Oh, this is nice. A four day weekend. Yes, we got Good Friday off, and then Easter Monday is Family Day, another day off. So lots of people go out of town on holiday. We did not plan ahead of time, so we did not book a place to stay. Besides that, some of us have been feeling a little under the weather. So on Good Friday, with no plan, I, Oom Djibo, declared “GET IN THE CAR, WE’RE GOING TO SWAZILAND!”. It’s probably a 3 or 4 hour drive, so we packed the passports, some snacks, a camera, a map, the Lonely Planet Guide and not much else to head off towards Swaziland. We got to drive east through the province of Mpumalanga to Nelspruit, on the road to Maputo, Mozambique, Kruger National Park, and possibly Swaziland. Mama Jossie tried to change the direction of travel; instead of heading to Swaziland, with roads of unknown composition (tarred? untarred? passable by ancient Mercedes?) and of course, no plan, she suggested we head north of Nelspruit to Sabie, which is an important forestry town. Saddened by the prospect of not getting an interesting passport stamp, I agreed that Sabie seemed like a more reasonable objective, and only an hour from Nelspruit. We stopped for some picnicking provisions at an all-Halaal supermarket (getting some all-beef Halaal baloney, which SA’ers spell, “polony”), and also at a roadside fruit market, where there were plenty of bananas, oranges, mangoes, and cashews. And after some creative, plan-free kind of finding our way (i.e. making wrong turns and getting lost), we were climbing out of the Crocodile River Valley where Nelspruit sits towards Sabie. The road was surrounded by hectares and hectares of pine and eucalyptus forests, which are the mainstays of forestry here. After the long climb, we turned onto a road which led down down down into the town of Sabie itself.
Among the amenities of Sabie are its many waterfalls, so we decided to go visit a few.
The first was Horseshoe Falls, which had about a 7 m drop (okay, sorry Ameri-Friends, 22 feet). The hike in was fairly short, about five minutes, and through some lush vegetation.
Having tasted waterfall, we thirsted for more. So we set off down the same road out of Sabie for Lone Creek Falls, which was more like a good 30 m drop (yes, that’s right, about 100 feet!). Lone Creek Falls was a bit more built up, and with the surrounding pine plantations was reminiscent of New Mexico. Also around the falls were some interesting rock formations, undulating with flowing curves and also very beautiful.
With only a small sliver of daylight remaining, we thought we’d try to see the last waterfall on the road we’d chosen: Bridal Veil Falls. Past a sawmill and a large gathering of people and over the untarred road to the trailhead. Some recently returned waterfall admirers guessed that we could make it up the trail in time to see it, about 10 or 15 minutes. So off we went up the trail, up and up, Jossie and I each carrying a wee’un as best we could, piggy-back, on shoulders, like a sack of potatoes, just to truck on up the hill to see the last falls of the day. We made it, huffing and puffing a bit, and they were indeed very beautiful. Another 30 m drop or so, but very misty, evanescent. One fellow tourists, having arrived shortly after us remarked, “Okay, let’s take the pictures and go”. Interestingly most of the vehicles we saw on the roads and parked at the falls has GP license plates for Gauteng Province (or Gangsta’s Paradise, depending on your point of view). Gauteng encompassed Jo’burg and PTY, so lots of city slickers on holiday.
After making it back to the ancient Mercedes with just enough daylight to spare, we headed into the town of Sabie for some dinner. Thanks to the Lonely Planet Guide, we found the Wild Fig Tree restaurant, which featured some of the local speciality, farmed trout, as well as many types of bush meat and regional dishes. Jossie had grilled trout, I had bobotie, which is a dish inspired by the Cape-Malay.
Then, back into the car for the long drive back to PTY. Unfortunate for us to drive back at night, as the road was apparently quite scenic. We only caught the faintest glimpses thanks to the lightning to the west of us occasionally lighting up the landscape. We took a different route back, taking us through Lydenburg to get back to the main toll route, the N4. It was a bit exciting past Lydenburg, as we caught up with the lightning storm which gave the car a well-deserved bath after driving on all those untarred roads. But the drive back was otherwise, uneventful. And still a three-day weekend left! Stay tuned…
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