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Published: December 8th 2020
Hazyview is a sub-tropical farming town in Mpumalanga province, renowned for its large banana and macadamia nut industries, contributing about 20% of South Africa's bananas and 30% of macadamia output. It is also a tourist destination for people traveling to the Krueger National Park or doing the Panorama Tour, which was precisely our intention too.
The Panorama Route is a famous road on the edge of the Midlveld in Mpelanga. The topography at the Blyde River Canyon drops by app 1000 m to the “Lowveld” creating spectacular gorges and waterfalls. There are actually more waterfalls around this area than anywhere else in southern Africa. Regarded as the most stunning of the lot, Mac Mac has twin falls that plunge some 70m into a gorge below. We had a list of about 6 places we wanted to see. Well this time our luck run out after about 3 hours into the excursion. We were caught in a huge tropical storm being far away from the car hiking around the Bourke’s Luck Potholes. We were running for our lives but could not avoid being drenched completely. Well, no choice than to drive back to our hotel in Hazyview, dry up and spend
the rest of the afternoon in good Thai fashion sleeping. After all it was Sunday.
The weather in South Africa has very different faces throughout the country. Generally South Africa has a lovely, temperate climate with plenty of sunny, dry days. The main factors influencing conditions are altitude and the surrounding oceans. The east coast is on the Indian Ocean, which has a warm current. The west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with a cold current. The North East which has a wet and dry season (wet from November to April) can be described as tropical. The South West with more Mediterranean characteristics, where winter and summer occur at opposite times to the corresponding seasons in Europe and North America and the North West with its typical desert climate. We were assured and all our research indicated that the wet season is similar to Thailand with short intense showers mostly in the late afternoon but otherwise dry conditions. The first wet welcome made us a bit skeptical on the prognosis given to us. But hellas, it is better to speak about the weather of South Africa than debate Covid infection statistics in Switzerland !!!
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Panorama Route 
