Below the sill

Few sights beat the view from God’s Window on the edge of the Drakensberg escarpment. They say that on a clear day you can see as far as Mozambique. But have you ever wondered where that dirt road directly below you at the base of the precipice leads? Her

The route starts at the holiday town of Graskop at the upper edge of the Lowveld. Take Main Street – or the R533 regional road – out of town in the direction of the Kowyns Pass and Bushbuckridge. Kowyns Pass takes you through what is commonly referred to as an avalanche tunnel – the kind that has one side open and the roof supported by pillars. At the foot of the pass is a broad valley, which is, in fact, the shallow southern outlet of the Blydepoort Canyon – the Blyde River Canyon’s less dramatic neighbour.

15 km outside Graskop, at the broad end of the canyon, is a turn-off to your left (S24.94836 E30.94507). The turn-off isn’t well marked, and the only signage is one by Sappi warning you not to start fires in the plantation. Here, you turn left onto a dirt road.

Our Tracks4Africa map labels the route the Watt Road. We asked the locals in Graskop about this route, but the name didn’t ring any bells. They simply know it as one of hundreds of unnamed forestry roads in the area, and the single thing that sets it apart, is that it takes you to Mariepskop and the Klaserie waterfall – exactly where we’re headed now.

It’s a wide dirt road that roller-coasters up and down through plantations. Be on your guard for logging trucks hauling out tree trunks and trike-tractors with huge mechanical jaws that carry these trunks from the plantation to the road.

About 7 km after the turn-off at the Sappi sign, stop and raise your eyes to the escarpment towering above you. High above is God’s Window, and there may very well be a tourist looking down at you, wondering where you’re heading. By the way, it’s from that very cliff where Xi, the Bushman, threw the dastardly Coke bottle in the 1980 hit movie The God’s Must be Crazy.

After another 7 km, you reach your first river crossing, the Maritsane River