A Smart Combo Holiday : Graskop + Kruger National Park

The reason I call it a smart combo holiday is that these places are meant for a wide class of travellers. Those who are relaxed (the so called ‘lazy bums’) will have plenty of landscape wonders to entertain themselves. And those adventure oriented people (what you call in Tamil as “வில்லங்கத்த விலை குடுத்து வாங்கறவங்க!! ) can find an adventure event at almost all places of interest. 

After much thought process and planning, I decided to take 2 days off (Thursday and Friday) to make it a 4 day trip. Mainly because I did not want to drive 500 kms on Friday, which was my Birthday, and almost half a day is spent in travelling - Up and down will make it 8-9 hours of travel and you could end up wasting a day of your time, unless you are crazy enough to leave by 3am and reach back by 12am.

We (I, my wife and my daughter) left at around 6.30 am from Jo’burg and travelled towards Graskop on Thursday. It was not a pleasant start, as within 85 kms from Jo’burg, we faced some problems on N12 when a bunch of protesters were burning some things on the road.  Police rushed within few minutes only to tell us to take a different off-ramp route. As my GPS was again and again showing directions for the same road, I had to approach a nearby gas station and those guys helped me with an alternative road to reach N4, through some Chinese temples.  The road was straight and good for a couple of hours after which the Ghats section started. The roads were full of ups and downs (so is life..Ha ha ha .. ok ok no more philosophies) ..

 Our first target place was the Lone Creek falls in Sabie. But just before we turned right to enter the panorama route, we saw a direction for Sudwala cave which was within 800 metres.  We reached there by around 12.30 pm. This is a very interesting cave and you have a 1 hr guided tour inside the cave where you see such things that you have only seen before in your science book. They charge around 60 rands per person. In my opinion, It is the best cave in that area.







Do you see a Lady's face in the centre of the rocks ? They say it is a Lady's face, because the tongue is a little longer..!!

 Lone Creek Falls is a very good falls and is one of the must see venues for this trip. There is a small and short walk way to the falls where you can walk closer to the falls and have the heavenly feel of the fresh water sprinkle on you. There is also a hike trail for climbing on top of the falls. Having a kid with us, we did not want to try that one. This place is a national monument. We had our lunch at the parking area of this falls. But don’t plan it that way – will tell you later on why not to.

There is an entrance fee of R5 per vehicle, mainly for parking. Also, this is the only falls in the area where you can touch the water.





The Lone creek Falls

 



Horse Shoe falls: Looks like water leaking out of a broken drainage pipe.!

This Lone Creek falls is almost at the end of the Lydenburg road and in that same road you also have a couple of more water falls – the Horse Shoe falls and the Bridal Veil Falls.  For the Horse Shoe falls – you enter through some farm house, park your car there and have a short walk to the venue which is the most pathetic and over-hyped falls I have ever seen in my life.  Neither it is tall, nor is it beautiful or clean. And the cross road that leads to this falls is even more pathetic, as it is an unpaved road with water stagnating at most places. If you aren’t a smart driver, you will end up getting stuck at one of the potholes. And your car gets really dirty with mud all over it. If you have a 5 Rand coin that you want to throw away, and if you don’t care about your car, visit this one

I seriously hope I visited a wrong one.. !.

Bridal view falls could be quite adventurous, as it involves some walking through forest area. We dint want to do that exercise for 1) having the kid with us, and 2) it was getting a bit dark. If you have time and energy, do try it and let me know how it is.

The next target was the Sabie falls which is under the new Sabie bridge on R532. Again, a 5 rand entrance fee and a 15 sec walk from the parking area takes you to the view point. There is also a small garden from where you can see that the water falls, first at 2 small heights and then goes on to make the Sabie falls. 



The Sabie fall view: A view from below the Sabie bridge.



