God's Window found in Blyde River Canyon, South Africa

This past weekend I traveled with my friends Natalina, Ventriss, and Etienne to God's Window in South Africa (Mpumalanga Province - Place of the Rising Sun). Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world. It was a little strange passing through towns that are mentioned in the archives I've been reading for the past month (yes, I have been working too. More on that in another post.) The Pilgrim's Rest, Sabie, Graskop, Nelspruit areas are part of the Delagoa Bay (now Maputo Bay) trade hinterland. Gold, ivory, other wildlife items, and agricultural products found their way down the Drakensburg (Dragonback) Escarpment to Delagoa Bay for shipping to India, Portugal, Great Britain, and other far off places in the 1800s and early 1900s.



Entering South Africa at the Ressano-Garcia border crossing. Yet another disease for my mom to worry about - she recently sent me an article from the Watertown Daily Times (of all places) on a deadly strain of TB that had crossed the South African border into neighboring countries. But moms and dads are supposed to worry, right?





Enjoying cold water on a hot day.



Better than the Windows version of Bliss.



Me on the trail we were hiking near Graskop.



A cool looking grasshopper. Yeah, I probably spend way too much time being fascinated with stuff like bugs and butterflies and flowers... speaking of which, these lilies were blooming all along the roadsides. They didn't have any smell though.





God's Window. Remember to...



That must be one humoungous bottle of Windex.

Somewhere, off in the far, far distance is Maputo and the Mozambican coast. The Drakensburg Escarpment marks the 1000m transition from the lowveld coastal plain to the highveld (Transvaal).







The Three Rondavels, Blyde River Canyon



Lisbon Falls



Mac Mac Falls



cycads



Clear cuts and reforesting



Current screensaver