Sabie Valley Coffee – Spilling the Beans

Sabie Valley Coffee

Let me start by dis­pelling a few cof­fee myths: you shouldn't store ground cof­fee in the fridge but in an air­tight con­tainer, decaf cof­fee is punted by the industry because it retails at a higher price not because it's health­ier for you, instant cof­fee is usu­ally chicory and Robusta cof­fee (cheaper to pro­duce, inferior taste, higher in caf­feine) not Arabica, and there is no money to be made in grow­ing cof­fee crops in South Africa.

Today cof­fee crops cost more than any other agri­cul­tural crop in the coun­try. South Africa used to grow lots of cof­fee dur­ing the '70s and '80s, but today, remark­ably, the Sabie farm runs at a loss, some­thing Tim freely admits. It is the roast­ery, the retail and dis­tri­bu­tion of cof­fee around the coun­try to enthu­si­astic local cof­fee sup­port­ers that keep Sabie afloat.

All this, and more, I learn in a rel­at­ively short space of time from a remark­ably per­son­able Tim Buckland (no rela­tion to fam­ous mime artist, Andrew, I checked), the owner of Sabie Valley Coffee who does weekly cof­fee tours of his roast­ery in the Lowveld. Continued

I ♥ Hazyview Because ...

I ♥ Hazyview

Hi, I’m Tina from Böhm’s Zeederberg Country House in Hazyview, Panorama Route, Mpumalanga.

Hazyview IS BEST KNOWN FOR its warm friendly cli­mate and people, and being so cent­rally loc­ated to major tour­ist attrac­tions such as Kruger National Park and Blyde River Canyon.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT God’s Window (surely the closest you will get to heaven on earth)!

THE BEST sun­downer PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT the sun­downer deck with a cock­tail in hand at Böhm’s Zeederberg Country House. Continued

Bourke's Luck Potholes Photographs

Begin your wander around Mpumalanga with Bourke's Luck Potholes, for they are without doubt incred­ible. To see these geo­lo­gical won­ders (it is no sur­prise to learn that Bourke's Luck Potholes made it onto Frommer's 500 places to take your kids before they grow up) that are an amaz­ing array of white, yel­low and dark brown eddies of col­our because of the soil present in the water, you'll need to travel roughly 35 kilo­metres due north of Graskop on the R532. They are on the Panorama Route and are one of the major tour­ist attrac­tions in South Africa, so best get there ahead of the bus tours ... 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

Sabie Waterfall — Photograph

Submitted by Suzaan Minnaar is this beau­ti­ful pho­to­graph of a water­fall on the fam­ous Panorama Route in Mpumalanga. Highlights of the Panorama Route include the exquis­ite water­falls in Graskop and Sabie, the Echo Caves and of course the Blyde River Canyon Reserve, home to spec­tac­u­lar wild­life and bird­life and some of the best views in all South Africa ... 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