The Kruger National Park alone would be enough to ensure that South Africa's Mpumalanga province attracts more than its fair share of tourists. Together with a cluster of adjoining private reserves, this prime game-viewing destination - the Kruger Park is larger than Wales - is eclipsed only by Cape Town as the country's single most popular tourist attraction.

But Mpumalanga is also one of the most beautiful of South Africa's provinces, nowhere more so than along the so-called Panorama Route. A somewhat loosely-defined entity, the Panorama Route essentially follows the R532 along the escarpment which runs through Mpumalanga from north to south, the mountainous barrier that divides the breezy grassland of the South African highveld from the low-lying bush country of the Kruger Park. This escarpment, as you might expect, is an area of considerable scenic contrasts. The rim tends to be moist and misty, supporting lush grassland interspersed with patches of indigenous forest and exotic plantations, while the land below is a drier, hotter tangle of thick acacia scrub.

The centrepiece of the Panorama Route is the 700m-deep Blyde River Canyon, which cuts back from the main walls of the escarpment for a distance of 25km. Protected within the eponymous 22,664 hectare nature reserve, the floor of the Blyde River Canyon is most easily explored on foot, by following any of several short day trails or - more ambitiously - the highly rated five-day Blyderivierspoort Hiking Trail.

The canyon rim, by contrast, is readily accessible by vehicle, and the Three Rondawels viewpoint - overlooking the canyon as well as a rock formation of three "round huts" on the other side - is as memorable as any in South Africa.

One of the most extraordinary features of the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve is Bourke's Luck at the southern end of the canyon. Here, over many millions of years, a complex of smooth cylindrical potholes has been hollowed out by whirlpools formed at the confluence of the Blyde and Treur Rivers. The ravine in which the potholes lie reaches a depth of 30m, though the actual potholes are generally about 6m deep. The potholes lie only five minutes' walk from a car park, and an imaginatively constructed network of paths and bridges allows visitors to see them from every angle.

The Blyde River Canyon holds much of interest to botanists. Habitats range from subtropical rainforest to montane moorland; notable species include the tree-fern, common at higher altitudes, and the ancient cycads that dot the sides of the canyon. There is plenty of wildlife in the reserve, most visibly troops of baboon and vervet monkey which frequent the roadside above the canyon. Other interesting mammals include samango monkey, greater kudu, red duiker, bushpig and leopard, but you'll need to put on hiking boots to stand a chance of seeing any of these.

The escarpment is noted for its superb birdlife. More than 360 species have been recorded in the area, notably some 20-odd localised forest birds, such as Knysna loerie, Narina trogon, Blue-mantled flycatcher, Orange thrush and Olive woodpecker. The trails through the canyon are a good place to seek out unusual birds, though the Loerie Day Trail above Sabie is perhaps better, passing through several stands of indigenous forest.

The walls of the Blyde River Canyon provide breeding sites for a number of handsome birds of prey, including Black eagle, Jackal buzzard and Lanner falcon, as well as the world's third-largest Cape vulture colony. Endemic to South Africa, and superficially similar in appearance to the more common and raucous hadeda, the southern Bald ibis, is often seen in the vicinity of Bourke's Luck - on our most recent visit we saw one alight on the back of a pick-up truck at the main northern entrance to the nature reserve!

The Panorama Route offers easy access to a dozen or so waterfalls, as well as several viewpoints over the escarpment. The most attractive of the waterfalls, in my opinion, is Lone Creek Falls, reached via a short path through a patch of mist forest. The more low-key Kadashi Waterfall, which lies along a walking trail that starts at the Blyderivier resort, is a good example of a tufa waterfall - tufa being a calcium carbonate deposit which is carried by the water and forms miniature stalactite-like overhangs, a most appealing effect.

Of the various viewpoints, my favourite is The Pinnacle, where a 30m-high quarzite monolith rises from a verdant ravine above the hazy plains of the distant lowveld. On a clear day, the nearby God's Window viewpoint offers a panoramic view over the lowveld 700m below. Be warned though that this spot reputedly has the highest annual rainfall figure of anywhere in South Africa, roughly 3,000mm. Based on our experience a cloudless, mistless sky is something of a rarity.

