South Africa is diverse and huge, but we discovered a small part in the North-East, including Kruger Park and the Panorama Route, the latter being a scenic driving route that is an essential visit when you are in the region, as it has amazing landscapes, with canyons, waterfalls, great rock formations and astonishing hikes. So if you are in the Kruger park region and surrounding Game Reserves, which is a must to see wildlife, it is a good idea to spare some days to drive around from Hoedspruit to Graskop and further south to Sabie.

Balule Game Reserve and Olifant’s River

Balule Nature Reserve is easy to reach from Hoedspruit (a 5hr drive from Johannesburg or a short flight) on the northwestern boundary of the Greater Kruger National Park’s unfenced open system. The Reserve is split in a number of private reserves and contains more than 42000 hectares of bushveld with all wildlife, including the big 5, great sunsets, and is home to about 40km of the Olifants river. Clearly there is a variety of organisations that organize game viewing tours, and a variety of lodges of all price categories. We have pre-booked with Viva Safaris, and thus enjoyed early morning, afternoon, and late night safaris in an open view 4x4. A bush BBQ at night was also nice. Really well organized, day filling, enjoyable, searching with the ranger for wildlife. Each tour takes 2 hours at least. We also enjoyed an early morning walk to the Olifant’s River with an armed guide. Great views, rhinos on the way to the river, and off course hippo’s, crocodiles, water birds in the river, at which the sun made glistering sparkles in the water. Also the lodge (Tremisana Game Lodge) was relaxing.  Without further explanations, the pictures show what you will get ...

Kruger Park (Orpen Gate Entrance)

The Kruger National Park offers amazing wildlife encounters, in a stunning natural setting. There are multiple entrance gates, and we took the Orpen gate, about 50 minutes driving from Hoedspruit on a good road. You need your ID-card and pay a fee to get entrance. You can go for self-driving or take a guided 4x4 safari, what we did (with Viva Safaris) as it has the advantage that the experienced ranger knows where and what to look for, and off course the rangers call each other when they see wildlife. Gates open at around 6am, and close around 6pm. Go early, as this is a must-see. You drive the whole day with off course a lot of stops, as here you can see animals each 10 minutes. What a place! Again, take binoculars and a camera with zoom. A mobile phone is not enough, as animals can be close, but also far away... After entering, the road soon passes the Timbavati River, and lots of animals are attracted by the water (elephants everywhere). Orpen Gate is on the edge of a band of ‘sweetveld’ that stretches from east to west across Kruger. So the game is attracted by grasses to graze, and predators are attracted by the grazing animals. So all types of wildlife, including the Big 5. Also here, all types of Rest Camps and Lodges, in all price categories. We slept outside the Park in Marc’s Treehouse Camp. Enjoy!

Mariepskop

Mariepskop is the highest point of the Blyde River Canyon at 1947 meters above sea level and is not easy to reach. We were lucky as we could join South African friends in a 4x4, and we guess we never would have reached the top by driving ourselves, as some parts were really having very deep gullies and holes in sandy roads that were ... really deep. So driving, even with 4X4, took hours, and at some spots we did not go over 10 kms per hour. Look at Google maps to find the access roads. Great adventure but rather uncommon for Europeans. Some infrastructure and roads were built in the 1950s to service a military radar station, so halfway there was some kind of an entrance with a barrier and a ‘guard’ to permit you (you need to pay of course) to go higher, and after quite some kms on sandy and muddy roads, suddenly you see the abandoned military station and then a concrete road goes further up. The view on the top is nice and you overview the valley, but at a few hundred meters from the top you can see a sign to some kind of lookout that shows the best view, as from there you can see the 3 roundavels from the back. There is, after a short walk on a trail, a really superb viewpoint that is ideal for a picnic while enjoying the view. When going down again we tried to find The Klaserie Falls (and found it). There are 2 directions, but the 'left' one goes to the big fall. If going to the right there is a trail that goes in the woods (on your left side) towards the river and smaller falls. The falls are great and the big waterfall goes 200 meter deep, but the walk ends abruptly at the top of a sheer cliff, so be aware that this should be done with caution as there is no fence. Google for Mariepskop Picnic Spot if you have more time, looks great and remote close to the river. A pity we only had 1 day.

Panorama Route

After driving away from Hoedspruit over the R527 and R37 you reach the R532 in Mapareng and a bit further the Panorama Route starts (or ends depending from where you start). Anyhow, it passes many beautiful waterfalls, rock formations and views while driving down to Graskop and Sabie. We took 3 days (2 nights) to visit the top attractions and do some hikes, but more time will be needed to walk all trials, and maybe visit some nereby caves and towns (Pilgrim’s Rest is often mentioned). This is a typical self-driving experience, with very good roads, signs to the top spots to visit, and enough places for overnight stays.

