Past Sekake, the road rejoins the southern banks of the Senqu, but deteriorates significantly in quality, though you can still make it with care in an ordinary vehicle. You'll find it a beautiful, undulating drive, amongst the loveliest in Lesotho, though once you reach the approach to QACHA'S NEK you'll see depressingly familiar soil erosion and dongas .

 

Qacha's Nek, named after chief Moorosi's son Ncatya, was an area famed for its banditry when the British founded the town in 1888, in an attempt to forestall the kind of trouble they'd experienced with chief Moorosi. Many of the "bandits" were in fact desperate San, hounded from their homes and now with no means of survival; this left the British unmoved, and they hunted them to extermination throughout the 1860s. Moorosi's Baphuthi people had started moving there in the 1850s, rapidly wiping out all the game, and turning the land over to grazing and cultivation instead. The area has unusually high rainfall, and the weather conditions favour conifers, including a few massive Canadian redwoods, giving Qacha's Nek an atmosphere completely different from most of virtually treeless Lesotho.

There's little to see in town, except the elegant St Joseph's Church at its eastern end, but the entire surrounding mountainous countryside is great for hiking . Qacha's Nek is also an important border town (daily 8am-6pm) and there's usually plenty of public transport heading west towards Moyeni from the Shell garage in the centre of town. You can hear the minibus taxis a mile off, thanks to the cowbells tied to their fronts. You'll also find transport just over the border heading for the Eastern Cape town of Matatiele, from where it is a simple matter to find buses and minibus taxis going on to Kokstad and beyond.

The best accommodation in town is the Nthatuoa Hotel (tel 95 0260; R100-200), which is the first building you come to on the left as you enter Qacha's Nek from the south. The hotel offers four types of room, each more luxurious than the last, starting with a decent though smallish double and ending with a large, fancy suite. All tariffs include a substantial breakfast from a restaurant serving the finest food in town (unless you are vegetarian, in which case you'll go hungry). Just past the hotel, and opposite the Farmers' Training Centre, ask your way to the excellent Narna's Guest House (tel 95 0374; up to R100) close by. Though the owners don't speak much English and water supply is often a problem (as it is elsewhere in town, despite the high rainfall), this is a friendly place with a good kitchen where you can either do your own cooking or just provide the ingredients and let the owner cook them up, for a small extra charge. Turn left past the fuel station in town for the Central Hotel (tel 95 0224; R100-150) which, despite its name, is over a kilometre further on, nestled away next to the PEP department store. A sandstone building and full of character, the hotel has only six rooms and is often full. Even if you're not staying, it's worth visiting at weekends for live music. There's a small number of inexpensive places to eat in the centre of town, but for more substantial meals you're best off in one of the hotels.