One of the country's most scenic self-drives, the Panorama Route, explores the Mpumalanga highlands, or the north-eastern section of the Great Escarpment of the Drakensberg. In these rugged mountains the plateau comes to an abrupt and dramatic halt, falling steeply away into the Lowveld accompanied by incredible views out over the grasslands of Africa.
The most popular stretch of the route is the R532 that winds its way from the town of Sabie via a selection of graceful waterfalls - the Sabie Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Mac Mac Falls - to God's Window, the Blyde River Canyon, Bourke's Luck Potholes and the Three Rondawels.
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The Lowveld Botanical Garden is all about the two rivers that run through it; that fashion the garden with a unique quality of its own. The Crocodile River enters the garden with a tremendous rush, gushing through a narrow, pot-holed solid rock gorge, whilst its counterpart, the Nels River, cascades down a waterfall from the west - the two content to merge in a somewhat more gentle pool.
The Lowveld National Botanical Garden lies just outside of town, a beautiful 159 hectare space dominated by rugged, rocky river scenery, and home to over 600 naturally occurring plant species, and a further 2000 that have been introduced to the garden.
Gates open 08h00 - 17h00
Small entrance fee is charged at the gate.
The oldest well-preserved sequence of volcanic and sedimentary rocks spanning the time period of 3.5 – 3.2 billion years ago. The trail has 11 marked points, including Lebombo view which is 25km out on the trail. This is a beautiful lookout and perfect for a picnic. At this point there are examples of all the rock formations with descriptions for each.
There are no toilets or cellular phone reception on the route, but travelers with passports can cross the border into Swaziland and visit the excellent mining museum just 2km from the border where there are toilet facilities and a restaurant.
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The historic mining village of Kaapschehoop is situated about 25 kilometers from the town of Nelspruit. The Kaapschehoop area offers exceptionally beautiful landscapes, complete with gushing waterfalls, indigenous forests and rugged hillsides.
Up to 200 feral horses enjoy the freedom of the 17,000 hectares around Kaapschehoop and are loyally protected by locals. The breed of the horses seems to be predominantly Boerperd and herd sizes range from small bachelor herds of 3 or 4, to structured herds of more than 20 horses.
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The Sudwala Caves are part of the Malmani Dolomite Ridge, in turn part of the Drakensberg escarpment, near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga. They are solutional caves – that is to say they were formed by natural acid in groundwater seeping through faults and joins, and dissolving rock. This most often occurs when the rock is dolomite rock and/or limestone. The caves themselves formed about 240 million years ago. They are the oldest caves in the world.
There are a number of speleothem structures in the cave, known by names such as the "Lowveld Rocket", "Samson's Pillar", and the "Screaming Monster"; some have been dated to 200 million years old. There are also microbial fossils of a cyanobacterium known as collenia in the rock; these formed 2000 million years ago.
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