Driving the Panorama Route

We left behind Kruger National Park and looked towards the final few days of our cross-African roadtrip with anticipation. We were in South Africa again after an epic roadtrip that had already seen us cross four other countries (with another still to go), spending two weeks and nearly 6000 kilometres chasing views, wild landscapes, epic experiences, incredible animal sightings and most of all, life-changing adventures that pushed us to the edge of our comfort zones.

Our trip across Africa began with a week based in Cape Town, a gem of a city situated right on the southern tip of Africa. We landed on a beautiful Saturday morning, picked up our rental car and spent the rest of the day getting acquainted with the city and exploring many of its highlights before we dropped off our rental car at before spending the night sleeping on benches in Cape Town airport. From there, we took an early morning flight in a tiny airplane up to Windhoek in Namibia where we picked up our rental 4x4 truck with a roof tent and headed into the city, anticipation at an all time high for the adventure we were about to undertake.

We spent six days roadtripping across Namibia, witnessing extraordinary places, deep in the desert and thousands of years old. From Namibia, we turned eastward and completed our first African land border crossing into Botswana where we visited two exceptional game reserves - the revered Okavango Delta, a wet river delta teeming with life, before entering Chobe National Park.

From Botswana we continued east across the continent, making the long drive from Chobe National Park towards Victoria Falls, a famous spot in northern Zimbabwe and right on the border with Zambia. After Victoria Falls, we made the long drive southward across all of Zimbabwe, stopping to spend the night in Matobo Hills, before crossing the border back into South Africa at Beitbridge and driving eastward towards Kruger National Park.

Our final stop in South Africa was to drive the revered Panorama Route, a 160km loop near Graskop connecting mountain passes, waterfalls, hikes, viewpoints and other incredible natural formations of the region. We only had a short time window with which to drive the route so picked three spots to stop at (see the route below); you can check out the full list of what is on the Panorama Route and build your itinerary based of that.

Stop 2 - Wonder View

We had initially wanted to hike up God's Window, a steep hike up to a beautiful panoramic view across the countryside, but with time freedom not on our side, we opted for the little viewpoint just beyond the hike which offered, perhaps not exactly the same view, but good enough all the same. Unfortunately, my camera had died at Pinnacle Rock so all I have of this spot is an iPhone selfie!

Cost: free