After an extended stay in Joey’s (things got rather comfortable), we headed to the beautiful area around the Kruger. Once again I picked up a virus that zapped my energy and talking became somewhat of an effort- much to Maria’s delight, I’m sure. We drove most of the day, and arrived in the late afternoon at Sabie.
The area is a staunch forestry region and the huge hills and deep valleys are lined with pine and eucalyptus trees, which are used in the paper industry, which is quite big here. We almost didn’t arrive though. Being too sick to think, I forgot to full the car with petrol and when we hit a region, where there were nothing but plantations I realized. The next 30 minutes were hairy to say the least, as we started making plans (playing rocks, paper, and scissors) as to who would stay with the car and who would catch a lift to the nearest petrol pump. We praised Jesus as we drove past and quickly reversed into a small petrol station, filling the car up with 54, 34 litres of unleaded. Later I found out that the car only takes 55L. Lucky stars.
Feeling much better the next morning we got up early and headed north to God’s Window.
A place made famous by the final scene of “the gods must be crazy” movie, where the bushman throws a coke bottle off the end of the world. If you haven’t watched the movie, you should.
There are a ton of large waterfalls in this region and we stopped off at quite a few of them, most around the 70 meter high mark. They were pretty impressive. We finally made it to God’s Window, which is awesome. The plateau of the highveld stunningly drops away a 1000 meters to the lowveld below and the view of the natural bush underneath you is breathtaking and a must for anyone in this area.
When the conditions are right the clouds settle in the valley below, giving the impression that you are standing on the edge of the earth. As a tourist destination S.A rocks. I’ve seen a few amazing places but S.A has got to be up there with the best.
At one of the waterfalls we were cornered by a group of locals who where selling typical wood carvings. 
We parted with 500 bucks and in return were given a 1, 5 meter high wooden giraffe, a large kudu, and a beautifully carved elephant. These will one day be proudly displayed in our house somewhere in South America when we finally settle down.
The next day we went the long way round to visit Pilgrims Rest (the road had washed away in a storm the previous week) .Two hours later we arrived in this little historical village. A bunch of tin houses, a pub, and some seriously aggressive car washers. Clearly the last time I was here I was pissed-because you’d have to be to think this place was worth the petrol and the 2 hours drive in 39 degree temps to visit it again. Anyway, we flouted the laws and let Emilia drive along the main street. Not much else happening!
We then headed further north and to the spectacular Blyde River Canyon- 30km’s long and another one of South Africa’s scenic highlights.
As the sun set we decided to drive closer to Kruger and found a hostel/farm outside the park. The owner did her best to freak us out as she told us to remove everything from the car, leave the cubby hole open, no car mats to be left inside and park the car as close to your room as possible, or preferably in it. This was from behind her caged kitchen. Apparently they have a few break in problems. The fact that we were the only ones in the old farm house and that we didn’t have any keys to properly lock our room made for a edgy evening. Nonetheless we managed a few hours rest and woke the next morning at 5am to make our way to the park.
