A s I departed from Katse Lodge in Bokong in Lesotho on my way to Durban in South Africa, I decided to visit Katse Dam just a few minutes down the road. The double arch concrete dam — once the largest dam in Africa prior to 2009 and is currently the second largest at 185 meters tall, which is just shy of 607 feet — on the Malibamat’so River is what helps to form the beautiful lake to which I woke up earlier that cool sunny morning.
I drove the car into the virtually empty parking lot near the dam, initially thinking that perhaps it was closed. As I sat in the car in a parking spot looking around while contemplating leaving, I spotted out of the corner of my eye a man walking towards the side of the building. I got out of the car and asked him about seeing the dam.
“It is not open now,” he replied in a thick accent.
“I just wanted to take a few photographs of the dam,” I replied. The dam can be seen from the road; but power lines were in the way of the view — and I was hoping to grab a few photographs of the dam without the power lines in them.
He stood silent for a moment before he motioned me to enter the building with him. “Come — I will show you around.”
There were some exhibits and office space which we passed inside of the building by before he opened a door which led out to the back of the building near the dam.