         - The three Roundavels

The Three Rondavels are the first attraction you encounter when driving from the north to Graskop (about 50km North of Graskop). Here you can see three rocks emerging from the farthest wall of the Blyde River Canyon. There is a viewpoint but we did not go there as you can hike towards stunning viewpoints in the mountains, starting in the Blyde Canyon Forever Resort, in which you can have a well-deserved meal after the hikes as well. You need to go to the reception and can get a map there, so easy to do. There are multiple trials, called Loerie, Tufa, Leopard, Guinea Fowl and Kadisi Trail (also on All Trails app you find these). They go in loops (except the highest leopard trail) and you can connect the trails, so we more or less did them all in 1 day. These trails illustrate why hiking offers much more than standing on a platform with a fence looking at a view. The views you can see while going up the Leopard Trail are amazing, but also all other trails are nice. You cross a river and will find a superb place to swim ...

           - Bourke's Luck Potholes

Bourke’s Luck Potholes are rock formations formed by century-long erosion through circular moving water flow, creating holes because of sand and pebbles eroding the rocks. centuries ago. Here 2 rivers (the Treur and Blyde rivers) come together. There are some trails you can take from here, including the Belvedere trail. We did not do this one as we wanted to hike the ones around the 3 Rondavels and Forest Falls (see below). At the site, you can step over the 30 meter deep ravine on a bridge, and walk a bit in the area to see the potholes and the ravine from different angles. Nice spot on the panorama route. We were here early morning so almost no other people were here, but we think this is full of people in high season during the day. When driving further to Graskop, you find an amazing place for overnight stay (and breakfast or even lunch): Treur River Lodge and the Chubby Pig Eatery. Google it and find out! Cozy, charming ...

          -Panorama route waterfalls and views ...

When driving from the North towards Graskop, the first spots you encounter are Berlin and Lisbon falls, on the right side at about 1 km from the main road. At all these places you need to pay a small entrance fee and then locals are selling different things, from clothes to wooden elephants and whatever can be sold. All falls have their characteristic views. When turning back on the main road towards Graskop, you can turn left to the R534 at a road that makes a loop to end back on the main road, and stop in Window View, God’s Window (many, many people at this spot), and Pinnacle Rock.  These are scenic views so indeed worth visiting. When driving further south and passing Graskop and driving towards Sabie, Forest falls was of particular interest, as their is a 4km trail to these falls, which is easy and beautiful. To start the trail, go to the Green Heritage Picnic Site (Google Maps mentions the trail start as well). On the other site of the main road, you can visit Maria Shires Falls. Forest Falls is quite nice, and is a broad carpet of water falling down. You can (if you are a bit adventurous) climb left to the top and there you can see the rocky large platform over which the water flows into the falls, but be careful as it is slippery. Mac Mac Falls are a bit further down the road, and is very impressive. There is a platform to look at these falls and the surrounding cliffs. We did not visit the falls around Sabie, such as Lone Creek falls and Bridal Veil Falls, although there seems to be a nice trial of more than 10kms starting from the Mary Pebbles resort in Sabie. After all these great nature wonders we had a bit of time before heading to our Graskop B&B (Dar Amane, great place to stay) and we visited Graskop Gorge. A touristic hotspot for cliff walking, forest walking, zipline, looking into the ravine while walking over a wooden bridge and in addition a big swing for adrenalin junks. Anyhow, this place is worth visiting as well, so in this area you can really do a lot, so take time to do this in a relaxed way.

          - Blyderivierspoortdam

At this huge men-made lake you can do boat tours that are really nice, and you can have a view on the mountains that you can hike in the region of the 3 Rondavels and Marieskop, that are on both sites of the lake, from below. Also you will see hippos, and if your boat guide is good, big snakes and other smaller wildlife. You have to book online in advance and pick a starting hour. You need to drive and pass the Swadini Forever Resort towards the Blyde River Canyon Boat Deck. There are signs and off course barriers with rangers asking entrance fees. But the boat tours are really worth it. Also, you can do some hikes here, including a small peninsula trail (drive to the visitor centre over bumpy roads) and a Hippo trial. When we tried to the latter this early afternoon, we were not permitted anymore. A pity... So best to plan well beforehand, and take a very early or late boat tour to be able to do this trail. It looks pretty good when searching online and has a decent distance as well. Because of this, we looked for an alternative and drove to the Endangered Species Rescue Centre in Hoedspruit. In the bush, this place is housing cheetah (mainly), leopard, wild dogs and some other animals. Quite a nice place to visit when you have some time and no other activities planned.