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Several of South Africa's provincial Nature Reserves fully deserve National Park status, and a prime example is that of Mpumalanga's Blyde River Canyon. Few will ever forget their first glimpse of this breathtaking gorge, the third largest in the world and one of South Africa's scenic wonders.
Its scenery is unsurpassed, its vegetation both varied and lush and the rich selection of birdlife includes a breeding colony of the rare bald ibis. Just over halfway down, the swift-flowing Blyde River is joined by the Ohrigstad River from the west. Here engineers have built an unobtrusive dam wall in a bottleneck below the confluence. The result is the Blyde Dam. The Blyde Dam is the heart of the reserve, but its nerve centre is the nature conservation team's headquarters at Bourke's Luck. Close by a network of pathways and footbridges allows visitors to explore the potholes (some of which are 6 m deep) at the confluence of the Blyde and Treur rivers. Another attraction at Bourke's Luck is the visitors' centre, which has numerous interesting displays. A newly developed, 180 m circular trail, accessible to the physically disabled, starts at the visitors' centre and has as its main theme the lichens found in the area.
Wildlife in the canyon area is as varied as the habitats. There are mountain reedbuck on the escarpment, dassies on the canyon walls, hippo and crocodile in the Blyde Dam, and impala, kudu, blue wildebeest, waterbuck and zebra on the Lowveld plain near the canyon's mouth.
To most visitors, the 24 984 ha reserve is a two-level attraction to be approached from either west or east. A public road runs along the long western boundary and there is easy access to beauty spots like The Pinnacle, God's Window with its kloof-framed view of the Lowveld, Bourke's Luck, and a lookout point pointing on The Three Rondavels - unusually shaped hillocks that are also visible from the Aventura Blydepoort Resort, a short distance to the north. Anyone wanting to explore the upper level more carefully should take to the trails from this resort.
