Outside Mokhotlong the road once again turned to dirt. The section towards Sani Pass and KwaZulu-Natal had never been tarred, so it was not one of those formerly tarred roads.

It was thick with mud that stuck to my tyres, making them look three times as thick.

As my wheels moved through the bracket that holds the brakes, the mud started flying.
This was fun!

On a mountain ahead of me I saw a set of buildings. Could it be St James School, Lesotho, I wondered.

I certainly hoped so!

Some mudslides later I looked at the buildings again, then I made out that some letters, painted in white, on the hillside read: “ST JAMES”.

It was my destination. Yippee!


My destination just over there … or so I thought!(Image: Duncan Guy, CC-BY-SA)

I thought of the other St James, in Spain. Or Santiago as it’s called in Spanish.

The symbol of the pilgrimage is a type of shell called the scallop shell.

Over the centuries it’s been a useful thing for pilgrims to carry. They can use it to scoop water from passing rivers or to ask local people to fill it with food as a donation.

It’s also on the school badge of my children’s school, St James in Johannesburg.

The school had already started a little walk through the kopjes of eastern Johannesburg, past historic buildings such as Jeppe High School for Boys, to St James and called it “Jo’burg’s Santiago Pilgrimage”.

I wondered what to call this new journey to St James in Lesotho. Maybe “the Santiago Pilgrimage across the Roof of Africa”!

I also wondered if the lovely feeling I was having at the sight of St James, Lesotho, over in the distance could be compared with how pilgrims feel when they first see their destination, the spires of the cathedral at Santiago!

At the same time I thought to myself: “Is this all going to be over now? What a pity!”

But it was far from over.

Image: Duncan Guy, CC-BY-SA

WHAT DO YOU THINK? What’s the story behind your school badge?