If there is one aspect of the Panorama route about which it is difficult to be positive, it is the towns. Graskop, arguably the main regional tourist focus, comes across as a sort of South African everytown, a bland grid of sleepy streets peppered with curio shops and "olde-worlde" style restaurants specialising in coffee and pancakes. The larger town of Sabie has an attractive location below the forested slopes of Mount Anderson, the region's tallest peak, but otherwise it's pretty much Graskop revisited. It is similarly difficult to wax lyrical about Ohrigstad and Lydenberg, or lowveld towns such as White River and Hazyview.

An exception to the above is Pilgrim's Rest. This small mining town was founded in 1874 upon the discovery of payable gold in a nearby creek. After the last mine closed down 100 years later, the town was restored in period style to form a living museum. Superficially, Pilgrim's Rest might come across as having the qualities of a theme park, especially around midday when tourist bus activity is at its peak. However it is altogether more seductive in the evening, when the main road - instantly recognisable from photographs dating back to the goldrush days - takes on a genuinely time-warped character, and the restored Royal Hotel exudes a creaky period charm.

A visit to Cemetery Hill, overlooking the town, will put paid to any reservations about the authenticity of Pilgrim's Rest, while serving as a sombre testament to the hardships of the pioneer lifestyle. Inordinate attention has been given to the so-called "Robber's Grave", the burial place of a tent-robber shot dead in the early days of the goldrush and buried on a north-south orientation to brand him a thief for posterity. But the other graves tell their own slight, sad tales. Many of the earliest headstones are dedicated to infants and children, and few of those adults who were buried before the turn of the century made it into their late twenties. Some were crushed in rockfalls; others succumbed to malaria or a snake bite. A block of graves dating to the last two months of 1918 would suggest that Pilgrim's Rest suffered as badly as anywhere during the global influenza epidemic that followed the First World War.

Of course, this part of South Africa was inhabited long before it was descended upon by gold prospectors. Stone age tools of up to 150,000 years old have been found in the Blyde River Canyon, while a rock shelter near the Echo Caves was first inhabited at least 30,000 years ago. More recent relics of human habitation include a number of stone wall settlements dating from the early Iron Age, a collection of sixth-century clay heads unearthed near Lydenberg (and now on display in that town's museum), and panels of monochromatic rock art scattered throughout the region.

In historical times, the prospectors were preceded into the region by the Voortrekkers, who in the 1830s and 1840s established a trade route across the escarpment to Delagoa Bay (now the Mozambican capital of Maputo). The difficulties faced by the Voortrekkers, many of whom died of malaria or in conflict, are alluded to in place names such as Lydenburg (Town of Suffering) and Treur Rivier (River of Sadness).

The Panorama Route has justifiably become a standard component of practically every organised tour itinerary through South Africa,and its proximity to the Kruger National Park and adjoining private game reserves has only served to boost its popularity. Typically, tour buses dedicate the best part of the day to the area, stopping at a few selected sites, most frequently Pilgrim's Rest, Three Rondavels, God's Window and Bourke's Luck - though it's a matter of opinion as to whether speeding from viewpoint to waterfall to pancake shop really does justice to the enormous beauty of the escarpment.

I for one would rate the Panorama Route as warranting at least two or three days' exploration. Travellers with their own transport have a practically infinite choice of beauty spots to explore, including relatively unpublicised attractions such as the Echo Caves and Ohrigstad Dam, and they may also want to dedicate time to one of the region's many beautiful day walks. For those with ample time and strong legs, the region is also bisected by some of South Africa's finest extended hiking trails. However you go about it, the Panorama Route is well worth exploring, both in its own right and as the most obvious extension to a safari in the Kruger Park.

Philip Briggs is a regular contributor to Travel Africa. He is the author of eight African guide books, including the Bradt Guide to South Africa.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Ten: Winter 1999/2000 Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)