After a totally amazing time in Johannesburg, we spent 4-5 days near the town of Hazyview which is just west of Kruger Park, the largest game park in Africa. I remembered Hazyview for its amazing natural sites – huge vistas, canyons and rock formations. We had planned to see a few but also found some other gems in the area which really made our stay perfect. Our cool accommodation also had a water slide which helped. With kids, natural beauty has its limits and on the day we were to drive to see all the sites we found that we only did half…we skipped the Blyde RIver Canyon, Bourkes Luck Potholes and Three Rondavels (the last two are rock formations) and just took in the lovely views at The Pinnacle, God’s Window and Wonderview. The drive from Joburg to Hazyview was pretty nice as we moved from city to the far north end of the Drakensberg Mountains.
**please remember that this blog is mostly for our kids, so in 20 years they can look back and it will jog their memories…so some pix will not be that interesting unless you were there….
The place we stayed was perfect for a family of five. It was a timeshare place for South Africans to go with families. The down side of the Globetrotting Five is that we are five Most hotels only accommodate 4 to a room at best so we would often need 2 rooms which blows our budget. This place had space for all and lots of kids stuff – water slides, games room, bouncy pillow ( picture a giant bouncy overinflated pillow that is like a trampoline).
Pinnacle, God”s Window and Wonderview
Hazyview is in the very north part of the Drakensberg range and is considered the highveld area. Drakensbergen translates from the Afrikaans to Mountains of Dragons – pretty cool huh? As a result this area has high escarpments, big canyons and crazy rock formation due to erosion etc. We checked The Pinnacle which is self explanatory – a big pinnacle eroded by water. It allowed some play time and some hiking time to stretch the legs. Then it was on to the views over this part of the Mpumalanga province from God’s Window and finally Wonderview which was actually similar to God”s Window but had construction.
