There are many beautiful scenic road trips to take in South Africa, one of them being the Panorama Route. The Panorama route spans from near Sabie and ends near Echo Caves.

The route ranges from 70-110 miles depending on where you start and end and takes between 1.5-2.5 hours to drive (excluding the many stops you would want to make!)

Most people will be driving from Johannesburg and connecting to the Panorama route near Sabie. This is the route that we took.

Driving in South Africa can be daunting especially with the stereotypes of safety in this part of the world. We, thankfully, didn’t encounter any problems but we took the basic safety precautions and kept doors and windows locked and didn’t drive at night. We did stop at a few ‘service stations’ that had a mixture of tourists and locals. The service stations are on the route from Johannesburg to the Kruger area and also from the Kruger area back towards Johannesburg/Pretoria.

Service stations

· Alzu Petroport N4 (mostly tourists stopped here. There are wild animals that can be seen from the decking area including rhinos, zebras and ostrich.)

· Total Blyde Canyon

· Engen Kranskop 1 Stop South

On the Panorama Route there are many many places you can stop at. I would recommend staying in Graskop for at least 1 night so you are able to visit and enjoy taking your time on the Panorama Route. We were limited with time and had to prioritise where we wanted to stop. We drove from Johannesburg and stopped in Sabie before reaching our hotel in Graskop. The following morning we set off early along the Panorama Route towards our accommodation in the Greater Kruger region.

Here is a list of all of the stops on the Panorama Route that we decided to visit:

· Sabie

· Graskop Gorge Lift Co.

· The Pinnacle Rock

· Lisbon Falls

· Bourkes luck potholes

· Three rondavels viewpoint of Blyde River Canyon.

Sabie

We stopped here for a short break in the journey to our accommodation in Graskop. We visited Petena Pancakes and enjoyed some delicious pancakes and soft drinks. You can sit outside on the decking and enjoy the view. For 3 pancakes with ice cream and 3 drinks, it came to around 260ZAR which is around £11.

Graskop Gorge Lift Co

This wasn’t originally on our list of places to stop at and we didn’t really know about it but it was recommended to us by the hotel staff in Graskop.

Graskop Gorge offers panoramic views of the Afromontane forest and views of Motitsi waterfalls from various points. There is a suspension bridge , a zip line, a big swing, a forest walkway, a cliff walk and stunning views of the surrounding forest.

There are different ticket options depending on what you want to do here. You could easily spend half a day here exploring, however because we hadn’t factored in stopping here we decided to pay the basic entrance fee of 75ZAR (£3.50)pp. This included the top level of the viewing tower and the suspension bridge. You were able to see people on the big swing and zipline from here.

After spending around 1 hour here we decided to head off to our next stop on the Panorama Route.

The Pinnacle Rock

The Pinnacle Rock was our next stop on the Panorama Route. It cost 60ZAR (£2.75)pp to enter into the car park. From the car park it’s a short 2 minute walk to the view point. The Pinnacle Rock is a 30 Meter freestanding quartzite rock in the Driekop Gorge. It’s a beautiful place to stop and take in the panoramic views and dramatic landscape as well.

Lisbon Falls

There are a few waterfalls along the Panorama route, such as, Mac Mac Falls and Berlin Falls. We decided to visit Lisbon Falls. It flows into Lisbon Creek and stands at 94 meters making it the highest waterfall in the Mpumalanga area. It costs 50ZAR pp to visit, this is around £2pp.

Bourkes Luck Potholes

Bourkes Luck Potholes is one of the most popular stops on the Panorama Route. The potholes have been formed over millions of years through water erosion. There are walking paths, bridges and photo spots in the area as well as a nice spot to dip your toes in the water. The entrance fee is 150ZAR pp, around £6.70pp.

Three Rondavels

This was probably my favourite stop on the Panorama Route, following a short path that leads to the edge of the canyon and observing the breathtaking landscape of the Three Rondavels and Blyde River below was a highlight of the trip for me. You are able to see the bend of the river around the canyons with the sparkling blue shining up at you. The Three Rondavels itself are three rock formations in a row which were formed over millions of years of erosion. There are two pathways from the carpark, make sure you walk down both paths because we nearly missed seeing the iconic view of the river bending! Entrance fees cost 90ZAR, around £4pp.