Panorama Drive Blyde River Canyon

                                                            Lone Creek Falls 

Our first stop just outside Sabie - these falls still had quite a bit of water falling over the rock, but most of the falls in the area had dried up due to the drought!

Trying to give a bit of perspective of how high these falls were!

These were by farm my favorite if I tally up all scores going! The walk to the falls, the rock formations, the height and sound of the falls and the surrounding scenery encompassing the whole opening in the bush!

Bridal Veil Falls

A few kilometers away from the previous falls but not near as much water!

You may not be able to see it in this picture, but the purpose behind this shot was to get Chris taking me to THESE falls. He has a standing joke that now I can throw back at him: Because of my love of nature and my fascination with the Hamilton Escarpment and it's many falls, even if it's just a trickle of water they can still be classified as one of the 118+ falls of Hamilton. Anyways he likes to joke about any drip of water falling alluding it to one of the Hamilton falls.

The picture on the left is a STINK-HORN FUNGI that produces a slime that smells of rotting meat or sewage. There is little known about it's chemical properties (harmful or beneficial) but if you get the slime in your eye you're to wash it out (as if you wouldn't - this made me laugh)!

The hike up to these falls was a considerable ways. Walking through the bush brushing each plant or hoping it was a plant was quite an adventure. To tell you the truth I didn't really think about it at all till we were at the falls and Jenelle mentioned about not showing mom any pictures of this hike (of course I have)...I guess it's wise to be aware of ones surroundings!
I loved seeing all these things with my sister as many of these sights she was also seeing for the first time!

Our first monkey sighting! When we first spotted them we were the only ones on the trail and although they were aware of our presence they didn't mind as we were just quietly watching them! They were having a riot literally swinging from branch to branch. However when more people started gathering and making a racket - the monkeys went ballistic!

 

Can't forget to mention this Billtong - comes in many different types of meat with different spices (much like our jerky), however tastes a lot different and the meat is more fresh and chewy!

An adorable little old mining town - now just a huge tourist town that has been transformed into a museum!

You can't go through any town without seeing these little huts jammed FULL of these African souvenirs!

please make sure you click on this image to see more of it's beauty!

Blyde River and the Three Rondovals

My absolute favorite spot of this whole drive! I could have stayed here for hours, written several songs, but most of all could not get over the beauty! 

The camera doesn't even begin to capture the different elements to be seen here. The depth of some of the crevices in the rocks were huge! We were up so incredibly high, it' hard to gain the proper perspective! It was also a bit foggy this day, so the pictures are not super clear! They kind of just give you an idea!

I was reminded of the verse from Ephesians 3
May be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and length, and depth, and height;

And to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. 

So many things you could reflect on as you look over these mountains and into the valleys, but nothing can surpass the vastness of His love!

And seriously, like what poof of material would pop into three perfectly formed rondavals, IN AFRICA - like if there was no design why didn't these formations end up in Japan!?

Overlooking Blyde River Canyon

I'm sorry if any of you are offended at this, but I seriously had to include this for my memory. The diversity in these basic rooms! I think it would have been a LITTLE awkward to take a photo of these in Germany, but they were DIFFERENT!

Potholes

Another really cool rock formation spot! It was so neat to see the beauty and difference as you walked along... but really sad to see the posters they had posted along describing the events that led to these beautiful rocks. 

Every many will be without excuse! His glory will be made known!

Second recorded monkey sighting! These creatures are so fun to watch, but definitely would not want to get between momma and baby, or any one of them and their food! This little baby was making use of the walkway but you could tell it wasn't too impressed when we were close.

Berlin Falls

You likely can't see it in this picture, but there is actually a path that goes right across the top of the falls and there was a kid I noticed as we were walking away with a big barrel of sorts on top of her head - the culture of this nation runs so deep!

 

Lisbon Falls

I will we would have gotten a Panorama shot of these falls - they were so pretty and the whole triplet effect had me! 

It was really neat actually to see the little stream as we were driving towards the falls - how small and how little water was flowing, but still how beautiful the falls were!

God's Window

Another favorite spot - the vast beauty of His handiwork gets me every time!

The aloe grows in leaps and bounds - and we put it to good use!

Back in Graskop where we ate at Harry's Pancakes, sipped DELICIOUS coffee and toured too many different Billtong shops - ok kidding of course! It was a really cute town, that happened to have a Billtong shop literally every other shop it seemed a little overdone! 

...and this was the end of this trip - back in Nelspruit before we headed back to Swaziland for Christmas! A quick game of barefoot bowling and waiting 40min for a cold burger were the highlights of our return to Nelspruit!