Al-Qalam 
The Pilgrims Hotel of the 1800s housed prospectors who came looking for gold in the rivers and streams of Pilgrims Rest.
By Ismail Suder
As a Durban-based solo camper, I always believed there was no other place to match the beauty of KwaZulu-Natal and the fairest Cape – I was wrong!
I recently undertook a 750 km road trip from Durban to Hazyview, Mpumalanga, in my fully kitted Suzuki Jimny with the aim of exploring the mighty Kruger National Park, one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries on earth. But before undertaking the Kruger camping adventure, I decided to explore parts of the famous Panorama Route of Mpumalanga.
The drive in my Jimny, up and down steep hills and valleys, was one of utter joy. Never have I seen such spectacular beauty within a circular range of 100km.
The Panorama Route in Mpumalanga is one of the world’s most scenic drives, running along the northern edge of the Great Drakensberg Escarpment. It features dramatic drops, lush green subtropical canyons, and a series of cascading waterfalls and rivers everywhere you go. It felt as though Allah Ta’ala had bestowed his favours a little extra on Mpumalanga, whose meaning is: ‘The Land where the sun rises’.
With the ‘Dezemba’ holiday season hurtling towards us, I would highly recommend Mpumalanga for your next holiday – and if you’re traveling with kids, they are in for a treat with adventure activities galore.
While staying in Hazyview, I decided to take a leisurely drive towards Pilgrim’s Rest, a little town born out of the gold rush era of the 1800s.
The place is like a living museum, stuck in a time warp. Along the main street are perfectly restored wood & iron buildings such as a trading store packed with biscuit tins, chocolate and sweets imported from Colonial England at that time – which, of course, must have taken months to arrive by ship. There were clothing stacked on shelves, a cast-iron stove, and beans packed in wooden caskets on the floor. While slowly walking through the ancient trading post, looking at the displays of a world gone by, I felt teleported to the early 1800s.
Every building in the town is beautifully preserved to reflect the era of the gold rush days.
Traversing along the route towards Sabie – a town with a sizeable Muslim population – especially from the Indian subcontinent, I came across Mac-Mac Falls, which unusually have twin side-by-side streams. Originally a single waterfall, it was blasted in two by 19th-century gold miners using dynamite to access gold-bearing reefs.
Moving 29 km away towards Sabie, another waterfall called the Lone Creek Waterfall took my breath away. You can literally stand 30 m away and be blasted by a cool spray from the sheer drop of cascading water into a crystal-clear pool below. There’s a large picnic area outside the waterfall precinct with ablution and braai facilities.
Although halaal food in the town of Hazyview where I stayed was a scarcity, there are several women (from India) who can cook foods for you, providing advance order is given.
If you’re travelling during the school holidays, you are bound to find fruits of every kind. Another reason why I undertook an adventure to Mpumalanga is for the litchi crop (my favourite) that is grown in this subtropical region. I was disappointed, though, as the litchi season was a bit late this year, and the nice lady at the Litchi Farm Cafe (which is surrounded by large litchi plantations) told me, “Sorry, but you’re a few weeks early”.
Mpumalanga, incidentally, is the largest producer of litchis in South Africa.
There is so much to do and see in Mpumalanga; I might need longer than the 10 days I am scheduled to stay here. But, inshaAllah, I will try not to leave before I’ve witnessed the spectacular sight of the Blyde River Canyon, a World Heritage site said to be 26 km long, and the third-largest canyon on Earth, behind the Grand Canyon in the USA and the Fish River Canyon in Namibia.
As I savour Mpumalanga’s beauty, I reflect on the Quranic verse of Surah Ar-Rahman: “So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?”
*To follow my camping adventures with my Suzuki Jimny, check out my Instagram channel called @jimny_go_afrika
