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<\/p>\nSuggest a holiday in Africa and most people picture baking hot sun, palm-fringed beaches or herds of wildebeest galloping across the savannah. Few think of skiing.<\/p>\n
Yet the continent contains five mountain ranges with enough seasonal snow to make potential slopes, of which two host rudimentary ski resorts.<\/p>\n
Tucked into SA’s stunning Drakensberg range, one such resort in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho attracts tourists seeking a more adventurous skiing destination \u2014 despite visitor numbers being drastically slashed by Covid-19.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfrica is, you know, you wouldn’t even actually think of it. I think that’s what actually amazes most people,\u201d snowboard instructor Hope Ramokotjo told Reuters TV, after sliding through a section of perfect powder snow on his board.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYes, it isn’t much,\u201d he said, glancing over his shoulder at bare brown hills beyond a lone white slope. \u201cBut people come here and have a whole lot of fun. For me, as a local, I don’t have to fly out: I’ve got a vacation right here.\u201d<\/p>\n
As with other tourist spots, the Covid-19 pandemic \u2014 and severe travel restrictions enforced worldwide to try to curb it \u2014 has drastically slashed visitor numbers. They fell to virtually nothing last year and are still only half the usual 17,000 this year, owner of the nearly two-decade old Afriski Resort, Pieter Peyper, said.<\/p>\n
Neighbouring SA has been badly hit by the pandemic, with 2.64-million recorded coronavirus cases, and is on most country’s red lists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something very different. My knees and feet are in pain … but it was mad fun,\u201d said Kevin Kava, a Ghanaian first-time skier who lives in Cape Town, shortly after wiping out.<\/p>\n
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Suggest a holiday in Africa and most people picture baking hot sun, palm-fringed beaches or herds of wildebeest galloping across the savannah. Few think of skiing. Yet the continent contains five mountain ranges with enough seasonal snow to make potential slopes, of which two host rudimentary ski resorts. Tucked into SA’s stunning Drakensberg range, one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":2496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-photo"],"yoast_head":"\n