We left the caravan park Saturday morning for a site seeing tour to Sabie, Pilgrim's Rest and Hazyview. The road took us thru the mountains on the way to Leydenburg where we came to a T junction on top of the Longtom pass where we turned left to the town of Sabie and down the mountain we drove. I am still amazed at how easy the little bus drive's these mountain passes.
We stopped at Sabie for breakfast at the famous pancake restaurant and after a delicious breakfast and getting directions from the owner we went in surge of the Brides vial waterfall. After driving a short distance on a very bad potholed road we arrived at the base of the foothills of the mountains that surround the town and is also the start off the hiking trail up the mountainside to the waterfall. It didn't look to steep so we set of to find this waterfall. We started off ok but as you get closer to the waterfall it gets steeper fast and it wasn't to long before I was panting like a old dog on a very hot summer day. Of course I had to stop to admire the scenery of the rainforest and take in the smell of the trees around us a few times. Once we arrived at the waterfall and I got my breathing under control I enjoined the time we spent at the waterfall. We took some photos and then it was time to negotiate the trek down the mountainside, back over the boulders that was wet by this time it being a rainforest and all, slipping and sliding down the muddy footpath mere inches from mind numbing cliff's struggling to keep my footing, all the time carrying our two year old down this very steep and dangerous mountain.
Well that's how I'd like to describe the footpath to the waterfall but in realty it's just a stiff walk up the mountainside and the forest is really breathtaking beautiful.
We left Sabie to go to Pilgrim's Rest all the way driving thru grate mountains, Anita and I both decided that we wouldn't be taking the bus to this area, although the mountains are beautiful they're just to steep and we wouldn't enjoy driving here with a ten ton bus towing a heavy trailer. That is the reason we prefer to do our day trips with the little bus it's mage cheaper and more enjoyable for all of us.
We have been to Pilgrim's Rest before and at that time we enjoyed our stay tremendously. Pilgrim's Rest was the first mining town in South Africa and gold was first found here by Alex"Wheelbarrow" Patterson in 1873 in a nearby stream.
Today sadly it's just a tourist trap with more native beggars than tourists. This one's beautiful museum is overrun by natives selling nuts and harassing the few tourists that are still here. We walked around for a hour or so but decided to leave the place and go to Graskop 10 km from there.
So back up the mountain on a very narrow road that twist and turn all the way to Graskop. I can not belief that many years ago we toured this exact mountains with a 1980 Chevrolet C10 and 1981 Jurgens Superior and their was nothing strange about it. Now that I think back, maybe it was the ignorance of our youth those year's that made us do things like that, today I wouldn't thing of doing it agane.
We stopped at the caravan park in Graskop where we spent many wonderful days and what a shock we had, there is almost nothing left of the one's beautiful caravan park. Permanent renters took over the chalets I don't things they are paying for them. The swiminpool is a rotting messy hole in the ground, the one's beautiful absolution blocks are broken down and not serviceable any more. All that remains of this one's majestic resort is the beautiful views from the top of the ecskarpment to the Lowvelt down below. Om my beloved country, how long will you be able endure the ignorance and cruelty of your plunderers.
I thought long and hard about this post and how to write it, because in the event of anyone actually reading my blog I want to inspire them to also visit some of the places that we find so interesting and wonderful. But I guess I can only tell it the way I see it and try to be true to myself.
The rest of the town is tourist'y, I counted four Pancake restaurant's in one street that is not longer than one kilometer, with a lot of African craft stalls selling more or less the same stuff. We stopped at a chocolate shop for some delicious handmaid truffels the lady knows her business let me tell you they were to die for.
Because it was getting late we decided to return to the bus taking the road over the Kowyns Pass to the town of Hazyview. Next time I certainly want to spent more time in this town, I'm certain this town has lots to offer to us travellers.
We got back tithe bus 5:30 or so just in time fora glass of wine and a beautiful sunset.
