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This past December, Malealea Lodge was sprinkled with a little extra fairy magic when a visiting family brought along tiny, whimsical decorations and transformed 17 trees into enchanted fairy homes! 🏡🌿 These tiny fairy friends now live throughout the lodge grounds, waiting to be discovered by those with a keen eye for wonder.

👣 This enchanting adventure is perfect for families, nature lovers, and anyone looking to experience a bit of fairy-tale charm at Malealea Lodge. So, lace up your shoes, let your imagination soar, and see how many fairy homes you can find! 🧚‍♀️🌈💖

Caroline James shared this incredible story about a pioneering pony trek in Lesotho back in 1991. Sadly, in April 1998, she had a tragic skiing accident in the French Alps and passed away. She is deeply missed by all who knew her—her cheerful presence and wonderful sense of humor remain in our hearts.

More than three decades later, the incredible Malealea Pony Trekking experience is still available! The legacy of Simon Mokala, the legendary guide who led our pioneering trek in 1991, is now carried forward by his son, Nkhabane Mokala. With the same deep knowledge, skill, and love for the mountains, Nkhabane is the Pony Trek Association co-ordinater who organises the Malealea Pony Trek Guides to take visitor on unforgettable pony treks through Lesotho’s breathtaking landscapes.

Here at Malealea Lodge, we’ve recently taken on an exciting new project—starting our very own beehives! Bees play a vital role in maintaining healthy ecosystems through pollination, and we’re thrilled to support these incredible little workers right here at the lodge. Not only will they help our surrounding gardens thrive, but we’re also hoping to produce our own fresh, locally-made honey. While our buzzing friends are usually peaceful, as you’ll see in the story below, sometimes they remind us who’s really in charge!

This is a picture of Socks and his best friend, Mick. (the beloved late owner of Malealea Lodge). Socks had a scary start to life, almost losing it when he was just a puppy. Despite this, he grew to be an incredibly strong (and quite large) dog. Sock’s exact breed was never really known to anyone who met him, but it was apparent that he had a lot of Irish wolfhound traits, and looked quite like one too. This leads us to the question of: ‘How did Socks, or rather how did Socks’ ancestors come to be in Lesotho?’

Mervyn Bosworth Smith, founder of Malealea Trading Store, was born at Harrow School, England in 1878. His father was Assistant Master there for 37 years. Mervyn had five brothers and three sisters. All his brothers were educated at Harrow, but Mervyn went to Rugby, where he excelled at rugby and athletics. He was also a brilliant scholar, writing Latin prose at 14 years old. On leaving school he went to Oxford University.

In about 1898 he came to South Africa and taught/coached rugby at Bishops. This was too tame for him, so he went to try his hand on the Diamond Diggings at Lichtenberg, where he did not have much luck. He decided to join the B.S.A.P. in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), where he said he did not do much police work, as he played rugby most of the time.

At the outbreak of the Boer War, he returned and joined the Dorset Regiment and served throughout the war. At the end of the war, he went to Maseru to visit his brother, Reginald, who had joined the Colonial Service and had been sent to Basutoland as Government Secretary.