Panoramic Drive to Johannesburg

The coach left this morning at 7:15 so we had the opportunity to actually sleep in a little compared to other mornings. Of course I woke up at 4:22 and finally got out of bed at 5:15. We had about a six hour drive to Jo'burg but the plan was to stop along the way to see various scenic areas. Once again the weather was against us as our first stop was to be at a place called God's Window.

God's Window is a scenic view point 1730 meters high up on Drakensberg escarpment in Mpumalonga province that gives breathtaking views of the lowvelds and Kruger National Park. Unfortunately it was high enough today to be completely socked in with fog so as our tour guide put it, the curtains to God's Window were closed today.

We skipped the stop and carried on to Blyde River Canyon, which is the third largest canyon in the world behind the Grand Canyon and Fish Canyon, also in South Africa. We stopped at a place called Bourke's Luck Potholes where we had a great view of the sandstone potholes that were carved by the river flowing through over time.

Our next stop was in a small town called Dullstroom where we had lunch at a place called Harrie's Pancakes. I wasn't sure about a pancake place for lunch but this was not was I expected! You could order sweet or savoury and we ordered a chicken and mushroom pancake and it was delicious!! It was more like a chicken pot pie in flavour but definitely was chicken and mushrooms wrapped in a pancake. I haven't mentioned yet that the food and drinks all over South Africa have been quite cheap! A glass of wine is about $2.50 Cdn, a beer $1.70 and most meals have been under $10. The only meal that was more expensive was the meal in Cape Town where we went out for a really nice dinner. Even then, the bill was about $160 Cdn for six people including drinks!

After lunch we had about 2.5 hours more driving on the motorway to get into Jo'burg.Read more