Next one is Mac Mac falls which is a 10-15 mins drive from Sabie on R532 towards Graskop. You must be wondering why I’m visiting only water falls. Because such landscapes are the highlight of Graskop and they are on your way.  Again a 5 rand for car parking, and a very long walk through a paved way, takes you to the view point of Mac Mac falls. This is a very beautiful falls considering the surrounding environment and landscape and is worth a visit. You will also find a curio shop selling wooden craft items like elephant etc., which surprisingly don’t weigh much at all and you can bargain there too.



The Mac Mac Falls



2 kms before Mac Mac falls, on your way from Sabie falls, you would notice a Mac Mac pool which is picnic spot, with brai facilities and tables and chairs. We had planned to reach here for lunch but ended up reaching there by 4.30 pm because of the calamities on N12 and delay thereby earlier in the day.

And there is this Forest falls which we deliberately missed because it involves a 7km walk through a forest and is reachable only by walk. You also need to obtain a permit for this walk from the nearby Mac Mac forest retreat. I heard that is a delightful place and is the only falls in Graskop that is wider that its height.  If you are athletic, do visit this place and let me know how it is.

After Mac Mac falls, we wanted to cover the famous Berlin falls and Lisbon falls, but unfortunately it started to fog and we only had a visibility of 5 metres while driving. With great difficultly we reached our lodge “The Berlyn Peacock Tavern” which is very close and within walkable distance from the 2 waterfalls. This is a calm and quiet place and the owner Mr.Louis was very friendly with us. We had a farm style three course dinner at the lodge which ended a tiring Thursday.


 

The Berlyn Peacock Tavern

 To our surprise, very early on Friday morning, the fogs cleared out and we had a very good visibility. Firstly we covered the 2 main falls – Berlyn and Lisbon, and both of them are really good and are must-see ones. There is not much walk involved and they are really beautiful. There is no parking fee too.!

 

The Berlyn Falls



  

 



The Lisbon Falls



When we decided that it is enough of visiting falls, we drove towards our next target – Bourke’s potholes – my favourite. The entrance fees is 55R per head and a 5 R for parking, but believe me, it is all worth it. We spent close to 1 hour starring at the various kinds of potholes created by nature. And from this point, you can also get a decent view of the canyon running through it. There are two small bridges on the river canyon which helps you get an excellent view of the potholes. In all, don’t miss this place.



The over bridge at the Bourke's potholes is visible with the canyon running under it.



On the same road, close to 25kms further, you will find the “Three Rondawels” – one of the finest creations by Nature! There are two different viewpoints here – one that gives you a good view of the three rondawels and the other for the Blyde river canyon. You will end up standing there for hours and admiring the beauty of the rondawels. Parking is free..!! This is a must-see venue.

On your way back from the Three Rondawels, you will find a small sign board for a view point on your left side which is called as the Lowveld view which gives you a very wide view of the graskop landscape. Worth a visit if you have time.



After crossing the view point, we entered the panorama route R534 which has the famous God’s window, Wonder view and the Pinnacle rock. The R534 joins back R532 and you need not worry about the route. The God’s window is just a place with 4-5 different viewpoints but most of them give you a same view and by this time you would have become tired of landscape views. I felt that it was a much over-hyped place and wasn’t so great.  The Pinnacle rock was however decent enough for a view as it marks one end of the river canyon.  I saw a few people trying to walk towards the actual end point to the waterfront too. 



The Pinnacle Rock



This is pretty much what you need to see in Graskop. You also have the Big Swing that you will see when you exit Graskop which is for the adventure seekers. And much more..



By now, we were geared up for our second part of the trip – The Kruger National Park.  We reached Hazy view by around 2pm, had lunch there and drove to KNP - Paul Kruger gate, which we eventually reached by 4pm. I’m not going to elaborate on KNP as such, as it is a very famous park and information and timings are available at every place.  For those who don’t know about KNP, it is basically a fenced forest where all wild life animals are set free. There are number of rest camps and lodges ‘here and there’ and they all have a uniform time for their gates. This KNP is 360 kms from north to south and 65 kms from east to west and is bigger than Israel..!!

