We want to preface that this post is a travel diary and follows the things we do. Unfortunately, on this section of our road trip, we didn’t do as much as we had hoped! Not every travel experience goes as planned, so please don’t blame us if you get to the bottom of this post and wonder where the content is! But if you do read on, I guarantee you’ll love the photos and will see a side of Africa you were not expecting.
The Panorama Route is a popular tourist attraction in the eastern portion of South Africa. The road connects both cultural landmarks and scenery, including multiple viewpoints of the Blyde River Canyon, one of the largest canyons in the world. Since the route is just to the west of Kruger National Park, the towns in this area are often used as “gateway” points for tourists traveling to Kruger.
We left Kruger National Park just after 3 PM, after spending a long day driving through the park, with a plethora of animal sightings. Check out this Instagram reel about our drive in Kruger and our safari post here.
After exiting from the Crocodile River gate we jumped on the highway and headed west for a couple hours. The terrain rose as we climbed into the Drakensberg mountains. It felt strange to be on the lookout for potholes and people crossing the street instead of elephants and zebras.
Sabie
We eventually reached Seattle. Just kidding! But seriously, look at these views. The clouds were low and we were surrounded by mist and evergreen trees. It felt a lot like the Pacific Northwest. The hillsides in this area are timber plantations, with trees planted for paper pulp and timber production. The trees are planted in rows, with the bottom ten feet of branches removed. Odd to see forests that are planted like corn fields.
We had rented a cozy Airbnb studio in a quiet residential neighborhood in the small town of Sabie. Sabie reminded us of small logging towns on the Olympic Peninsula, and there were timber-themed establishments like the Woodsman Tavern. After unloading the car, we went there for dinner, where we tried stifadho (a Greek stew and one of their house specialties). The food was decent but did not wow us. We did enjoy the ambience though.
The next day our plans started veering off course.
Sabie is on the southern side of the Panorama Route. We had plans to take two days to see the Panorama Route: one day in the north and the second day in the south, returning to Sabie to pack up and be ready to leave the third morning.
On our first day, we left to start our day with waffles. As we hit a patch of rain, I turned on the windshield wipers to hear a terrible scraping. A couple seconds later, one of the blades had almost completely detached. We pulled over on the highway as the mist turned into a shower. Corey tried to snap the blade back in but a part was missing and it would not stay put. It was enough to get us to the restaurant but I was trying not to use it, meaning I was driving somewhat blind.
The waffle restaurant was packed, typically a good sign! But everyone had frowns on their faces, and most of the tables were waiting for food. That’s not a good sign. We waited a full 15 minutes without anyone taking our orders, and we were picking up our things to leave when a server finally came to our table. We ordered two waffles and a peanut butter shake. 10 minutes later, the server let us know that our first choice was not available. Five minutes following that, the server let us know that our second choice was also not available. We ordered the one savory waffle that they had remaining, a savory mince (think ground beef). The waffle was cold and the mince appeared to have been microwaved. A blue shake was brought to the table: apparently peanut butter was rang in as bubble gum. The whole experience was underwhelming.
We called the rental car company and they made arrangements to bring us a new car the following day. Since the rain had let up, we decided to try to drive again. We continued driving through the town of Graskop. This town had seemed cute when we read about it, but we did not see much besides street vendors dressed like Jamaicans.
We kept going on a short drive to the viewpoint called God’s Window. As we drove up the mountain, the fog got thicker and thicker, and the visibility worsened to about nil. What’s the point of paying for a viewpoint if you’re fogged in? So we kept driving and made a new plan, heading over to a town called Pilgrims Rest. The drive up and over that mountain felt like a mix between New Zealand and Malaysia. The terrain changed that quickly as we left the forest plantations: from lush green rolling hills to sunny tropical overgrowth, all as we drove the narrow pothole-filled roads, with monkeys darting across.
Pilgrims Rest is an old mining town, preserved as a tourist attraction. It has seen better days. There are general stores, antique shops, and the other types of shops found in tourist-focused villages. At one point there may have been a museum. We sat for brunch at The Vine, located in an old saloon building, where we tried lamb potjie, a stew made in a small cast-iron cauldron. Food and service were outstanding!
After our early dinner, we drove back to Sabie. For day one on the Panorama Route, there was more fog than there was panorama!
The replacement car was to arrive in the morning, no later than noon. We killed time at the apartment waiting. The car arrived at 1 PM. By 1:30 PM we were on the road, with just about four hours until the sun would set and we would need to be on our way back to Sabie.
We could not find anything that we could eat while driving, so we stopped at Kuier, a cafe in Graskop, and had a large and tasty fried-chicken sandwich and a burger. While cashing out we discovered that we left the wallet at home… 30 minutes away! We turned back around, got our money, went back and paid. Another hour wasted!
At that point we decided to head north as quickly as possible, to see the viewpoints of Blyde River Canyon.
The various attractions on the Panorama Route charge separate entrance fees: there is no consolidated passes to worry about. This ended up being nice for us since we hardly got to see anything in our two days.
