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Province: Mpumalanga
Region: Highlands Meander

Towns: Highlands Meander
Belfast  |  Dullstroom  |  Lydenburg  |  Machadodorp  |  Waterval Boven  |  Waterval Onder


Mpumalanga's Highlands Meander is a nature lover's paradise, boasting South Africa's premier fly-fishing mecca, some of the sub-continent's rarest birds, best rock climbing, and most spectacular wild flower displays -- all just two-hours drive from the metropolitan centres of Gauteng and Mozambique. 

It is also home to Africa's only breeding community of wild Black Leopard, who haunt the wild mountain ravines and streams that characterise the Highland Meander. 

The region's diversity and string of quaint historic towns have made it a popular weekend hideaway for well-heeled city sleekers, who flock to hamlets such as Dullstroom for South Africa's best trout and fly fishing. The town's stone lodges nestle along cool trout dams and streams, where bright yellow arum lilies and 120 other species of indigenous wild flower carpet the region in a kaleidoscope of colour every spring. 

The picturesque village wasn't, however, always such a haven. It was the scene of bloody battles during the Anglo Boer War 100 years ago, and was torched by invading British forces. The ruined forts, trenches and artillery placements are still visible around the village, as are the graves of Boer fighters and Imperial troopers. 

Those interested in more peaceful pursuits should not miss the Verloren Valei Nature Reserve, which boasts the only habitat where all three of the world's endangered cranes are found. The Blue Crane, which is South Africa's national bird, can be spotted along with the Wattled Crane and Crowned Crane at the reserve, which has been declared an international RAMSAR wetlands site. 

But Dullstroom is just one of the attractions in the Highlands Meander. 

Nearby Machadodorp and Waterval Boven are also rich with Boer War history. Both towns are built along the Transvaal Republic's major railway line to Delagoa Bay (modern-day Maputo), and were fiercely contested by the British as the Boers retreated towards the end of the war. Visitors can take a walk through the historic ZASM tunnel through which the trains used to pass, and see a beautiful waterfall that cascades along the Elands River course. The route drops to the little town of Waterval Onder, where President Paul Kruger lived for a month before finally fleeing into exile and a lonely death in Austria in 1900.

The best way to experience the area, however, is perhaps aboard the historic Oosterlyjn Express steam train which retraces President Kruger's route between Machadodorp and Waterval Boven, and includes a cosy pub lunch in the hotel that served as Kruger's command centre. 

South Africa's coldest town, Belfast, is today best know for its tulip farms and annual tulip festival, but is also the site of one of the country's largest and most notorious Boer War concentration camps for Boer woman and children, and the war's unrecognised black combatants. 

The largest town on the meander, Lydenburg, has an even older history. It was once the capital of its own independent republic, and still boasts some of the best preserved Zuid Afrikaanse and old Transvaal architecture in the country. Lydenburg, which means 'place of suffering' was founded by pioneering Voortrekkers fleeing malaria and the debilitating heat of lower lying areas in the early 1800s. But, although Lydenburg was healthier, marauding Bapedi armies under the leadership of Kgosi Sekhukhune fought a series of bloody pitched battles with the settlers, monuments to which can still be seen in the area. The town continues as an important centre for farming, and is also home to one of Mpumalanga's best museums detailing the mysterious history of the famed Lydenburg Heads. 

The heads are unique pottery masks made by a vanished people thousands of years ago, and believed to have served a ritual or religious purpose. The ruins of stone and iron age settlements are accessible to hikers on the surrounding Gustav Kleinbiel Nature Reserve, which has been earmarked for Mpumalanga's first astrological observatory. 

But, the meander isn't all about history. It's cliffs, ravines, and rolling mountain grasslands offer some of South Africa's most spectacular hiking trails outside the Drakensberg. Hikers regularly report sightings of elusive predators such as leopard, caracal and African wildcat, as well as kudu, bushbuck, mountain reedbuck, duiker, otter and even hippo. The entire region is also a birder's paradise, boasting some of South Africa's last breeding populations of grey and red winged francolin. 

Adventure seekers have meanwhile colonised the cliffs around Machadodorp and Waterval Boven, taking to the air on paragliders, handgliders and hot air balloons, abseiling down the cliffs, and clawing their way back up along some of the country's most challenging rock-climbing routes. The red-walled canyons shelter a hot spring, and scores of secluded campsites on ledges or in small indigenous forests, many of which are reached by canoeing safaris.