Do buy the Kruger map sold at the entrance gate for R35, as you can plan your loops very well. As soon as we entered the KNP, my eyes settled in for a vast change in landscape and ready to catch a moving cheetah or a jumping Leapord. But all we saw first up were variety of birds. I’m not a bird technician, so I can only describe them like a duplicate guide does: ‘blue eyed red beaked bird”, “yellow feathered twin tailed fat bird” etc., 




What it is ? தம்பி, பேரு இன்னும் வெக்கல ..

 


We were doing the official bird watching..!!





Our plan was to take a short loop soon after we entered Kruger, and to reach our camp “Skukuza” before the gate closes, which we did. Skukuza is a very huge camp and they have two restaurants and fuel stations inside. The self catering suite at Skukuza was nice but don’t expect more from them as it is a huge camp. Do try the night safari at the camp.

Who did that piece of architecture on it's horns..?? come on man.. don't say "god" for everything..!

Next day, as soon as the gates were open at 5.30 am, we drove on a few of the loops surrounding skukuza. This was when we spotted a leopard..!! yeah.. Very hard to spot one, but luckily we did. But he moved away before we could click his picture and all we managed was this one:

Do you see the leopard resting there ? Thanks to my 300mm lenses .. Bare eyes can only see the grass.

 We returned to the camp by 8.30, finished our breakfast, vacated the camp by 10 am and drove towards Lower Sabie. We drove through plenty of loops spotting plenty of Antelopes, Giraffe, Zebra, Elephants, Deers, Bison, Bush babies etc., and reached Lower Sabie by 1.30 pm for Lunch. Post lunch, we again took a longer loop to reach Crocodile Rest camp where we had booked a night’s stay. This was a interesting drive, as we found Hippo’s, Rhino’s, Wildbeast, Vultures, Eagles etc.,

One of the Big 5's.. its really big..!

 We reached the Crocodile bridge camp by around 5pm only to find that the one I booked online was a different lodge (Crocodile Kruger Safari Lodge) that is outside of Kruger. Heartbroken, we drove out of Kruger, through a long “under construction” road which took us to the Marloth Park and inside there was again a drive to the lodge which appeared long because of the gravel road. The lodge was pretty good and the owner Mr. Jack welcomed us. It was just opposite to the crocodile river that runs inside the Kruger park, and in the morning we could even see a herd of Hippo’s and Elephants taking bath in that river. We were not at all disappointed to have stayed there. The back gate of the Merloth park was very close to N4, so, at around 8am in the morning, we left the place and found ourselves back on the highway chasing the speed limit. It was 434 kms drive back to Johannesburg which we managed to cover up in about 3 hours..!!

The most disheartening fact was that, when I saw the map of the entire KNP, I found that what we covered was not even 5% of Kruger.



For a better holiday, I suggest you enter Kruger from the Phabeni Gate rather than the Paul Kruger Gate so that you have a good long drive inside the park towards Skukuza, and spend a whole day driving from Skukuza towards Crocodile river camp through Lower Sabie and stay at Crocodile rest camp for the night. The next day, you can exit Kruger through the Malelane gate after taking a few loops which will be 2 hours drive. You must remember that this is a vast area of land and the more you drive, the more you have a chance to spot a predator. This suggestion is only if you are combining Graskop and Kruger.

I heard it is better to visit Kruger during October / November, as there won’t be much grass and you will have a good visibility. I’m yet to try out that one. But I must tell you that the grasses were really tall, taller than a leopard, when we visited in February.



Overall, it was a good holiday for us that combined the calmness of Graskop’s beautiful landscape and the wilderness of the Kruger habitants.

A few things that you must note –make sure you do not drive after 6/7pm as the Ghats section could be a nightmare else; Check your Car’s fuel indicator often. ; Carry lot of 5 Rand coins!!; Check for fog updates / weather forecast before planning; keep your camera in sports mode in Kruger.!

Note: Kruger is a malaria zone, so it is highly recommended that you take either the vaccination pills or the homoeopathic tablets before and after the trip.