My name is Sarah and I am an Instagram travel junkie.
I spend hours pouring over travel photos and dreaming of visiting the most Instagram-able destinations, taking my own photos and adding them to Chasing the Rainbow’s Instagram account. The Grand Canyon’s distinctive Horseshoe Bend, Canada’s pale turquoise Lake Louise, the Faroe Islands’ spectacular waterfalls, Victoria Falls’ rainbow in the mist….. there are just so many enviable destinations.
Top of my South African Instagram wish list is the Blyde River Canyon – the greenest canyon in the world. There is a rock that you can sit on with a view out over the Blyderivierspoortdam with its distinctive azure colour water surrounded by forest clad cliffs and huge rocky buttresses. My sparkly #rainbowtakkies would look oh-so-delicious right there on that rock.
I used to visit Mpumulanga’s Panorama Route every year way back before it was even called that. My parents owned timeshare at Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge and we did a yearly pilgrimage to the area, panning for gold in Pilgrims’ Rest, eating pancakes at Harries in Graskop, checking out all the incredible waterfalls – from Mac Mac to Lisbon, Berlin, Maria Shires, Bridal Veil and Lone Creek – and viewpoints at The Pinnacle, God’s Window, Bourke’s Luck Potholes and the Three Rondawels. But for some reason, in over a decade of visiting the area, I had never seen or heard of that famous view over the Blyde Rivier dam until Instagram popped it into my feed.
So when planning where to go in the week before our trip to the Kruger National Park, and looking for a timeshare swap in the area, Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge seemed like a great idea. Ralph and I had been there and done most of that, but it would be awesome to show it all to the kids with the added benefit of being able to capture it all on Instagram and get that sparkly rainbow nation takkie photo at Blyde River Canyon.
After an epic two day cross country road trip, we pulled up to our apartment in Crystal Springs just in time to take in the sunset from our balcony. Every lodge in the resort is perched on the top of a gorge and each has the most incredible view. As the sun sets, the layers of rolling hills turn different hues of red, with the incredible fiery ball of the sun stealing the show as it sinks below the horizon. Next up, cue the moon and stars, accompanied by a bone-chilling cold that drove us away from the view to the toasty fireplace inside.
The full moon rising as the sun set from our balcony
Our first full day dawned, and we headed straight to Graskop to check out South Africa’s hottest new tourist attraction. Our teenagers are not the keenest posers, but the holiday was brand new and we were all pretty excited to see this space age looking glass elevator so they happily posed next to the giant logo at the entrance and let us photograph them at various spots around the impressive complex. The view from the top of the elevator viewing deck is absolutely spectacular, and the magical forest below is phenomenal.
The spectacular viewing deck at the Graskop Gorge Lift Company
Next up, the little town of Sabie for some trout fishing at the local trout farm. On the way we stopped off at Mac-Mac Falls. I was quite surprised that we had to pay an entrance fee to view the falls from the caged deck – it is a beautiful view, but we did not expect a cover charge. Upon further exploration, we realised that no view is for free any more on the Panorama Route. The entrance fees range from R15 up to R50 per person, depending on the site. The trout farm was located right next to the Horseshoe Falls, which was another first for us. R15 each later and we were a little under-impressed with the teeny-tiny waterfall. Cian played along and we managed to capture the moment for Instagram.
Cian catching the Horseshoe Falls
Final fall of the day – Lone Creek. This was more like it – a steeper entrance fee but what a magical place. We patiently stood in line behind a whole lot of other international Instagram junkies and waited our turn to get the shot.
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Having experienced our first Instagram queue, we figured we would beat the crowds and head to The Pinnacle as early in the morning as we could coax our teenagers out of bed. We resorted to bribing Luke & Cian with R50 each which did the trick and we arrived at The Pinnacle just as it opened. Crowds – nil, but alas, lighting – terrible. We tried and failed to get some decent shots of the towering rock with the sun rising right behind it. The kids got bored of posing – Cian was first “bushed” by Luke (pushed into a bush) and then “pantsed” by Jacob (his pants pulled down) in front of an early-bird Chinese tourist who was so busy photographing herself in front of the towering rock that she didn’t notice Cian looking through his binoculars with his trousers around his ankles and all of us falling down laughing around him. Shame!
Cian in the bush
The kids’ moods were now approaching manic, with Cian vocally plotting his revenge and Luke and Jacob threatening him with all sorts of horrible punishments if he humiliated them in international public. We shepherded them squabbling up the winding path at God’s Window, and managed a few mediocre shots. It was quite frustrating to have to wait our turn at every view point and the queue of Instagrammers waiting in line behind us made the whole “Zen traveller taking in the view” shot feel extremely posed and not Zen-like at all.
There is a lovely hike around the top of the mountain past the popular viewpoints, and here we finally settled down and started enjoying ourselves without worrying about photos – which resulted in some fab shots.
The kids chatted while waiting for us to take the photo
The entrance fees were escalating at a rapid rate, and with our budget blown and all of us getting sick and tired of chasing enviable photos, we bypassed the tourist frame at Bourke’s Luck and headed straight to the potholed river without worrying about getting the shot. The kids pottered around finding fish and I found a spot to sit and take it all in.
What a spectacular place. With all our moods smoothed out by the gushing river, we took a few photos and ended up with some awesome pics, including one in the tourist frame on the way out.
A perfect pose in the Bourke’s Luck Potholes tourist frame
Now that we were all thoroughly gatvol (fed up) of driving from viewpoint to viewpoint and taking photos, we decided to take a break from the endless views and waterfalls and rather head down below the surface into the Echo Caves. The caves are absolutely amazing. Our cave guide walked us through long and narrow tunnels which opened into spectacular caverns with incredible formations. We all loved this outing and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves without worrying about taking photos in the poor light.
Crawling through tunnels at Echo Caves
Next up, the view I had been waiting for – Blyde River Canyon! I had done my research and found out that my dream view was accessed via the Forever Resort Blyde Canyon. I had my sparkly takkies in my bag and promised the kids that it would literally take a minute to get the shot (they were thoroughly viewpointed out and wanted to skip the stop, but even though I was also tired of chasing photos, this was the big one and I was determined to soldier on). I skipped into the reception office, asked for a day pass and went numb when the receptionist replied that there are strictly no day visitors allowed. How could this be? How does everyone get that shot then? I felt a crushing disappointment as my hope for our perfect Instagram photo melted away.
As we drove away from the Forever Resort entrance, I pondered silently about chasing and missing my photograph. Lining up and watching other tourists strike explorer poses with their arms open wide to views that went on forever in front of them with queues of instagrammers waiting their turn to do the same behind them had helped me put everything in perspective. Stuff the shot. Chasing photos takes all the fun out of adventuring. We should be chasing the adventure and great shots would be a by-product, along with lovely memories of living life to the fullest end enjoying every moment as a family. Because of focussing on getting my photo, I had completely ignored that there was a challenging day hike down the Blyde Canyon through rivers and across waterfalls that we could have done rather than driving from viewpoint to viewpoint. Ironically we would probably have ended up with my photo then as well as having an epic experience.
I reached my decision – I was quitting chasing photos for Instagram…
I couldn’t in good conscience drive past the Three Rondawels viewpoint without stopping to take a look though.
I got the shot!
There is no “best” view in the Panorama Route. Each and every view is beautiful because of how you feel when you are looking at it. Don’t go out to get the shot. Set out to explore and discover and adventure. Chase the experience, not the photo and your heart will be as full as your SD card.
Yours in travel
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