Dramatic drops ... Blyde River Canyon.Credit: AFP
Alison Stewart returns to her native South Africa to explore the dangerous beauty of the mountains, falls and canyons high above the plains.
BEFORE I left South Africa 33 years ago, the province of Transvaal, "up north", was a sinister place, the heartland of apartheid. Tucked down in Cape Town under my magical mountains, I'd never wanted to cross the alien reaches of the Vaal River.
But times change and now, with game in mind, I am planning a trip to the old Transvaal, to Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. Why not include the Panorama Route, my South African family suggests. And so I do, finding myself in a place of astonishing beauty.
This aptly named scenic road threads along the north-eastern edge of South Africa's great escarpment, where the Drakensberg Mountains form a rocky roller-coaster of valleys and gorges. Here, the inland plateau drops abruptly to the lowveld a thousand metres below. On a clear day you can squint across the game-rich plains towards Mozambique and the Indian Ocean.
But what really makes the Panorama Route worth it is that it is home to one of Africa's great hyperboles - the Blyde River Canyon. After the Grand Canyon and Namibia's Fish River Canyon, this 33-kilometre-long rift is the third-largest canyon in the world and, because of its lush subtropical foliage, the largest green canyon.
From its highest point (Mariepskop at 1944 metres), it plunges 1400 metres and if you don't stay behind the guard rails you will plunge, too, as the many signs warn.
Our ultimate destination is a safari in Klaserie Reserve but first we have four days for the Panorama. A one-hour flight from Johannesburg takes us off the highveld to Mpumalanga's capital, Nelspruit, which lies on the humid eastern lowveld in the Crocodile River Valley.
Before we can drive north, the botanists in our midst clamour to visit the impressive Lowveld National Botanical Garden, five minutes' drive from town. Even in this benign place, Africa asserts itself.
"If you meet a hippo, stand still!" instructs the sign at the entrance. And there I was, thinking I'd just take to my heels. The garden sits astride the Crocodile River and the tumbling Nels River and, of course, there are no fences to keep out the foraging hippo with its deadly bite.
We walk gingerly, peering around each gigantic cycad, for which this garden is famous. And what's this - bilharzia? I'm just about to twiddle my fingers in a passing pond when I see yet another warning sign. With visions of parasitic worms tunnelling through my skin (for I was born in KwaZulu-Natal and have an atavistic fear of the bilharzia snail that lurks in rivers), we head for the hills. It is 60 undulating kilometres through orange, lychee, mango and macadamia groves to Hazyview, on the edge of the Greater Panorama Route.
We're just in time for sundowners on the thatched verandah of Rissington Inn. With its long views of the Sabie River Valley and its bungalows set within four hectares of indigenous gardens, we feed rather well on local tarragon trout fillets and crocodile sosaties (kebabs).
But is that a knee-high electric fence and why does it only protect the lodge, not the bungalows? Hippos, you say? Roaming 25 kilometres each night to graze. And black mambas?
"They're one of Africa's most aggressive snakes," teases the owner of Rissington Inn, Chris Harvie. "And watch for mosquitoes in skirts; they're the ones that carry malaria." He means female mosquitoes, which are the dangerous ones.
Luckily, we have all sipped from the cup of Dutch courage, though not enough to eat the proffered warthog for breakfast.
Rissington Inn is only 10 kilometres from Kruger's Phabeni Gate, so before continuing our drive, we make a day trip to Skukuza, the main Kruger camp. We get lucky with scores of elephants, kudus, impala, a huge white rhino doing a spot of horn maintenance and, best of all, an amazing parade of stampeding hippos at the Lake Panic bird hide.
We note that game makes people excited; so excited they'll photograph anything, including dung.
From Hazyview we begin the 45-kilometre climb along the R536, through Kowyns Pass to Graskop, which, apart from being one of three places in South Africa where the blue swallow nests (much twittering from the twitchers in our group), also marks the true start of the Panorama Route.
It's where the views begin and when I say views, I do mean views as the 30,000-hectare Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve unfolds majestically from this point.
Blyde is pronounced "blayda" and means river of joy in Afrikaans because it was at this river that a lost party of Voortrekkers reappeared in 1836. They went missing while searching for a trade route to Delagoa Bay (Maputo). Their families had named the river where they waited "the Treur", meaning river of sorrow.
A few kilometres north of Graskop, we take the small loop road leading to one of many lowveld viewing points - the Pinnacle, a huge quartzite exclamation mark, closely followed by the spectacle known as God's Window.
