Panorama Route Full-Day Tour from Hazyview

The Panorama Route and the Drakensberg escarpment

The Panorama Route is the scenic road that runs along the eastern edge of the Drakensberg escarpment in Mpumalanga, where the highveld plateau ends in cliffs and the land falls hundreds of metres to the Lowveld. The route links a chain of viewpoints, waterfalls and historic villages between Graskop and the Blyde River Canyon, and it is the natural companion to a Kruger safari: wildlife one day, mountain scenery the next.

How to get to the Panorama Route is simple from Hazyview, which lies at the foot of the escarpment: the road climbs to Graskop in about forty-five minutes, and the main viewpoints are strung along the next sixty kilometres. The weather on the escarpment is cooler than in the valley and mist can roll in, which is why our guide orders the stops to make the most of clear skies. The best time to visit the Panorama Route is the dry winter, from May to September, when mornings are crisp and views are sharpest.

God's Window and Wonder View

God's Window is the most famous viewpoint on the route, a notch in the cliff edge where the escarpment drops about seven hundred metres to the Lowveld plains, which stretch east towards Kruger and, on a clear day, as far as the hills of Mozambique. A short paved path leads from the car park to the main lookouts, and a steeper trail climbs through a patch of mist-belt rainforest to a higher platform with ferns, orchids and moss-covered trees. Allow about forty-five minutes, including the walk.

Wonder View, a few kilometres further along, is the highest viewpoint on the Panorama Route and offers a wider, more open sweep over the same landscape without the forest walk, which makes it a good option for anyone who prefers to stay near the vehicle. Both viewpoints have small entry fees payable at the gate, and both are best seen in the morning before cloud builds over the escarpment, so they are our first stops of the day.

Bourke's Luck Potholes

At the point where the Treur River joins the Blyde River, millennia of swirling water and grinding pebbles have drilled a series of deep cylindrical holes into the red and yellow sandstone, creating a surreal landscape of smooth bowls, channels and plunge pools. Bourke's Luck Potholes takes its name from a gold prospector who staked a claim here in the nineteenth century; the real luck, it turned out, lay in the scenery. Footbridges cross the gorge so that you can look straight down into the potholes and the river churning below.

The site has a visitor centre, restrooms, a kiosk and shaded paths, and the walk around the bridges takes thirty to forty-five minutes at an easy pace. There is an entry fee, paid on arrival. The potholes mark the start of the Blyde River Canyon proper, and from here the road runs north along the canyon rim towards the Three Rondavels, with the river winding ever deeper below.

The Three Rondavels and the Blyde River Canyon

The Blyde River Canyon is a vast gorge cut through the escarpment by the Blyde River, remarkable for being green rather than bare rock, with forested slopes dropping to the dam at the bottom. The Three Rondavels viewpoint looks across the canyon at three rounded peaks that resemble traditional thatched huts, with the flat-topped Mariepskop behind them and the Blyde Dam glinting far below. It is the single most photographed view in Mpumalanga and the highlight of the day for most travellers.

Is the Blyde River Canyon worth visiting if you have seen other canyons? Yes, because the scale and the colour are unlike anywhere else: cliffs of red sandstone, green slopes and blue water in one frame. The viewpoint has a short easy path, a small entry fee, restrooms and craft stalls, and we allow about thirty minutes here. Light is best in the morning and late afternoon, when the canyon walls glow; midday can be hazy, and our guide adjusts the order of stops to suit the day.

Pilgrim's Rest and Graskop

Pilgrim's Rest is a gold-rush village founded in 1873 when alluvial gold was found in the creek, and it has been preserved as a living museum, with its corrugated-iron cottages, old hotel, church and shops lining a single street in the valley. Walking its main street takes you back to the diggers' era, and small museums, a reconstructed miner's house and craft shops fill the hour we spend here. Lunch is taken in Pilgrim's Rest or Graskop at your own expense; both have simple restaurants.

Graskop, the escarpment town where the Panorama Route begins, is known for its pancake restaurants, craft shops and the Graskop Gorge on its edge, with a glass lift down into the forest that can be visited at your own expense if time allows. The Panorama Route tour from Hazyview returns down the escarpment road in the late afternoon, with views over the Lowveld, and drops you at your hotel around four o'clock, about seven hours after pickup.