Our first stop was the Lowveld Viewpoint. It was either too late in the afternoon for anyone to collect entrance fees, or this is a stop where no fees are collected. Either way, the vendors were taking down their wares and it felt like we were there at the tail-end of the day. The views were outstanding but we only had a few minutes to enjoy before moving onward to the main attraction, the Three Rondavels Viewpoint.
There was a small fee to enter, collected at an official entrance gate. We parked and walked out to the edge, which is fenced in for all those dummies out there.
The viewpoint is named for the three rock formations that resemble the cylindrical huts called rondavels. It was a breathtaking view over the edge, down the river, across the sky and everything in between. We’re no newbies to canyons and this one was still fascinating.
If only we had had more time to explore. I wanted to do the boat ride. Unlike the game reserves we had been to in South Africa, the Panorama Route offers opportunities for hiking, and I had wanted to check out some of the waterfalls in the area.
Oh well, viewpoints only. And the drive! The scenery around the Panorama Route is stunning, with the forest-covered hillsides overlooking the enormous canyon. I just wish we had experienced better weather and no car problems. Even from our limited sightseeing, it was clear why the Panorama Route is so popular.
We drove home making a stop for dinner in Sabie at the Wild Fig. We feasted on foods I never thought I would try… or like: ostrich salad, crocodile, wildebeest, and warthog carpaccio. One of my favorite meals in South Africa so far. It was interesting to dine on four animals that we had recently been watching in the wild!
The following morning we packed up the car and started the drive to Durban, a city on the southeastern coast of South Africa.
Milly’s Trout
Once a small building alongside the highway made to sell their farmed trout products, Milly’s Trout has now grown to become an institution. At this time, you pull your car into an enormous travelers rest area, with a gas station, mini-mart, multiple restaurants, and even a hotel. Milly’s offers both a full-service restaurant, and a separate bakery and gift shop. We ate brunch at the restaurant (grilled trout, smoked trout, trout rillettes, trout pate) and then bought a bag of things from the gift shop (trout pie and take-away versions of the rillettes and pate). They are most known for their savory trout pie, which is found in the hot case at the gift shop. The restaurant overlooks a dammed lake, which provides both background scenery and a cool breeze. Probably the nicest rest area I have ever visited.
Newcastle
Because Durban is a long drive, we needed a stop in the middle of the drive. We broke up the trek with a stop near Newcastle. The ANEW Vulintaba is nestled into a scenic valley in the Drakensberg foothills. The hotel is part of a gated development centered around a golf course. To us, it felt like one of those destination hotels just a couple hours outside of cities that are nice spots for weddings.
With just a one-night stay we only had time to chill out in the large hotel room and walk around the hotel grounds. Post dinner, I enjoyed a hot bath that included butler service through the window. Okay, he’s not a butler but Corey does pour the wine!
The hotel looks close to Newcastle town on the map, but the road driving there is so poor that it took us 30 minutes each way! The potholes are massive, and we had to avoid livestock and kids on the road, driving at around 20 MPH the whole way. The room was outstanding, but we expected more from the grounds. The pool had an vacuum sitting in it, unused, surrounded by a collection of bugs and debris. The windows in the lobby were smeared with fingerprints. Service at dinner was best described as inefficient, as our wine bottle was delivered and opened 10 minutes before wine glasses were brought, and our entrée plates were blisteringly-hot from sitting under the warming lamp.
We wanted to go for a hike in the mountains, but the trail was a little too long for the time we had, especially with a long drive for the following day. The golf course also charged a small fee to use the trail, which we found odd. So we went on an evening stroll around the golf course paths instead.
Without a pool that we wanted to sit by, we decided to leave once we woke up and packed. After the half-hour drive down the hill, we had “brunch” at Chicken Lickin’, a South African fried chicken chain. Like many restaurants in South Africa, it took forever to get the food, but it was freshly-prepared and too hot to handle. The rest of the highway drive was a descent from the mountains back to sea level.
For some context, here’s the elevation of the cities we’ve visited and some comparisons:
(Measurement below is in meters. To our fellow Americans, a meter is pretty close to a yard, so multiply by three if you want to know the elevation in feet.)
- Sabie: 1000
- Dullstroom: 2100
- Madikwe Game Reserve: 1123
- Newcastle: 1194
- Johannesburg: 1624
- Denver: 1673 (mile-high!)
- Hartbeespoort: 1170
- Calgary: 1095
- Durban: 8
- Seattle: 50
Much of eastern South Africa is at high elevation, much higher than we thought before visiting! If you’re interested there’s a nice graphic here with the highest cities in the world.
We reached the Indian Ocean beach and felt revived by the salty sea. The mist off the breaking surf filled the air. We were originally planning to only stay a few nights in Durban and then board a repositioning cruise to Italy. But with the security issues in the Red Sea, our cruise was cancelled, leaving us instead with two weeks in Durban, and then two months in Italy. More to come!
