Adam’s Calendar and Stone Circle Ruins in Waterval Boven, Mpumalanga

Stone Circles

Like many South Africans I took a gap year after school and went to the UK to work and exper­i­ence life. Which ulti­mately ended up in me work­ing in a pub for pit­tance and spend­ing most of my time drink­ing. Still I did man­age to see a little of the United Kingdom and spent some time in Somerset county after going there for the Glastonbury fest­ival. While I was there I saw Stonehenge, the Avebury stone circle and developed quite a lik­ing for the strange, sym­met­rical stone form­a­tions that appar­ently were maps of the stars.

It was only years later, long hav­ing returned to South Africa, cut my hair and shaved, that I dis­covered that our lovely coun­try has its own ver­sion of these ancient temples to the stars ... Continued

One of South Africa’s most impressive wonders: the Sudwala caves

Sudwala Caves

Area 51 in New Mexico, the Bermuda tri­angle, the loc­a­tion of Osama Bin Laden — every­body likes a good mystery.

Take the Sudwala Caves for instance. Legend has it that the Sudwala Caves have no end and they may stretch for more than 40km under the moun­tains. There is also an unex­plained con­stant flow of fresh air in the caves that no one can find the source of. Ok, so it’s not exactly a Sherlock Holmes type mys­tery, but it still is inter­est­ing.  Towering above the val­ley of the lively moun­tain stream Houtbosloop, the vast Mankelexele (rock upon rock) moun­tain range holds one of South Africa’s most impress­ive won­ders: the Sudwala caves ... Continued

Kruger National Park photographs

Two months ago, I embarked on a 2 week road trip of South Africa, includ­ing a week in our most fam­ous game reserve: the Kruger National Park. This was my first visit, and my mind still boggles at the sheer size of the Kruger park and the mag­ni­fi­cence of its untouched wil­der­ness. I am not a pro­fes­sional pho­to­grapher, but I hope you’ll enjoy this col­lec­tion of pho­to­graphs that I took. We were lucky enough to see the Big 5 twice dur­ing our stay, but it is some of the “other” wild­life pho­tos that most inspires me and reminds me of the won­der­ful hol­i­day we had within our beau­ti­ful coun­try. Continued

Rashid had R30 — Stories from Explore SA Cycle Tour

The road between Badplaas and Amsterdam in Mpumalanga is an unfor­giv­ing one. One that never really allows you to relax. At every bend there is some­thing to pho­to­graph or someone to greet. At every junc­tion you need to make sure that you’re tak­ing it all in. But this road also doesn’t have one single stop for 140km. With the sun mak­ing my skin ache and hints of cloud shy­ing away from the swel­ter­ing heat I cycle on look­ing for some place to fill my water bottles, a place that can provide me with some shade and maybe even the com­pany of a few birds ... Continued

Leopard Encounter in the Kruger National Park

Leopard Encounter

Janet & John Wills from Porcupine Ridge Guest House in Sabie had this unex­pec­ted, heart-stopping encounter on a recent break in the Kruger National Park ...

At around 8.30am on 18 December 2009 my hus­band, our adult son and I, left Tamboti Tented Camp and drove east along the H7 towards Satara Camp. We soon came to the turn­ing for N'wamatsatsa Waterhole and decided to check it out. Rounding a corner on the dirt road we saw two tiny leo­pard cubs run­ning across the road with the mother leo­pard fol­low­ing closely behind. The cubs soon dis­ap­peared in the long grass, fol­lowed by the leo­pard. By the time they were about 5 metres from the road we had stopped par­al­lel to them, expect­ing to see the leo­pard quickly dis­ap­pear into the thick bush.

What happened next was the most fright­en­ing (and admit­tedly thrill­ing) encounter we have exper­i­enced in more than 20 years of reg­u­larly vis­it­ing Kruger ... Continued

I ♥ Sabie because ...

I ♥ Sabie

Hi, I’m Janet Wills from Porcupine Ridge Guest House in Sabie, Mpumalanga.

