will travel to Bloemfontein, Pretoria and Durban. Siddharth is here with us and we want him to see these places.