Mpumalanga Tour

29th January


I woke up this morning feeling a little stiff…the after effects of a 3 day whirlwind Mpumalanga tour. We certainly did have heaps of fun though!

We left on Wednesday morning 4am and drove through to the Sudwala caves and Dinosaur Park. We took a walk through the Dinosaur park at 8am, taking in the enormous size of the T-Rex and Brontosaurus and checking out the live crocodiles and newly extinct creatures. Then it was onto a cave tour at 9:10. This was Kyle’s first trip into a cave and that was his “Highlight for the day”. We learned about dolomite, limestone and rock formations, stalactites, stalagmites and flowstones, we learned about the people who once lived in the caves and had a demonstration of their basic tools .

We then headed off to Graskop, stopping in Sabie for a bite to eat and checking into our accommodation, Monia’s Place, at 12:30. At 2pm we again jumped into the car and took the waterfall route stopping at the awesome and incredible Lisbon fall and the Berlin falls, which was quite a let down after the beauty of Lisbon, followed by the Blyde River Canyon, the world’s 3rd largest canyon and Bourke’s luck potholes. These are circular formations caused by the flowing of water from the Treuer river into the Blyde river and are named after a digger, Mr Bourke, who was exceptionally unlucky.

We had planned to take a Ghost tour in Pilgrims rest on Wednesday evening but the tour guide called and said it raining there so perhaps we would rather make it for the following evening, she could also move our early morning village tour up to the afternoon and we would be able to make one trip to Pilgrim’s instead of 2, already feeling tired, we readily agreed and headed back to Graskop, buying a few things to eat at the local Spar on our way. We had a quick shower and an early night.

We were up at the crack of dawn the following day, Barry because he could no longer sleep on the uncomfortable bed, and found there was no water. We thanked our lucky stars we had decided to shower the previous evening and took a walk through Graskop in the thick mist. We had been trying to buy good quality drymacs at home and had only managed to get some for the 2 boys, we again came up empty handed for ourselves and decided if it rained that evening we would have a wet ghost tour. We stopped at Harrie’s pancakes for a pancake breakfast and a cup of coffee followed by a stroll back to our room.

At about 11:30 we took our camera and the boy’s drymacs and headed along the twisty, turny, mountainpass road towards Pilgrims rest. We headed to The Vine’s, a local restaurant and pub dating back to the 1800’s and had a snack while waiting for the tour bus to take us on a comprehensive tour of the old mining town.

At 1 o’clock we were picked up and started at the top of up-town. Our tour guide for the day was Aser and he went with us through the monument, the transport museum, the old doctor’s house, the old Newspaper and post office. We went to the old Anglican church, the Royal Hotel and the original General Dealer all the while he was spewing information on who, what, when and where everything in the town occurred. At 3 o’clock it was time to visit the old digging site and we took a look at the living conditions and the old tent world that was a digger’s life in the 1800’s. We went through the claims sites and finally down at the river we were each given a heap of soil from the river and following a demonstration we all panned for gold ending up with a few pieces each.

Once again we were dropped at The Vine’s and had a few drinks while waiting for the next tour bus to pick us up for the long awaited ghost tour. At half past 5 we drove up to the Highway man’s garage to park our car and climb aboard the tour bus again. The first stop was Alanglade house. This was the first brick house built in Pilgrims rest, for the mine manager’s wife, Mrs Gladys Barry. We had a history lesson as we walked through the house and looked at old photographs, furniture, clothing and we slowly grasped the way of life of a mine manager back in the 1800’s in a small mining village. The most fascinating fact we learned was that Pilgrims Rest had electricity, supplied by the hydroelectric power station, before London!

From there it was onto the night cemetery tour and a look at the graves of old. Whilst walking around the cemetery with lanterns we spotted a few “ghosts” higher up in the cemetery and Kyle became concerned that the ghosts were going to get him. We learned that all graves should face East to West and that there is a grave of a Robber who was left North to South in the hopes he would not go to Heaven and cause trouble like he did on earth. Once we left the cemetery grounds Kyle quickly closed the gates saying “I don’t want the ghosts to follow us”. Once back at the highway man’s garage at about 8:30pm we took the twisty, curvy road back to Graskop and hit the sack.

Friday morning dawned with all of us feeling a little washed out and tired but we were heading home, so we got up, had a breakfast of Strawberry pops and headed out. We took the scenic route stopping at the Pinnacle, God’s window and finally at Mac Mac falls before lunch at Smokey’s, a restaurant built from a train in Sabie and driving the 400km home.

A whirlwind tour of Mpumalanga, visiting the main tourist attractions and getting a geography lesson and a few History lessons in. It was sad to leave knowing we probably won’t be back there but I am happy the kids got to see this beautiful part of our own country before leaving and seeing the best of other countries.

Below is a video of the Lisbon Falls, absolutely stunning!

Fish went crazy on New Year's eve

2nd January


Yip, it’s 2011 already and my resolution was to be more consistent with my blog, so here we go…

Barry, Kyle and myself spent the evening sitting on the yacht watching the most spectacular fireworks display I have yet to see. The sky was alight in 3 directions and we sat on the foredeck, then in the cockpit watching the dazzling fireworks and numerous flares that were sent up into the air. We had two flares land within 3 meters of the boat and we imagined fire extinguishers and burning sails for a few minutes but settled back in to continue watching the sky light up. The fireworks lasted from 8pm – 1am and I doubt we would have seen as much if we had paid an entrance fee. Through all the fireworks, the thing that fascinated us the most was that every time a flare was launched into the sky the fish went crazy, leaping from the water, meters into the air, as if trying to catch the light. Considering the large number of fish in the marina this was genuinely fascinating as the water came alive, fish on the surface, leaping and even bumping into one another in their quest to “catch the flare”. Barry and I sat awestruck and mesmerised by the water every time the sky got that red glow.

Once Rauen got home from the party at the yacht club and the fireworks calmed down, we headed to catch forty winks before Kim, Darren and Devon arrived for lunch.

We had a calm 1st of January with the Bibbs, we had a braai and sat chatting and we made plans to see them again on Friday in Durban at their place, that way we get to visit the big chandlery on the Esplanade while we are there.

Today we will be reinstalling the chunk of wood we removed from the foredeck locker, doing a little hand washing, coating the inside of the two bow wet lockers with grip seal and doing a little swimming with the boys. Doesn’t sound like much but hey…we don’t really want to overwork ourselves already at the beginning of the year!