Day One - The Tour Begins

Africa » South Africa » Mpumalanga » Graskop
July 28th 2012

Published: June 28th 2017

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Tofor85

The First Morning

Sun rises at the Rivonia Lodge in Joburg

Geo: -24.9337, 30.8405

So here we are in South Africa! The currency is the Rand and 1 AUD = approx 7.5 Rand. The weather is cool nights (down to around 2C) and moderate days 15-25C with minimal to no rain. We emerged in the lobby @ 6am for breakfast. Our tour was scheduled to
leave at 6.30. Our group consisted of 12 members, and was generally an
older age. Aside from Nat and I, theres a Belgian couple around our age (Bert & Nela),
an American couple (50s; John & Paulie), two Australian sisters (70s; Margaret & Lesley) and four non-English-speaking-Russians 50-80 (didn't even learn all their names; Olga and Zoya were two of them).

We have two tour guides for our tour, Jonathan and Shanli. Our transport is an all-terrain style twelve seater truck with full length windows and roof windows as well.

For our first day, today was not exactly a thrill-fest.. the majority of our time was spent driving, some 5-6 hours from Johannesburg, finishing up in a place called Graskop, near Pilgrims Rest. Aside from a few petrol and shopping stops, the first significant stop of the day was lunch at Pilgrims Rest. This town was founded in the late

Sunway Truck

Me in front of the truck that would take us from Joburg to Cape Town

1800's amidst the discovery of gold in the area. We enjoyed a walk through this historic town before a picnic lunch in the afternoon.

Another memorable stop was at Mac Mac falls, an impressive 60metre waterfall dropping into a gorge. It wasn't far from here to Blyde River Canyon, the worlds largest Green Canyon. We stopped at Gods Window lookout, and also hiked on a rainforest track to some other viewing points, enjoying some spectacular views.

Our accomodation for the night was in Graskop, on the embankment of a cliff face. Here, was home to a crazy attraction called 'The Big Swing'. Their motto here was 'Conquer your Fears' or otherwise translated into 'Risk Dying.' Nat and I enjoyed watching some stranger participate. It was risky enough getting to the attraction, which basically consisted of jumping off a cliff with a bungee cord attached. The danger of the attraction was marked by a nearby shrine and chapel. I joked with Nat that the monuments might mark people who have died on the swing. This joke became less funny when we were soon advised it was likely fact...

We enjoyed a BBQ dinner, watched some Olympics and went to sleep around 9.30 for another