EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

On the other side of the Senqu River from Mount Moorosi is the village of BETHEL , where there is a large, rather neglected mission church and the much more proactive Bethel Business and Community Development Centre. Despite its rather cumbersome name, this is an innovative training centre, teaching locals practical skills in solar technology, permaculture and market gardening. The centre is a thriving advertisement for the principles it expounds, with healthy crop fields and vegetable patches, rows of trees, well-designed buildings and solar power used for everything from the hot water to a satellite phone link-up for email. Facilities include a self-catering guest flat and dormitories (up to R100), and meals are available if arranged beforehand. Short-term visitors are welcome, but if you would like to stay longer, write to the centre at PO Box 53, Mount Moorosi 750, or email them ( bbcdc@maf.org ) as far in advance as you can. To get to Bethel, walk or catch a minibus from Mount Moorosi for two kilometres to the ferry point on the Senqu River, below the towering cliffs of Thaba Moorosi. There are hopes that a road crossing will be built, but meanwhile the rowing-boat crossing of the fast-flowing river is worth experiencing. Once on the other side, it's a further four-kilometre walk to the mission. If you have a 4WD vehicle, an alternative to crossing by ferry is a two-hour drive along a route that leaves the tarred road on the western side of the bridge over the Senqu, between Moyeni and Mohale's Hoek.