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Lowveld guide
Three nights in Hazyview: Kruger, the Panorama Route and time to stop
Three nights is enough to see two of Mpumalanga’s great attractions without turning the entire stay into a race between them.
The key is not trying to add too much.
This is how we would spend it.
Day one: arrive properly
Don’t schedule an activity for the afternoon you arrive unless your flight leaves you with an unusually large amount of time.
Come to The Zarafa. Let us show you your villa. Put your luggage down.
There is a private pool outside and no prize for seeing an attraction before sunset.
If you have travelled from Johannesburg or connected through an airport, the best first afternoon may be the one where absolutely nothing happens.
Dinner is five courses and changes each evening, so leave enough appetite for it.
Day two: Kruger
Go early.
Phabeni Gate is 17 km from The Zarafa, making a morning or full-day safari easy to arrange without changing accommodation.
Early morning and evening are particularly productive wildlife-viewing periods, while the dry winter months traditionally offer excellent viewing because vegetation is thinner and animals are more concentrated around available water.
For a first visit, we would choose a private guided safari.
You aren’t driving, navigating or trying simultaneously to look at the road and the leopard somebody has just spotted in a tree.
If you choose a half-day drive, return to The Zarafa during the afternoon.
The pool makes considerably more sense after six hours in an open safari vehicle.
Day three: the Panorama Route
The following morning, go in the opposite direction.
Where Kruger is broad, dry bushveld, the escarpment is mountains, forest, falling water and enormous views.
A good one-day Panorama Route includes a selection of God’s Window, Lisbon Falls, Bourke’s Luck Potholes and the Three Rondavels overlooking the Blyde River Canyon.
Do not treat every marked viewpoint as compulsory.
Choose the important stops, have lunch and give the canyon some time.
We can arrange the day privately, which means you aren’t waiting for a bus full of people to finish buying curios before moving on.
Come back to The Zarafa for your last evening.
This is a good night for private dining if the trip is marking something, or even if it isn’t.
Day four: don’t leave at dawn
Unless your flight or onward journey demands it, keep the final morning.
Have breakfast.
Take one last swim.
The tendency when planning a South African holiday from abroad is to treat every morning as another transport opportunity. Sometimes the better itinerary is the one that allows an hour to sit still.
Then head for the airport, the next lodge or home.
Why this itinerary works
Kruger and the Panorama Route are radically different experiences, even though both are accessible from Hazyview.
One day is about watching the bush closely enough to notice an ear moving in the grass.
The other is about standing on an escarpment and seeing for kilometres.
The third part of the itinerary is The Zarafa itself.
We think all three deserve some time.