Being the Tourist along the Panoramic Route.

For 2 days we have done the real touristy things and explored the so called Panoramic route in Mpumalanga( the old Eastern Transvaal)We went to visit the silk farm outside Graskop and was surprised at the work that goes into silkworm farming on a commercial basis. My only reference to silkworms are  the 10 or so silkworms that were bought from somebody at school and then the weeks of finding mulberry leaves to feed them and then the excitement of the worms spinning and then my Mother burning the shoebox with the eggs in. The next year it was the same all over, because there was always a kid that managed to keep the box with the eggs or one had a mulberry tree and the leave collecting was much easier. Our guide, Doris, was wonderful and if anything, she convinced me that a silk duvet is the only duvet to buy. So roll on another job and I can start putting money away towards that! African Silks sell them and also “refluff” them for you every few years. I suppose it comes at a cost, but gee, for that sense of luxury, one will just have to go with it.

Doris, our guide at the Silk worm farm. Imagine so many worms.

The rest of the day was spent in Pilgrim’s Rest. First, a stop at the Royal Hotel for a drink. This is a non negotiable when you go to Pilgrim’s Rest. This previous Methodist Church, bought in what is now Maputo in the mid eighteen hundreds and carted by ox-wagon to Pilgrim’s Rest and then to become a pub. How can you not go for a drink! Then lunch and our first stop were at “The Stables”. That was a bit like a Monty Python movie. “Can we have the Scotch pancakes? They are finished. What is your quiche of the day? No, it is finished” Well at that point we left and walked down the road to Scotties Pancakes and had Pies. I had a homemade Chicken Pie which was so big that Dick had half.

The General Dealer Museum. This is a retailers idea of a museum.

After lunch we went to some of the museums, the first being The General Dealer. What fun to a retailer! It is really a shop frozen in time and  scary, in the sense that there were quite a few things that I remembered form “way back then”. We walked out way back and ended up at the Diggers museum were our guide told us all about the interesting times of the early gold rush and how rich the Pilgrim’s Rest area was or is. All very interesting and enjoyable.  So we arrived home feeling that we had done justice to the day and Wednesday was set aside for the real Panoramic Route.

Dick mining for gold. Story of our lives!

This morning we were off at 9 and headed for the Blyde River Canyon . This is the true Panoramic Route. People come from all over the world to come and experience the beauty of it. We started off at the Pinnacle, a solitary rock in the middle of the canyon and then we were of to God’s Window, with the magnificent views over the endless Plantations which just stretch over kilometers and kilometers over the hills as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately the view is often a bit hazy and a photo does not really do justice to it. Then it was off to Lisbon Falls and Berlin Falls and then Bourke’s Luck and the potholes. I have not been there for so long that I could hardly remember the magnificence of it.  There are wonderful walkways and even the weak and poorly can manage to walk there if they put their mind to it. Lots of old people we saw there, proper pensioners.

Pinnacle Rock

Bourke's Luck Potholes

Berlin Falls

Our last destination for the day was the River Lodge, near Hoedspruit where Dick and I spent our first week end together in the dim and distant past. I travelled all the way up from Pretoria to spend the week end with him and the boys and all his diving buddies. I was very much in love at the time. Thank God it has lasted for 25 years already. Obviously the River Lodge is nothing like we knew it, but we had a G&T and a toasted sandwich and took a few pics and that was that one put to bed.Memories are just that!

House and people living all over the hills.

The journey home was through the most densely populated rural area in the country. It is believed that there are at least 5 million people living there, all sprawling over the hills. There are some really grand houses amongst all the different houses. There are hundreds of Spaza shops, car washes and informal trade all along. It stretched for at least 40 km. It is very different to anywhere else and one is very aware of the fact that it is a densely populated area.

So we have come and we have seen and we have the pictures and now we move on again. Tomorrow we have to do washing and stock up again as we are spending 4 days in the Kruger Park from Friday. We are back to camping and will surely miss our warm house in Sanbonani, but we will be close to nature again and snug in our roof top tent. Variety is indeed the spice of life.