South Africa to Zimbabwe Day 10

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A surprise awaits

Wednesday, August 25. 5:30 wakeup call, 6:30 breakfast, 7:30 head out for Blyde River Canyon about 50 miles west of the Kruger Park border. Although socked in with fog, it is beautiful. The river has carved out curves and swirls in the red and yellow rocks with a waterfall serving as backdrop, flowing from a half dozen terraces. The red-sandstone canyon (lichen contribute to a multitude of colors) is supposedly the world's third largest behind Grand Canyon in the states and Fish Canyon in Namibia, but what we see is a tiny fraction of that.

Back on the bus

The rest of the trip to Johannesburg is fairly uneventful. We stop every few hours for a stretch or a snack or to cruise a little town.

We lunch in the small town of Graskop and then move on to the old mining town of Pilgrims’ Rest, built in the late 1800s during the S African gold rush.

Changing vistas

Miles and miles of straight, tall eucalyptus trees standing in neat rows as far as the eye can see are being farmed for pulp and logs. Some of the stands are 35 years old, which means some lumber company had quite a bit of foresight. Eucalyptus was imported from Australia, incidentally; it’s not native to Africa. The eucalyptus gives way to pine as we approach the highest spot on our trip today, over a mile above sea level. The whole bus takes turns dozing and reading and chatting. Periodically our tour guide, Tom, gives us a bit of history about the area. He is a walking encyclopedia. Very knowledgeable about all things South African.

At last

Upon arrival in Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg, we settle into the Balalaika Sandton Hotel for the night. It's about 7 pm when we arrive and almost all of it has been on the bus. But at least someone else is driving. Because of the stops, it actually didn't seem that bad though.

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