Journeys
The Panorama Route, Blyde River Canyon and God's Window
On the edge of the Mpumalanga escarpment, the land drops away towards the Lowveld and Kruger, and a road runs along the rim from one viewpoint to the next. It is the Panorama Route, and its great set piece is the Blyde River Canyon.
By Walter Pellow2 November 20265 min read
Most of South Africa's great journeys are long. This one is short, and the point of it is to stop. The Panorama Route is the name given to a loop of roads along the top of the Drakensberg escarpment in Mpumalanga, where the high plateau ends abruptly and the land falls away to the hot, low country of the Lowveld. For a stretch of the drive the road keeps close to that edge, and every few kilometres there is a turning, a car park and a view.
It is the natural thing to do on the way to or from Kruger National Park, which lies below in the Lowveld, and that is how most visitors come to it: a day on the rim, a night in Graskop or one of the other small towns, and then down the escarpment to the game drives.
Gold, then the views
The escarpment was first famous for something else. In 1873 a prospector, Alec Patterson, found gold in the valley of what became Pilgrim's Creek, and a rush followed. By 1876 the diggings had become a proper town, Pilgrim's Rest, and the village survives, declared a national monument in 1986. The waterfalls at Lisbon, Berlin and Mac Mac are each a short detour from the road.
Bourke's Luck Potholes keep the memory of the gold in their name. They are named after Tom Bourke, a prospector who expected to find gold here, and they sit at the point where two rivers meet. Over a very long time, pebbles swirled round by the water have drilled the rock into deep, round potholes, smooth-sided and oddly regular, with bridges across them so you can look straight down.
The Blyde River Canyon
Then the canyon. The Blyde River has cut a long, deep gorge through the escarpment, and it is often described, by South African tourism among others, as the third-largest canyon in the world, after the Grand Canyon and Namibia's Fish River Canyon. That ranking is a popular claim rather than a measurement, and it does not matter much once you are standing at the edge. What the canyon has that the other two lack is green: its slopes are covered in subtropical bush and forest, and it is sometimes called the largest green canyon on earth.
The high plateau ends abruptly and the land falls away to the hot, low country of the Lowveld.
The view that everyone stops for is the Three Rondavels, three round-topped peaks of rock rising from the far side of the canyon, which look like the traditional round huts, or rondavels, of the region. The viewpoint stands at about 1,380 metres above sea level, and from it the canyon opens out below, with the river at the bottom.
God's Window
The best-known name on the route is God's Window, a viewpoint at the very lip of the escarpment where the cliffs drop away and the whole of the Lowveld spreads out below. On a clear day, the view is said to reach as far as Kruger National Park and towards Mozambique. On a misty one you may see nothing but cloud, which is a good reason to keep a little flexibility in the day. I would go as early as the day allows.
All of this is best taken slowly. The distances are small, and the pleasure is in stopping at each viewpoint, walking the short paths, and letting the scale of the drop sink in.
Tours that take in the route
Three tours in the catalogue go this way, each as part of a longer journey through South Africa.
Explore Worldwide's Family South Africa Safari and Beach Adventure is twelve nights. Its places include Johannesburg, White River, God's Window, the Blyde River Canyon, Kruger National Park, Hazyview, the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, Kosi Bay, St Lucia, Durban and Umhlanga Beach. It runs in March, July, August and October.
Just You's Experience South Africa is thirteen nights and lists the Panorama Route by name, along with Cape Town, the Cape Peninsula, Oudtshoorn, Knysna, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, Kruger National Park and Johannesburg.
Explore's nine-night South Africa & Eswatini includes Graskop, Mpumalanga and the Blyde River Canyon among its places, with the Drakensberg Mountains, Rorke's Drift, St Lucia, Eswatini, Kruger National Park and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park.
However you come, bring a jacket for the rim. It is a long way above the Lowveld, and the view from the top is better enjoyed warm.
By Walter Pellow, the name Atlas & Passage’s editorial team writes under. Prices and dates in the trips below come from the operators and can change.
