A Wild Afternoon at Malealea Lodge

Posted on Sat February 1, 2025.

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!

It was late afternoon, Lucky was  just finishing up the last bit of lawn mowing behind the lodge—completely unaware of the chaos he was about to unleash! I was in the bar doing stock when suddenly, Roxy 🐕 came sprinting in, panicked, with a single bee hot on her heels. Moments later, Bob was tearing up and down the deck, swatting at the bees with his hat and losing his glasses in the process.

Then came Monstuoe and Lucky in their blue overalls, bolting past at full speed! Helgard burst into the bar, covered in stings—ten in total! Meanwhile, Sana and the cleaning ladies, on their way home, found themselves under attack, while the bees also went after the men sitting outside the shebeen. Even the kitchen ladies weren’t spared, taking a few stings themselves. Phoka, just watching the mayhem innocently from the deck, also got targeted!

Thankfully, everyone is okay, and now we can laugh about it. Bob and Helgard can’t stop cracking up—turns out Bob has some serious speed after all! 🐝

Further Reading

Mervyn writing a letter from his verandah at Malealea Trading Post
History of Malealea (1905 to present)

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....

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Mick Jones with Irish Wolfhound, Socks
The Heritage of Socks and how Irish wolfhounds came to be in Lesotho

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,...

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