SABIE IS BEST KNOWN FOR it’s glor­i­ous set­ting in the moun­tains, as the gate­way to the mag­ni­fi­cent Panorama Route, as a centre for Mountain Biking, Trout Fishing and adven­ture activ­it­ies and of course for it’s close prox­im­ity to the Kruger National Park.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT God’s Window with the back­drop of the Lowveld all the way to Kruger Park and Mozambique.
THE BEST WATERFALL PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN from the bot­tom of Lone Creek and Bridal Veil Falls or look­ing down from the top of Lisbon and Berlin Falls.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT the Three Rondawels over­look­ing the awe­some Blyde River Canyon and at the fas­cin­at­ing form­a­tions at Bourke’s Luck Potholes ... Continued

A hop, skip and a jump to Pilgrim's Rest

Getting to Pilgrim's Rest from Johannesburg takes longer than you think it will. It shouldn't, as the obvi­ous route along the N4 is pretty straight for­ward — Witbank, Belfast, Waterval Boven — but this is where it starts get­ting fuzzy, because by this stage not only were we tired, hav­ing only left work at around 3pm, but by the time we hit Sabie there was also a not-so-fine mist to con­tend with.

Oncoming traffic became some­what indis­tinct, the world took on the ambi­ance of Narnia (I kept wait­ing for Mr Tumnus to come trot­ting out from under a lamp­post) and my stom­ach took the oppor­tun­ity to inform me that it was more than a little hungry — raven­ous prob­ably comes closer! Continued

Self-drive the Mpumalanga Escarpment Route

Take a little escape on the Escarpment Route in Mpumalanga, a spe­cific sec­tion of the greater Panorama Route. Buckle up and head out on the road of the 'land of the rising sun' with a jour­ney depar­ture timed with the sunrise.

An early start ensures that all of the thirty plus points of interest that fall on this stretch of tar and occa­sional dirt road, can be ticked off your "to-see" list by the time the col­ours of dusk take hold of the heav­ens and the sight in the rear-view mir­ror takes hold of your con­tent­ment. Mother Nature makes grand ges­tures of rock and water amongst pock­ets of plains and indi­gen­ous plant life all along the drive ... Continued

Photo of Bourkes Luck Potholes

More thanks for all the pho­to­graphs — they keep com­ing and you can view selec­ted pho­tos at South Africa Photographs, July 2009. Just a note to any­one plan­ning to sub­mit pho­tos — please remem­ber that we need then to be BIG! Some people have sub­mit­ted lovely pho­tos that are too small. They need to be at least 800 pixels in width.

Here's a fab­ulous photo received yes­ter­day of the Bourkes' Luck Potholes (for those who don't know what they are see note below) ... Continued

Discovering Mpumalanga

Game Viewing in Kruger

The province of Mpumalanga, which straddles the Drakensberg moun­tain range, com­bines the best of both the Lowveld and the Highveld, with humid grass­lands below, and cool, quiet forests blanket­ing the peaks above.

On the Lowveld there are many excel­lent game view­ing oppor­tun­it­ies with all kinds of anim­als pop­u­lat­ing many game reserves, includ­ing a por­tion of the fam­ous Kruger National Park. Continued

The Breathtaking Panorama Route

Blyde River Canyon

The Panorama Route runs along the spec­tac­u­lar Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga and is argu­ably one of the most beau­ti­ful and pop­u­lar travel des­tin­a­tions in South Africa. The Panorama Route is best known for its cul­tural her­it­age and its dra­matic land­scapes. It leads through the rocky moun­tain range of the north­ern Drakensberg. It is here where the inland plat­eau declines abruptly and steeply and opens up fant­astic views of the plains of the Lowveld up to a 1000m below. It is prob­ably the most pho­to­graphed, painted and admired area in the country.

The Panorama Route boasts many excit­ing attrac­tions, water­falls, lovely towns and his­tor­ical sites all well worth a visit. Ohrigstad, Hazyview and Pilgrims Rest to men­tion a few, provide numer­ous scenic attrac­tions as well as an insight as to how the set­tlers lived many years ago. Continued

Horseback Safaris now in Badplaas

Dawsons

Dawsons Game and Trout Lodge in Badplaas, Mpumalanga now offers their guests the chance to exper­i­ence unique morn­ing and after­noon horse­back safaris on the 2,000 ha private estate, all under the expert guid­ance of highly qual­i­fied game rangers.

These 2-hour out­rides take place in some of the region’s most scenic grass­lands and bushveld, teem­ing up with herds of plains game, includ­ing dazzling zebra. Dawsons can accom­mod­ate between 8 and 10 guests on an out­ride at one time, and it is recom­men­ded that guests have horse rid­ing exper­i­ence due to the level of the activ­ity. Continued