Once you have negotiated the God's Window car park, with its curio stalls and pink-faced European tourists buying painted ostrich eggs, a climb takes you to a series of lookouts, each more stunning than the last. The grand finale is the high rocky outcrop named Quartzkop, reached through an orchid-laden rainforest. We emerge on to the unfenced boulders and look down at the 1750-metre drop. No time for vertigo.
The ideal time to visit this natural wonder is during the dry, cooler months: April to September. At other times, the barrier of mist streaming in from the east and rising against the range brings torrential rain. It's also excellent game-viewing time because the low grass reveals the big mammals and malaria is less of an issue.
After God's Window, there's Wonderview a little further along the loop before we rejoin the R532 and take a short detour to Berlin Falls. This long, lovely drop of water is gushing despite the dry, as are the nearby Lisbon Falls. If you're more into falls than canyons, it's worth continuing on from Graskop and taking a turn towards Sabie along the R532.
An array of magnificent waterfalls waits, including Mac Mac Falls, twin 56-metre falls with the nearby Mac Mac Pools for a cool dip. There's the 68-metre Lone Creek Falls, Horseshoe Falls and Bridal Veil Falls but it's the canyon we want to see, so we go north to Bourke's Luck Potholes.
These streaked white and yellow lichen-covered potholes, where the Treur and Blyde rivers converge, mark the start of the actual canyon. This is the heart of the reserve. Whirlpools have carved a remarkable series of deep, smooth-sided cylindrical potholes into the rivers' bedrock. From here, the combined rivers have cut the deep, winding canyon.
Just thinking about this is exhausting. It's time for Rissington Inn's packed picnic lunch before driving the few kilometres north to see perhaps the most impressive vista of all - the Three Rondavels (African huts) with Mariepskop behind them (or the Three Ronnies, as my husband insists on calling them - he's reaching the end of his vista tether).
But concentrate, Rob! As we gaze at the three huge rock spirals, it's not hard, in the eerie silence, to imagine the war cries of Mapulana warriors during the last tribal war of 1864 following their chief, Maripe Mashile, to the peak to bombard the invading Swazis.
The sun is sinking as we plunge (not literally) down the escarpment towards the lowveld to the thatched Blyde River Canyon Lodge, set within an 85-hectare botanical reserve in Limpopo Province. This restful place is crawling with baboons, zebras, hippos and impala, including a tame one devoted to owner Vicky Mittan, who is originally from Australia.
We toast our Cape Town travel agent, Brett Thomson of Sunsafaris, who has tactfully steered us away from some dodgy accommodation. In the morning, Vicky suggests a guided boat trip on the 36-year-old Blyde Dam, built just below the confluence of the Blyde and Ohrigstad rivers. From here we can see the escarpment from a different perspective, learn about the geology (sedimentary sandstone, dolomite and quartzite), the flora (montane grasslands containing more than 1000 species, subtropical rainforest and mixed sour bushveld), the fauna and bird life.
A highlight is the 200-metre Kadishi waterfall, the second-tallest tufa waterfall in the world after Venezuela's 979-metre Angel Falls. A tufa waterfall is formed when water running over dolomite absorbs calcium and deposits rock formations. The Kadishi waterfall resembles a weeping face.
In the morning, we farewell Vicky, regretting we've had no time for the adventure activities the canyon offers - hiking, aerial cable trail, hot-air ballooning, quad-bike trails, abseiling and canyoning, bungy jumping (maybe not) or whitewater rafting. For now, we go north to Hoedspruit, where we drop off the rental vehicle and are collected for the drive into Klaserie Reserve to begin our walking safari.
Trip notes
Getting there
Qantas/South African Airways fly from Sydney to Johannesburg most days. Return fares start at less than $2000. A flight to Nelspruit, returning to Johannesburg from Hoedspruit, costs 1905 rand ($275). qantas.com.au, flysaa.com.
Staying there
Rissington Inn — from 693 rand a person a night, twin share, including breakfast and dinner. rissington.co.za.
Blyde River Canyon Lodge — from 513 rand a person, twin share, including breakfast. blyderivercanyon.co.za.
Africa on Foot Kruger Safari Camp — 1455 rand a person, twin share, in a thatched chalet, including board, daily walking safaris and game drive, airport transfers. africaonfoot.com.
More information
Brett Thomson from Sunsafaris is a safari expert and travel agent based in Cape Town, who can help plan and book the Panorama/Blyde route, including accommodation and car hire. brett@sunsafaris.com.
Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency, www.mpumalanga.com. Sabie Tourism, sabie.info. South Africa Nature Reserves, www.nature-reserve.co.za. South African National Parks. sanparks.org.
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