Dispatch 11 - Disco dash

"Nobody is flying today" - comes message from the military base in Maseru, they can't even start the engine, it's so cold. Huddled around the Landies - gloves, beanies, scarves and thermal undies, the team discusses logistics. There's an entire community waiting for us on the Katse Dam and we can't let them down. We make the call - it's a twelve-hour turn-a-round dash in the two faster Land Rover Discoveries. We'll meet the rest of the team back at the historic Liphofung Caves. Twists and turns, iced roads and frozen stalactited waterfalls bring us to the almost 60km long Kaste Dam. Colourful horsemen and cow whisperers with their cattle draped in bells and plastic bags lead us in to one of the most exciting community days yet - traditional dance, speeches of thanks, Mashozi distributes spectacles to the poor sighted in a campaign called Rite to Sight supported by Grindrod. First in line is 84-year-old Edward Qhali who with a ramrod stiff military bearing tells us that he's a WWII veteran of Tobruk and El Alamein. Mike Nixon presents two bicycles to the community to patrol up and down the pass to clear fallen rocks, there's Grindrod lapdesks for the school kids and boxes full of learning materials donated to the expedition by Shelter Box. In return we are presented with traditional conical Basotho hats and heaped plates of wild spinach, fatty stew and pap. We turn the Landies around and at base camp, with spotlights blaring, we catch wide eyed expedition members Babu and Rob red handed decanting a dram from the tap of the no longer secret Captain Morgan tank hidden between the chassis members of one of the expedition Landies. Can;t blame them, we all need a bit of cheer against the freezing cold. We'll keep you posted.