Visit to Graskop

We planned a trip to Graskop and Kruger along with Srinath's parents. We happened to travel through all the popular routes in South Africa, namely the panorama route, the garden route and the wine route. I would like to start with the panorama route to kick start the travel posts.

About the Panorama route:
This route is the most exquisite scenic route in South Africa with waterfalls and canyons. As the name suggests we got all 360 degree view of the mountain range. We had the opportunity to travel around this place during various seasons. This time of the year being spring we happened to see lot of flowers and shades of green in the trees and plants.

Our journey from Johannesburg started at 7 a.m., with a break fast break at 9.30 a.m. at Belfast. We passed through Dulstroom a beautiful town with lot of hills and valleys.

The yellow flowers in Orgistad Oasis complex on the way to panorama route caught our eyes.

Around 12 p.m.we could view blyde river canyons as we entered the panorama route
Blyde river canyon: Though Blyde is the third largest canyon in the world it bags first place in the largest green canyons category.
The first spot we stopped to view the blyde canyon was three rondavels. This place is the best spot to view the blyde canyon. The three rondavels stood majestically and the view was breathtaking.
Three rondavels: Rondavel is the African type of hut which usually is round or oval shaped. There are three independent rocks which has shapes of African huts hence the name.

The next stop was at Potholes, the place of origin of Blyde canyon. The place is just right for photographers. The beautiful swirls and the intensity with which water ran through could be seen from the bridges across the river.
Bourke’s Luck Potholes:

 The place is named after Bourke who predicted the abundant gold deposits in that area though he could not find for himself. The place is abundant in red sand stones. The merger of Treur River with Blyde River with swirls caused over eons made the sand and rock to grind huge, cylindrical potholes into the bedrock of the river.
From potholes we proceeded towards the Berlin falls.

 This is yet another place to photograph. We happened to stumble on a place en route to Berlin falls while searching for a picnic spot which was close to a timber saw mill. The spot was wonderful with cool breeze. We settled under a huge tree with picnic.
The next destination was wonder view, the highest view point in that area. No wonder the view point is called wonder view.

 It was wonderful that we had an unrestricted view of the rain forest from an easily accessible point.
After having seen rain forest view the next point of interest was God’s window.

This is the most popular place around the panoramic route with cliff plunging to 700 meters with views of low veld and kruger national park. We purchased two pedestals from the tribal vendors to mark an end to the one day trip en route to Kruger.

Seventh wedding anniversary

By God's blessings I and Srinath have stepped into eighth year of our togetherness. We recollected the places we lived during our wedding anniversaries these years. Life was like tide with ups and downs. Initial days of adjustments were little difficult for me. From day one, every day is a learning experience and understanding is still improving. At times I wonder how many intricate understanding parts are there between a husband and wife. Observing the positives, the inherent talent he has dealing with people, the right decision making attitude have always made me feel that no other person would have been a suitable person for me. Though expectations always do not meet I can take it as a difference between a man and woman, hence balance would be there in life. We are lucky to be blessed by Srinath’s parents this year for our anniversary.

Epitome of Valour

I happened to read an article about St. Joan of arc, whose bravery can be compared to Lakshmi bai, Rani of Jhansi, a young woman who fought English troops and won several battles for France 500 years ago.

It is unbelievable to know that she at the age of 16 listened to her inner voice and prepared herself to take the most dangerous step in life of becoming a soldier though was born as a daughter of a peasant. She had great victories, crowned Charles, a king and died as a martyr at the age of 19.She got freedom for Orleans and was captured by Germans and sold to English and underwent a prejudiced trial. She was considered to have obliged to evil commands and was burnt. She attained Saint hood later!. She is an epitome of female bravery, egoless soul, faith in God, values, and determination.

Sarva dharma principles

All religions in the world believe that we should love everybody.

 If we believe in religion we should accept that everyone can believe in God in different ways and not judge or criticize anyone else’s beliefs. If someone criticizes you for believing in your religion you should say “I’m sorry you feel that way, but I believe that all religions are pathways to God” and walk away.

These values if incorporated in children's mind then there would definitely be peace in the future world!

Being an interesting person

My thirst for becoming an interesting person has increased tremendously in the past few years. The hints I would like to share on this topic are that we need to develop certain qualities within us which will make us and the people around us happy and attract crowd where ever we are. Being optimistic is the most important thing. Listening to others and appreciating the real good points when they speak would in turn make them listen to us. A very passionate interest in whatever we learn and sharing cutting edge information with others will make us a person whom others would like to acquaint with. To gain knowledge and interesting information we need to read a lot. Reading about people and psychology would make a big difference . Above all "Understanding is the function of heart, not of intellect" is the basic to this performing art!

Days without internet...

Repeated cable thefts made me feel as though I was in stone age. These days we have reduced the burden of postman and the usage of papers with the help of e-mails. Days passed with curiosity about the unread emails and updates which I missed from friends world over.The internet black out period for me!
This period has helped me revive passion for books. There was more time for me to oraganize my daily routine. Day seemed longer and the world seemed smaller. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" became true in this context.

Srinath's innocent handiwork!

What happened to my comment segment?...After analysing so much I understood the popout window setup for comment has been disabled. This happened after the "called it a day" post. This was posted by Srinath when the telephone cable was stolen and the desperation I had to upload my post as early as possible. I handed over this job to my darling husband and he successfully uploaded it.From that moment onwards the comment prompt didnot work.I recieved my comment in the form of message or email from none other than the only person who truly follows my blog "Hari". I had to change my nice template to check if anything was wrong in the code of the template that I was using. Just after changing the template I noticed the problem still remained. Then with so much dullness in my face I started analysing everyother option and found the solution. But Srinath says he only posted the content and didnot change the setup. It still remains a mystery to me that how the comment prompt setting had changed. I just found that the particular post remains unchanged when I change the font! So wondering what innocent handiwork did Srinath do!