So much to do and see!
Your stay at Bushwillow Private Safari Villa would not be complete without taking part in some of the great activities and things to do and see in Hoedspruit and its surrounding area.
First of all, there's excitement and adventure literally on your doorstep! Bushwillow Private Safari Villa is located on the beautiful Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate, close to the centre of town but a lifetime away in other respects. The estate is home to some marvellous wilderness areas and is packed with wildlife, so the bush is your back yard!
The centre section of the estate is a dedicated green belt area with its own game drive routes as well as hiking and mountain bike trails. While leopard occur naturally on the estate, there are no elephant, buffalo, rhino or lion, meaning that you can take a walk or cycle around the estate in safety. You can opt to jump in your car and explore, or perhaps organise some horse riding and experience the estate on four legs. You'll likely see giraffe, kudu, waterbuck, impala and zebra on the estate as well as the ubiquitous warthog - Hoedspruit's mascot. Take a pair of binoculars and your camera wherever you go, because the birding is amazing and there's always something amazing to take a picture of.
The town of Hoedspruit is the safari capital of South Africa and offers a great variety of shopping opportunities, from curios and clothing to works of art and jewellery. There's also a wide range of restaurants, eateries, cafes and coffee shops as well as three great supermarkets to choose from.
As you'd expect, there's a wealth of safari experiences on offer, from full-day safaris in the Kruger National Park to morning and afternoon game drives in the beautiful Manyeleti Game Reserve and other private reserves in the area. The famous Panorama Route which takes in the best of the breathtaking Drakensberg escarpment as well as the magnificent Blyde River Canyon (pictured above) is also a stone's throw from Hoedspruit and is absolutely recommended to either self-drive or take a guided tour.
The Blyde River Canyon is the second largest canyon in Africa, after the Fish River Canyon. Carved out by the Blyde River as it pushes its way down to the lowveld to join the Olifants River, the canyon is surrounded by towering peaks of impressive red sandstone. It is 25km long and an average of 750m deep. It's highest peak - Mariepskop - is 1944m above sea level. Bourke's Luck Potholes is another major attraction on the Panorama Route.
It's a fascinating geological anomaly formed at the confluence of the Blyde and Treur rivers where the swirling waters have carved huge circular shapes out of the sandstone rock, forming open caverns and potholes. The pretty town of Graskop, on the edge of the escarpment, is a great place for lunch and home to the Graskop Gorge Lift - a new attraction that takes visitors down the steep side of a gorge in a glass fronted lift to explore the hidden wonders below.
A raised wooden walkway above the gorge floor allows visitors to move around with ease, learning all about the eco-system and the plants and animals that live there through amazing information stations dotted along the route. It's not to be missed. Add to the mix activities like hot air ballooning, helicopter flips, microlighting and hiking and you'll soon see why the Greater Kruger region and our little town of Hoedspruit are so popular.
