September 10, 2009 - Blyde River Canyon

We woke up to a rainy and foggy morning. We decided to postpone the Panorama route of Blyde River Canyon, worried that the visibility would be bad. Instead, we opted for an excellent breakfast at the well-renowned Harrie's Pancake (apparently the reason why Graskop is considered the pankcake capital of South Africa!) followed by some shopping in town. Sami had the dark chocolate mousse pancake, while Gen chose the sugar, cinnamon and apple pie filling, but we ended up sharing each other's pancake for our joint tasting pleasure.

After our yummy breakfast, we were delighted to realize that the fog cleared up and that we might be able to stick to our schedule after all. We decided to give it a shot, and it turned out to be the perfect day for sightseeing in the Blyde River Canyon.We started off with the Three Rondavels. This is where you can see the end of the canyon leading into the Blyde Poort dam with the lowveld (low lying land) in the distance. The view is stunning, with the dam and a small mountain called "the Sundial" just below. It was our first stop, but probably should have been the last as no other site was as magnificent!

We continued on to the Lowveld view point. This is a halfway stop over the canyon, where you get to see the river bend and hear the water below. This viewpoint is 200 meters lower down than Three Rondavels and will usually have clearer view.

Next stop on the panorama route was Wonderview. This is were you get a panoramic view of the lowveld and Kruger National Park, and even of Mozambique on clear days.

We then went to God's Window. This area gets over 3000 mm rain a year, so in return you get a rainforest at the top of 300-step climb to the top. God's Window has a similar view of the lowveld and is 1650 meters above sea level.

The following stop was at Berlin falls, named after the farm on which they are situated. This waterfall makes a spectacular 45 meters drop.

We went from one fall to the other, with our next destination being Lisbon falls. This is a waterfall with three streams and at a height of 95 meters. This is where gold was discovered in 1874 and around 60 prospectors came to try their luck. It is said that only half of them found any gold.

Our final stop was at the Pinnacle, a freestanding column of weathered quartzite. We got there when it was almost sunset, adding to the beauty of the views. We also went at the Gorge view, which gave a different angle of the Pinnacle, with the canyon in the back.

After a full day of sightseeing, we went grocery shopping to stock up on food for our imminent stay at Kruger National Park.

We wanted to try the canned spaghetti with meatballs in order to determine whether to buy more (No!!!), so this was our dinner. We ate it while watching an episode of Friends (which Gen's had never watch to Sami's disbelief!), which was followed by many more episodes.