Graskop - Blyde River Canyon & Waterfalls.

Before we arrived in Graskop we thought we had already seen the best views that SA had to offer, but what we can see from our campsite tops the lot.

We look down into a deep and narrow valley where a cliff jutts out on one side with a sheer drop of over a 1000 metres and the other side a long wall of spectacular cliff, just as high. In the valley, thick rainforest as far as the eye can see. We just can't take it all in, and we struggle to understand why the lady who owns and runs the campsite is so miserable. If I lived here, I would be the happiest bunny on the planet!

So the last couple of days have seen us exploring the local area. We spent a day driving along Blyde River Canyon where we stopped at all the different viewpoints to be dazzled by each one in turn. Fisrt stop was the Pinnacle, an impressive rock formation poking up from the escarpment, and a waterfall 100's of feet high which we all nervously stood as close to the edge as we dared to pose for photographs.

Next stop was 'God's Window' with more spectacular views over the lowveld and a short rainforest trail. We watched the fog rise here and it was incredible that the scenery we were enjoying so much suddenly became completely shrouded in a thick blanket of cloud. We didn't bother to stop at 'Wonder View', instead we headed straight for Bourke's Luck Potholes. This is a small canyon where the rock formation is pepeered with bizarre cylandrical holes which have been naturally eroded by whirl pools over thousands of years. We had great fun here leaping from rock to rock and exploring all the nooks and crannies, trying to avoid getting wet from the waterfalls that fall here also.

There was no fog here, just a few km down the road from where we were when we were completely covered in it and it was amazing to see again how it can be totally foggy one minute, perfect blue skies the next.

After the potholes we continued driving along the edge of the canyon stoppping at more view points and being totally blown away each time. The Blyde River Canyon snakes along for 30km and is by far the most spectacular sight we have seen yet. It is impossible to describe the size and beauty of it, photos can't do it justice. Looking down a 1000 metres onto a cliff, which in turn stands another 1000 metres tall towering over the valleys dwarfed by the cliffs and mountains is just incredible and we could have spent hours standing, open mouthed as we were treated to one of the wonders of the world.

Everytime we spotted a new rockface we would drool at the thought of abseiling down it, or scaling up it from the bottom. The Blyde River which winds through the 26000 hectare valley wetted our appetites for more kayaking and kickstarted conversations of returning in summer for white water rafting or kayaking when the river would be at it's most spectacular. Dan said he wants to paraglide through the whole canyon, Kieran says is going to take up rock climbing. Adrenaline junkies the pair of them!

The last stop of the day was the 'Echo Caves' which personally, having seen dozens of caves full of stalagmites and stalagtites, I wasn't that fussed in doing, but both the lads wanted to and they thorougly enjoyed the short 600m crawl through them. We all learned about the ancient tribes that used to live in the caves, and Kieran loved that many of the rocks were shaped like animals, we saw ostrich, rhino, buffalo, horses, sharks teeth, squid to name but a few.

We drove our 5000th km today and once again we stopped to dance like looneys on the road. Our 100th was on the Swartberg Pass, 2000 was in Addo, 3000 was at the bottom of Giants Castle, 4000 was in Sodwana Bay Nature Reserve and 5000 was along the Blyde River Canyon. I don't know how many hours driving that has been, but at an average of 70kmph I could make a guess at about 70. That doesn't sound that much in 5 1/2 weeks, but when you take in toilet stops, refueling, rest stops, leg stretching stops etc, I think we can double that.

We have listened to so much music whilst driving along, Dan has me hooked on Megadeth now, and conversations have covered pretty much everything. The games continue, especially The Game Of Life, which is getting a little tiresome now as we have played it continously since Jeffreys Bay and I clock up around 40-50 press ups each day. Do the boys let me off? No. Never and yesterday Kieran tried introducing a rule which meant all press ups had to be done with a bowl of dirty washing up water underneath your face. Dan wanted to introduce the candle rule. I'll let you work out for yourselves what that involves. needless to say, the idea was thrown out!

The last couple of days has seen us design our very own purpose built overland truck, complete with 3 bedrooms, kitchen and living area. No bathroom. You have to clean those and it's not nice. In fact, we have a shower and loo in the campervan and the best thing we did was bar anyone from using it so we don't have to clean it. Instead, we use the shower room for storage, mainly hanging up wetsuits. anyway, why use the toilet when there is a perfectly good road! Back to our truck, the best feature, as well as decent storage for kayaks and surfboards and sound system in the cab with 3 bucket seats, is the ramp at the back which provides easy access for our quadbikes. This truck will drive over any terrain and our plan is to drive through every country in Africa, then across the Middle East, India, China down to Malaysia, through Indonesia, NZ and OZ, ship across to South America for our journey through every country there, through Central America, Road trip through the US and Canada. We don't know how long this will take, or how we can pay for it. Perhaps tomorrows conversation can be working that problem out!

We spent the day today driving around all the waterfalls in the area. First stop was Horse Shoes Falls, which at first thing in the morning was quiet and isolated and gorgeous. Kieran and I had showers, Dan thought it was too cold, but fair play to him as you will learn later. We didn't think we would make the waterfalls today as a very low fog came in last night and it rained. Our first rain since leaving Cape Town. That didn't put us off our BBQ though and whilst we sat huddled round our campfire in our ponchos and the rain bounced off us, we enjoyed slightly soggy (and somewhat charred) spare ribs.

The next falls were the Lone Creek Falls and this had to be the coldest water yet. Colder than anything I had been in and as I posed for a photo standing ankle deep I could only manage about 2 minutes before my feet started to hurt. The falls here fell 68metres into a small pool and both boys dived in. Fair play to both of them. It was the quickest swim yet. As soon as the picture had been taken they were both straight out and wrapped up in towels.

The 3rd falls were Bridal Veil Falls (70m)and none of us swam, though I got slighlty wet by standing behind them. One minute I was nice and dry, then the wind changed direction and there I was, having the 2nd shower of the day!

Other falls we visited were the Sabie Falls, not much to write home about, The Mac Mac Falls, very spectacular and the Lisbon Falls. The most beautiful I thought. We had the best fun in the first 3 though as we saw these from the bottom, where as the others we viewed from the top.

So, as I write this, this is our last night camping. Tomorrow we drive to Jo Berg and return our campervan that has been our home for 5 weeks. A last night in luxury at the Misty Hills Hotel where we are looking forward to dining at The Carnivore. Having been to the Carnivore in Nairobi several times, we our all looking forward to a meat feast. Kieran has requested that no-one eats giraffe, and whilst I have complied after he put forward a very good arguement, there is still some debate between him and Dan on the subject which has rumbled on for a couple of days now.

We are taking the long route to Jo berg, via Pretoria to our hotel which is actually on the suburbs out side it. So we are not actually going through or into Jo berg. I think I have put Julie through enough worrying without her dreading the thought of us (Kieran) getting lost in what is know as the murder capital of the world.

Taking Jo berg out of the equation, I think SA has very bad press in terms of it being a violent country riddled with crime. Haven driven over 5000km over 5 and a half weeks, and met dozens of people, locals, expats, tourists and travellers, we haven't seen or heard a sniff of anything unpleasant happening at all. OK, I know 5 and a half weeks isn't terribly long and that we have only seen a fraction of the country, but based on our experiences, I would feel much safer wondering around South Africa than London. Or give it a few years, St Helier!