Bethel Travel Guide

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.