Not that I am complaining. I did what I love to do – travel, see new things, take a zillion pictures and be driven around. I pity A though, since he did most of the driving!
A had been promising me a vacation for sometime now. It was part of the “you will begin to like SA campaign”! Anyways, we decided to head to what is called the Panorama route. It is in the North-east part of the country and was truly panoramic
Our holiday started off by driving A’s parents, who were back from their vacation in India to their house. His dad was amused and surprised that we had just a “general idea” of the route and no map to guide us. The thing is A hates technology of any kind. Tom-Toms are not his kind of a thing. I on the other hand love technology and hate maps and old fashioned methods of asking around. But since the driver was convinced that we would find our way, who was I to argue! A’s dad knowing fully well that we would get lost gave us his 20 year old map as our guide.
DAY I: We started off from A’s parent’s place bidding farewell to A’s parents and Kiwi ( our puppy), with our head full of Do’s and Don’t from them. Our first stop was Echo Caves. Echo Caves were formed by the erosion of the rocks by a river centuries ago. It was nice to see the different shapes that were made by nature. It was a good exercise too – climbing steps, crawling and sliding down. I realized how fit/ unfit I was! From there we headed to a little town called Pilgrim’s rest. The town is preserved as a old English town and is a world heritage site. We were transported back to the days of horse carriages and small quaint shops. It reminded me a bit of Goa. It was a nice feeling to be able to walk on the roads without feeling insecure or weird. We spent some time roaming around the street and then left for Hazy view where our resort was. The drive was just breathtaking. I think I made A stop every 15 minutes to take pictures. It was a completely different view of SA. The landscape reminded of north of Sweden. The hills were green with pine trees and because its summers the grass was green. We finally reached the resort way past 8 pm and all I wanted to do was crash. Now the resort is another story.
I believe in budget travel. It includes staying at B&Bs and hostels. Where as my dear husband believes in staying in nice (read expensive) places. I do not see the logic of spending money on a place where you would only go to sleep. I would rather spend that money on something else during the holiday. So A and I came to a compromise that if he could find me a nice place which costed only marginally more than my B&B would I stay there. And he did! He pulled some strings and got us some fabulous B&B prices for a 5 star resort. Was I impressed or what. Some benefit of getting married to an hotelier! Needless to say that the resort was just beautiful with its own crocs and hippos. And I realized the difference between a good hotel and a B&B when I managed to find a US adapter for my camera battery to be charged. A was amused at my reaction and I think secretly gloating with the “I told you so”.
DAY 2: Back to the trip now. We started our day by taking a nice hour long walk around the resort and then headed out to see some places. Now like I said before we didn’t have a real route map but just a general idea. And hence thanks to A not listening to my intuition we drove 300 kms for something which was just 70 km away. But no complaints as I got to see some spectacular scenery and click some more pictures! Plus I also made a “boo-boo” with some planning. A really wanted to go boating in the Blyde canyon river and I went by the directions to the canyon itself. The two are separate and more than a 100 km apart and were on the way that we got lost!... Since we already left it more than a 150 km away there was no way of doing it that day. We saw the three Rondawels. They are basically three hill tops in the shape of three African huts. But the view of the canyon from there is just marvelous. We spent a long time there, just enjoying the beauty and the calm that came along with it. I think I took pictures in every possible angle and A got involved as well. The next stop was the Portholes. They were created centuries ago by erosion of the rocks by water. From there we headed to the Lisbon falls. The whole panorama route is full of such waterfalls. And though they are not majestic, they are charming. We also managed to see the view from God’s Window and the wonder view. At the risk of repeating myself the view was to die for. I haven’t ever been that shutter happy for a long time and I loved every minute of it.
Day 3: Was reserved for Kruger. It’s the national reserve which is bigger than the state of Kerala and shares borders with Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Its not possible to complete seeing Kruger in one day. Tourist and nature enthusiasts stay at the Kruger for days to observe animals. There are options of going on private game drives where you are guaranteed to see the big five. However, we decided against it since we wanted to experience the Kruger on our own. Plus I knew I would visit the Kruger again so seeing all the big five in this one trip was not a priority. We did manage to see a lot of animals and two of the big five. A lot of the times I forgot that the animals that we were seeing from such a close distance were actually wild and could be dangerous. But the adventure was outside of Kruger. We got out of one of the gates of Kruger and need to travel around 90 km back to our resort. Now it was dark and we needed to cross of townships. Its not the wisest and the safest of things to do, but I wasn’t really worried, until my dear husband mentioned that he didn’t feel comfortable with the car in front of us and was scared of hijacking. That was it.. I was nervous and fidgety for the next one hour and had a sigh of relief when we reached the resort. So much for A knowing me and my sense of paranoia well!!
Day 4: We originally decided to stay for 5 days. But by day 4 we though we were having fun, we were also missing Kiwi terribly, and bugging A’s parents with daily reports on Kiwi. I am sure they thought I was obsessive! We decided to cut short on day 5 and head back home after doing the things we were meant to do. Our first stop for the day was Mac-Mac falls. Again a very charming waterfall. But I liked the old ladies who were selling curios more. A showed me some of his bargaining skills and charmed an old lady for selling us some stuff for a steal... Happy from all the shopping we did, we needed to rush to the Blyde river for the boating we missed out on earlier. I could see clouds gathering up on the horizon and hoped and prayed that the rain gods would stay away for one more day. And in case I forgot to mention, we did a detour of another 150 km just to get there. Was it worth it?? Well both of us were a little disappointed and thought the boat ride would be much more than the guide chattering away non-stop. But then the way I see it, we would have thought about it with regret if we didn’t see it. From there we headed back on a long journey home, which became even longer since we decided to go the safer way and not take any short cuts due to “safety” reasons.
I for one was dreaming of some nice home cooked food after eating 4 days of pure junk. And yes I think we both dreamt of Kiwi and smiled through the long journey home. And boy were we welcomed. Little Kiwi went crazy and didn’t leave us for the next couple of hours. One day less was completely worth seeing that reaction :-)
Tips for the panorama route:
- Research the hotel to book. Ensure its not out of the main route and lonely
- Do a private game drive for Kruger if you are in SA for a holiday. If not enjoy it the old fashioned way.
- Boating on Blyde is possible only through one resort called Forever Resorts. You need to book in advance.
- Get a map!
Read more...
