Panorama Route

I rented a car at the Johannesburg airport this morning and headed for Kruger National Park, a few hundred miles East of Johannesburg on the Mozambique border. The kid behind the counter at Budget Rent-A-Car told me to follow the N12 highway out of the city and the moment I spotted an N12 sign I locked on and followed the arrows directing me. After a half-hour of driving I was still in the city and the signs were getting confusing, so I turned off to ask for directions. When I saw the condition of the neighborhood I was in I quickly locked all the doors and headed for the nearest gas station. It turned out that I had followed N12 westbound halfway around the city instead of eastbound towards Kruger. Even worse, the road had taken me straight to Soweto; South Africa's notoriously dangerous ghetto famous for being the birthplace of Nelson Mandela. Fortunately I only had to leave the car long enough to get directions and within minutes I was back on the road. With my bearings finally straight I cranked the volume up to the tune of South Africa's “Five FM” radio station and cruised East on the N12 out of Johannesburg.

South Africa's “Panorama Route” is a collection of natural wonders that lies in a concentrated area called the Blyde River Canyon. Since the Panorama Route happens to be very close to Kruger National Park, I figured I'd spend a few hours touring it before driving to the park this evening.

My first three stops on the Panorama Route were, ironically enough, at waterfalls. I should have known when I planned out the trip that any waterfall I could possibly see after Victoria Falls would look like a dripping faucet in comparison, but I'm still glad I visited them. Visiting a smaller waterfall just has a different feel to it than something like Victoria Falls. Watching Victoria Falls is like watching a giant, consuming forest fire; it's captivating because it's big and it's loud and it makes your mouth hang open because you're not paying attention to anything else. A small waterfall, like the ones I saw today, is like a campfire; it's interesting to watch just because it's something that's natural and it moves unpredictably. I visited two falls called Horseshoe Falls and Mac Mac Falls, but my favorite was Lone Creek Falls. At Lone Creek I walked up a short dirt trail to a 200-foot waterfall shooting down in front of a rock face into a murky blue pool below. The contrast of the red rock, the white water, the blue pool, and the green foliage gave the place a lot of natural beauty.Down the road I stopped for a few minutes at “God's Window”, a lookout point between two cliffs from which there are sweeping panoramic views of the lush green valley 3000 feet below.I had to be at Skukuza camp in Kruger by six o'clock tonight and time was getting very short, but I decided to squeeze in one more stop on the Panorama Route. “Bourke's Luck Potholes” turned out to be my favorite sight of the day. Bourke's Luck is a series of small, narrow, red-rock canyons that look just like something out of Zions National Park back in Utah. The unique feature of these canyons is that in the center there is a collection of unusual cylindrical rock formations that resemble potholes. Before I left on the trip this May I looked up pictures of the potholes online, but they still surprised me once I saw them in real life. The potholes are much bigger and much deeper than I pictured them; maybe six feet in diameter and six feet deep. Again, the contrasting colors were really what gave the place it's natural beauty. As I was walking back to the car I passed a spot where the sunlight reflected perfectly off of one end of a red-rock canyon and the river below. Views like that are great for experimenting with my camera. I tried a few really awkward angles that captured the combination of light and color that I wanted and ended up getting a few lucky photos.The Panorama Route was perfect for my South Africa road trip, but I really wish I had more time to spend there. The natural wonders that I came for have been great, but there are also some small towns along the route that have several locally-owned guesthouses and cafes that remind me of stuff I've seen in Jackson Hole. It would have been fun to take it all at a slower pace and stop at a few of those places along the way, but since I only have five days total in South Africa it doesn't make sense to spend two or three days just on the Panorama Route. Maybe a few years from now I'll come back and give it another go.