An unabashed tourist and her family explore the world one holiday at a time.
When people think of Africa, they think of the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. While South Africa has many, many private game reserves where you can view the Big Five up close, nothing compares to the Kruger National Park for seeing the animals in their natural habitat. The Park is larger than either Israel and Wales...
My hometown, Pretoria, is known as South Africa’s Jacaranda City. Every October, as the mild spring weather with its daytime thunderstorms starts giving way to the heat of summer, the jacaranda trees are in full bloom. The whole city is covered in a blanket of purple flowers and the sweet scent of its blooms lingers in the air. It is...
Apart from beautiful views, the Panorama Route is also known for a collection of amazing waterfalls, especially around the Graskop area. On our last day camping in Sabie, we decided to take a tour of the sights. Lucky for us, the day dawned bright and blue, with none of the mist that had pervaded the previous few days of our...
Although I’m not a foodie in any sense of the word (apart from liking to eat), I do try out local specialties from time to time, if they’re not too exotic for my taste buds. While we were touring through Mpumalanga’s beautiful Panaroma region, we happened to pass through Graskop during lunch time one day. Now I’ve heard tell that...
Mpumalanga’s Panorama Route is aptly named – it boasts some of the country’s most scenic vistas across the Blyde River Canyon from the Klein Drakensberg escarpment. We travelled along the R532 down the length of the Canyon, starting right at the top at Drie Rondawels, all the way down to the Pinnacle near Graskop. A really good map of the...
After our quick visit to Pilgrim’s Rest, we continued onwards to Bourke’s Luck Potholes, a series of natural rock formations that mark the beginning of the Blyde River Canyon. The potholes are fenced off within the Blyde River Canyon reserve, but a fee of R25 per person plus R5 per car is not too exorbitant to see this stunning natural...
When I had initially planned our Panorama holiday, I wanted to camp in the little prospecting town of Pilgrim’s Rest, which is situated in a valley at the end of a nail-biting hairpin mountain pass about 40km from Sabie. The town was established in the early 1800s during South Africa’s gold rush, and visiting it is like stepping back in...
Earlier this year I wrote about a longing to be surrounded by mountains, tall trees and crystal clear lakes. I wanted to go to Alaska, but we settled on visiting South Africa’s “Panorama” area in Mpumalanga, combined with a few days’ visit to the Kruger Park. It was a surprisingly enjoyable holiday – not only was the area picture-perfect and...
Lately, I’ve found myself more and more drawn towards destinations that feature animals and the beauty of nature as the main attraction. I went swimming with dolphins in Zanzibar last year and recently jetted off to Hermanus to do some whale watching. A friend of mine also suggested travelling to Rwanda, the last place where the endangered silverback gorilla can...
The Deutsche Schule in Pretoria holds an annual Oktoberfest in line with München’s well-known beer festival. Since I don’t drink beer, I’ve never gone to the trouble of attending, but my mother, who loves all things German, persuaded us to try it out this year. We were a little disappointed. With such a high entrance fee (R100 per person), we...