South Africa, Mac Mac - Sabie area

While waiting from various documents from my bank etc to complete my Chinese visa application and since I could do nothing but wait I took a drive to the North Eastern corner of South Africa along the Kruger for a few days..
It is a lovely area, quite mountainous and quite humid. Tourism is a major industry there because of the Kruger and the over all beauty of the area with the exposure of the Eastern Escarpment and as a result it was easy to find cheap accommodation ( a bit of a concern these days). Apart from tourism this area also grows macadamia nuts, bananas, pawpaws (papayas), avocados, narjees (mandarines). I even went to visit a coffee plantation (I'll show photos in another post).

This is where I stayed

Simple but cheap accommodation and very pleasant. I stayed in a tent for the first few nights then I moved to one of the old original house on the property. It was further away from the main part of the accommodation and was quieter which was also quite nice. (It is called Mac Mac Forest Retreat - www.macmac.co.za - +27 (0)13 764 2376)

I went for long walks in the mountains, but honestly I tried to stay as little as possible in the lower treed areas because they were full of baboons and I hate baboons.

 Higher above the tress the views are awesome.

It is the country for views. The Eastern Escarpment makes beautiful views too.

I drove among banana plantations

and went swimming at Mac Mac Pools, a magical spot. The same limestone which results in the Eastern Escarpment allows for deep pools to form along streams. Most pools were too deep for me to be able to stand in them, and the water was not cold.

Generally I had a nice mellow relaxing time.