South Africa, Jul-Aug 25 Part 5, Blyde River Canyon and Panorama route

Kruger park was full for this week so we left to have a look around the Blyde River Canyon. On the drive up to the Blyde River Forever Resort campsite we found ourselves in the middle of a celebration. Lots of drinking and yahooing. I thought it might be a soccer or a rugby match but it turned out to be a circumcision ceremony. A tradition for this area to circumcise young boys even though according to other locals, some still die of infection or bleed out. The celebration went on all weekend. Joy! The scenery on the way up was magnificent but the road treacherous, we took the lead in the truck for safety and just as well, we nearly had two accidents when a car and trailer in front of us burnt their clutch out and another car and trailer coming in the opposite direction started to sway, he lost control, locked his brakes on and turned right in front of us.
We were please to get to the camp on the edge of the Blyde River Canyon. That evening we made our way to the Three Rondavels lookout for sundowners, beautiful, three towering rock formations shaped like traditional huts. Over millions of years, wind and water carved these rounded peaks from the canyon’s quartzite.

From there, we stopped at God’s Window, and it lived up to its name. The escarpment suddenly drops away into an endless lowveld, the view stretching as far as Mozambique on a clear day.
Bourke’s Luck Potholes is where nature really shows you her patience. It is the confluence of the Blyde and Treur Rivers, as the water twists and churns small stones and pebbles get caught in these swirling eddies, spinning in tight circles. Over years, then centuries, those stones grind against the bedrock, slowly boring perfectly rounded holes into the rock surface. As the process continues, the potholes deepen, widen, and sometimes merge, creating a network of smooth, sculpted basins and channels.

We stepped back into history at Pilgrim’s Rest a small historic village with a rich gold-rush past.
Gold was discovered here in 1873, sparking one of South Africa’s first major gold rushes. Prospectors flooded into the area, panning for alluvial gold in the streams. The diggers named the settlement “Pilgrim’s Rest” because many felt they had finally reached their destination after a long search for fortune.
During the late 1800s, the town grew into a bustling mining community, with shops, hotels, and a cemetery that still tells stories of hardship and hope. Eventually, mining became more formalized under companies, and large-scale operations replaced individual prospectors.
By the 1970s, gold mining declined, and the town was preserved as a living museum.
Commercial gold mining is making a come back in the area, as well as small diggings on the side on the road.

In Graskop we camped at the Panorama Chalets and Rest camp. While here we took the Graskop Gorge Lift down 51 meters into the forest below, descending into a cool, green world of ferns, waterfalls, and birdsong—a completely different perspective of the escarpment.
Back on the road, through the town of Hazyview where we could do some shopping before entering Kruger again via the Phabeni gate.