World Cup - Panorama Route

Maxi Taxi stand

Waking up the next morning, I seriously debated whether I should just take it easy and rest as I had a sore throat and a giddy head but then, I had barely a few more days left in South Africa (plus a few more in Swaziland) and that was reason enough to push ahead with my plan of hiking through the Panorama route.

Panorama Route besides the Kruger park

To begin my hike I had to first get back halfway up the mountains and that involved 3 legs of travel via local taxis. First, a trip starting the climb up the mountain to a small mountain village across the Blyde River Canyon for about 33kms, from there take another one to a village across the Bourke's luck pothole for about 10kms and then take another taxi for about 27kms to the point where I wanted to start my hike which was about 10-12kms before the scenic town of Graskop. I have a picture of the whole map if you are interested to visually see my route. The highlight of my hike was to see a couple of view point overlooking the Lowveld and the Kruger Park, and the Pinnacle. I made sure my hike was not too far away from the road as I was hiking alone and there were not a lot of trials I could follow.

Scrambling

The view all through the hike was spectacular with mountains and coniferous trees on one side as the other side continued to climb. After about 8 kilometers, I reached a point called the Wonderview; this place is at the top most point on the edge of the escarpment where I could see a 180 degree view of the lowveld about 800 meters below . The lowveld is an Afrikaans word for flat and wide open rural spaces of southern Africa where the escarpment descends. As I gazed at the lowveld, at a distance I could see the Kruger National park and then further beyond that with some lighter shade of grey was Mozambique.

I soaked in the view while I refueled with some snacks and water but I still had a lot of distance to cover and it was already close to noon so I continued on my hike which at this point had turned into a horizontal walk as I was at the highest point of the escarpment. A kilometer or so later I was at God’s Window. The view from this point was similar to Wonderview in that it looked out at the lowveld below but there were a few differences in the landscape.

I guess the reason why people call it God’s Window is because when you are standing there the cliffs are on the left, gentle rolling hill on the right and the seemingly endless lowveld as far as the eye can see in the center and it seems as thought this is the view God chooses to look at the world.

View from Wonder view...Kruger National Park in the distance and then Mozambique on the horizon

There were a lot of tourists at this point so I stayed there only for a short while and continued on to the last think I wanted to see on my hike “the Pinnacle. The Pinnacle is a tower-like freestanding quartzite rock which rises 30m above the dense indigenous forests. As per my initial plan, after I see the Pinnacle, I was to walk another 6 km to the town of Graskop where I would catch a taxi and retrace my way back to the place where I was based, close to the town of Origstad.

Gods's Window

By the time I got to the Pinnacle, it was already 3pm and I learnt from the lady at the entrance that if I get to Graskop any later than 5pm I won’t be able to get any taxi back to Origstad. I managed to convince her and her friends who were selling handicraft there to give me a ride back to their village which was about halfway to Origstad. They asked me to come back at to the entrance at 4pm. With that being taken care of I proceeded to see the Pinnacle and just sit there for a while and soak in the last view of the canyon.

The ladies dropped me off at their village and asked me to take a taxi to the next village in the mountains. Evidently that was the last taxi plying on that whole mountainous route that evening but I need to go another 33kms to go to my base. When the driver dropped me off he asked to stand at a particular point where I had a better chance to get a ride back but warned that my chances of getting a lift were getting bleaker by the minute as the sun set. The reason for that being that drivers are skeptical of stopping in the mountains as they have a history of being frequented by thieves and robbers.

Fortunately for me there was already a kid waiting for a lift so I joined him and we were pretty lucky that the 2nd car that we waved for picked us up. I was dropped off at the intersection from where I had caught my first taxi in the morning and I gave them a small tip as an appreciation. I still had a kilometer to walk before I got to the Shoe (where I was staying) and along my way, I saw the lady who worked at the Shoe and asked me what I was doing walking around there at that late hour (It was only 6pm but the place was totally deserted). When I told her I wanted to go to Polokwane she invited me over to a small general store that was still half open to speak to her friend who could give me better idea how I could get to Polokwane.

Soaking in the view from beside the Pinnacle

Her friend told me that I would have to take a taxi the next morning to a nearby city of Lydenberg and then get a public transport to Polokwane. While I was there, we chatted and some of our topics ranged from what I was doing there to how the life is for an ordinary South African living in the mountains.


My last ride for the day

When I got to my room at the farmhouse, I asked for hamburger and chips to celebrate my successful hike. Later than evening Aldo knocked on the door with my supper. Aldo was the son of the family that owned and ran the farm house. He seemed like a really nice chap in his mid twenty’s and pretty soon we were in a good conversation. He even suggested that he could drive me to Polokwane the next day. Evidently, earlier that morning I had briefly mentioned to his mother that I was going to hitchhike to Polokwane the next day and she was worried about me doing that and had asked her son to drive me to Polokwane.

I was thankful that she was kind enough to do that and agreed to drive with him to Polokwane. With that I ended a successful day inspite of the cold which I only realized when I got in the bed. I had been so busy the whole day to notice that I was sick.