Panorama Route in Mpumalanga ~ part 1 of vacation

Our vacation with my dad in Mpumalanga and Limpopo was divided in 3 parts. First we drove to Plumbago Guesthouse, a beautiful and unique little place with only 3 rooms. So you can imagine that we got the undivided attention of the owners Ilara & Robbie. The guesthouse is settled between banana and avocado farms at the end of an bougainvillea-lined drive way. So picturesque!
The house, the ambiance, the setting is so graceful and beautiful, we felt like visiting good friends instead of being guests of a B&B. The details in the rooms and the table setting was something I had never seen so pretty and fine! A great start of our vacation! From Plumbago we visited the Panorama Route, Blyde River Canyon and the gorgeous surroundings, cute towns in this part of SA we haven't seen so far in detail. We just drove through once, but now we actually had time to stop at places we found interesting. A worthwhile trip!!



The area we stayed in is called Hazyview, and now I can see why... always there seems to hang a mist, everything is foggy all the time. No wonder the gardens are so lush and green, this area is so wet and moist! So totally different than Joburg where it is dry and much more yellow.

The garden of Plumbago was my dream, all those herbs and cute flowers. I got inspired by her fresh use of herbs at every meal that as soon as we came home I planted my mini herb garden, but nothing compared to Ilara's little space of heaven!



The highlights of the Panorama Route are beautiful waterfalls, the greenest canyon on earth ~ Blyde River Canyon, caves occupied by men for 50.000 years and a cute mining village called Pelgrim's Rest. This is the area where the gold diggers used to hang out! Jasmine was wondering if there were still places where she could find a piece of gold... well, we didn't try to find it. We had other things to see! Like the Mac Mac Pools, a cute village full of crafts and a silk making studio! Who knew SA makes their own silk.... it's the only one in SA and we found it!!



God's Window was next ~ a gap in the Drakensberg escarpment with a view of the low veld and the Kruger National Park. And on real clear days you can even see Mozambique! Unfortunately it was a bit foggy, so the view was not that clear. But the walk up there through the rain forest was gorgeous!! Beautiful flora and fauna!



Next stop were the Berlin Falls, it plunges 48 meters deep into a creek. At every stop we made to see one of the viewing points on the Panorama route they had set up little stalls with women selling local crafts. I loved these older ladies, one even with a baby on her back, must have been her grandchild and we promised them on the way back from the climb to the waterfall to buy something. So she is holding the wooden cutting board I bought. Handmade and really nice wood! Our first souvenir on the trip!



Next was Bourke's Luck Potholes, named after Tom Bourke who predicted that gold would be found in this vicinity. The deep, cylindrical potholes have been scoured out over millions of years by sand and stones swirled round by the water. It is magnificent to see and it is hard to see on the pictures how huge this all is. But look at the one with the bridge (left under) and the people on it, then you get a feel of the hugeness.



Just magnificent!





The girls find the rocks fun to climb on and pose for us :-)



Although this day was not finished yet, but the pictures takes so so long to download I will do the rest another day. We just have to see it in stages....

Monkey's everywhere we stop for a drink or some food along the way. They are cheeky and steal the food out of your hands if you don't watch them closely!!

This one was following us the whole time waiting for our ice cream to finish, well we gave it gladly to him, just to get rid of him! They are a bit scary, if they would grab you of jump on you... you don't know what disease they carry with them?



Mom taking care of her young...



I love all the plants along the roads....



Till next time, enjoy your day!
Mireille xx

Kruger & Blyde river canyon here we come!

My dad is here and the girls have a week off from school, so time again for a SAFARI!!

We are leaving today, and this will be an amazing trip, so looking forward to it!

The weather is gorgeous and the trip we have booked is super exciting!!

First we are going to Mpumalanga, which means "the place where the sun rises". We will be staying 3 days in Plumbago guest house. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering Swaziland and Mozambique. We will be visiting the Blyde river canyon. While it is difficult to compare canyons world-wide, Blyde River Canyon is one of the largest canyons on Earth, and it may be the largest 'green canyon' due to its lush subtropical foliage. It has some of the deepest precipitous cliffs of any canyon on the planet. It is the second largest canyon in Africa, after the Fish River Canyon, and is known as one of the great wonders of nature on the continent.



The best view in the whole of the Blyde River Canyon is of the "Three Rondavels", huge, round rocks, thought to be reminiscent of the houses or huts of the indigenous people, known as rondavels. This canyon is part of the Panorama route. This route starts at the town Graskop and includes God's Window, the Pinnacle and Bourke's Luck Potholes. All these beautiful things we will see when we will drive the Panorama Route.



After 3 days in this area, with visiting canyons, waterfalls, cute little towns full of the real Africana stuff, we are driving into Kruger National Park. Which is one of the largest game reserves in Africa and one of the largest national parks in the world. It covers 19,485 square kilometres (7,523 sq mi) and extends 360 kilometres (220 mi) from north to south and 65 kilometres (40 mi) from east to west.



All the Big Five (Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo and Rhino) game animals are found at Kruger National Park, which has more species of mammals than any other African Game Reserve (at 147 species). Also 517 species of birds are found at Kruger, 253 are residents, 117 non-breeding migrants, and 147 nomads.

At the Kruger we will stay at Rhino Post Safari Lodge where we will have our morning and evening game drives, also available at this lodge are Rhino Walking Safaris. We haven't done that yet, so you will go on foot and look for the Rhinos. Sounds great and we will see if we can do one. One these kind of safaris no kids are allowed. We will sleep in tented lodges, which I always like so much, because it gives you even a closer feel to nature and the animals!



To arrive at this lodge we have to drive about an hour through the Kruger park, and hopefully this will not happen to us!!



After 2 days we are going to Tzaneen and stay at the Fairview Hotel. From this place we are visiting the Magoebaskloof with its tea plantations and the Koedoes River Valley. Here we will also see the biggest Baobab Tree in the world. Also possible the oldest tree in the world, dating back 6000 years! And so far as I know the only tree with a bar inside – known as “The Tree Bar” or “The Baobab Bar”.



A wide range of tropical fruits are grown in the Tzaneen area, notably mangoes, bananas, oranges and avocados. Pine and Eucalyptus plantations are also a common sight in the area around the town, particularly toward Magoebaskloof and Haenertsburg. This area is much more sub-tropical than Johannesburg, so it will be nice to see some different vegetation.

All in all an interesting trip with loads to see and of course the highlight is the visit of the Kruger Park, where I am sure we will see the Big Five and tons of other animals.

This is my first trip that I booked through a travel agency here, normally I book and research everything myself but I found it so hard to this time to create a nice trip because I wanted to see so much and for the places in between it was so hard to find any good info on the web. So my friend Ingrid recommended me to go to African Surprise, a small travel agency run by Liesbeth Wijnkoop and she created this whole trip for me and even her prices were much much better than I could have ever booked it for. So I am happy that I did this. So for my friends who live here and want to have a trip booked locally or even anywhere contact Liesbeth at africansurprise@mweb.co.za She will create a trip of a lifetime for you!!

We will keep you updated when we are back how everything went!!
Mireille xx