God's Window and the Canyon

Jo'burg sits high up on plateau of South Africa's interior. Because of its location and the surrounding region's topography, it has bone dry winters. There is not a sniff of moisture in the air. Humidity here must be about nil! As winter drags on, the ground steadily gets harder, drier, dustier and brown. The colours just seem to be bleached out of the world around you. The fact that smoke and ash for innumerable coal fires never seems to disappear from the air, the horizon is blurred between heaven and earth.

But to the east is the escarpment. It is the wall of mountains that leap from the Lowveld to the Highveld. They form the almost impenetrable barrier between the coastal plains and the high interior. They stand as sentinels guarding the eastern approaches. Here is a barrier that even tropical cyclones are broken upon. And we were headed for it.

Did you know that God has a window here in this range of mountains? Here, if you get up early enough, you see the sun rise eagerly from the mist covered plains far below, you see the pine forests and scattered villages come to life ready for another day. But in the early morning light of the dawn, when all is quiet with not even the wind to disturb you, you might just hear something in the silence. Perhaps that is God speaking back through His window?

The road to the Blyde (Afrikaans for Joyful) River Canyon snakes along the top of the escarpment and view after stunning view opens up before you; teasing you of what's to come when you eventually get there. But where is there anyway? You could pull over here and get just as good a view as over there. But right opposite, the Three Rondavels is a place just to take it all in. With nothing but the quiet voices of the market stall holders setting up, and the whistle of wind in the wings of the birds, you can see the river winding it ways down far below. Further to the east, far beyond the mountain sentinels are the lowlands, the lowveld. It is impossible not be impressed with such a view.

Nature makes strange shapes; and Bourke's Luck potholes are one of shapes. In the height of the rainy season, this river becomes a raging torrent, dragging all sorts of debris in its wake. Rocks come tumbling down the river bed, and the combination of water dynamics and the shape of the river bed trap the rock in an endless whirlpool. Round and round and round and round and round…..until eventually a hole is created. As the hole gets bigger more rocks are trapped and the process is repeated. Year after year. For eons. The amazing shaped potholes are evidence of those forces at play.

But where is World's End? Yes, South Africa has a stunning diverse collection of places that the rest of the world wishes it had. World's End and God's Window are but two. Somewhere on this road there is a World's View too. After searching high and low for this end, it seemed as if the map maker might have got a little enthusiastic. And we might have been a little bit enthusiastic. Who knows, maybe God was there too?

Next stop Swaziland!