On Saturday, October 14th, Rick drove us on a long but beautiful trip to Blyde River Canyon, a national park in South Africa. 
(Top L) The vista of the Blyde River is stunning.  The rock formations are a combination of Sedona, the Grand Canyon (Above L), (Above R is the Pinnacle) and Zion and
Bryce Canyon, AZ.  The Pinnacle (Above R) and a craggy overhang (Top R) are just the beginning.

 (Top L) The narrow, red-rock canyon is one section, which through erosion, looks like some miners drilled down (Above L & R) then just left the holes behind.
(Top R) The 3 Rondevaals are rock formations which are thought to represent the traditional round, thatched huts in a typical local village--just embedded into a mountain.

  Even the small rocks looked carved. (Top L) Gaudi from Spain might have designed these 2 rock creatures having a conversation.  (Above L) At one of our last
stops in Blyde River, we walked to Mac Mac Falls, named for all the Scottish people who had been in the area--and maybe the repetitive name for the double falls.
Then we drove from Blyde River through Nelspruit, the biggest city near Swaziland which happens to also have the nearest movie theater.  But we were on our
way to the Boondocks, literally.  This is a lovely B & B between Barberton and Kruger Park South Africa.  (Above & Top R) The Boondocks was a beautiful retreat
with reflective pools, lovely views of their 1,100 hectares property, and very quiet which was an especially nice break for Rick's long day of driving.

  Then we were on the road again, from Barberton through Bulembu, Swaziland and back to Mbabane.  (Top L) Rick bravely took the challenge of driving in our Toyota sedan
on a dirt road for 50 km that was rated for 4x4 vehicles only.  But he decided that the South African piece of the road couldn't be much worse than the Swazi side near Bulembu.
Indeed much of the landscape (Above L) was as beautiful as Blyde River Canyon.  Since very few people drive through the Bulembu border crossing, we quickly completed
customs, and carried on through the ghostly old mining town of Bulembu.  15,000 people had once lived here during the town's hey-day, supporting an asbestos mine
that shut down in the mid-1990s  and now  that has dwindled to less than 1,200 (Above & Top R).  Please see our blog for more details.

 Though the mining compound and infrastructure is still standing, it's quite dilapidated from disuse. (Top L) The hill behind the abandoned mine building is actually a huge pile of tailings from the asbestos mining.  (Above L) What looks like an erector set is the endpoint of former cable cars which transported asbestos from the mine
over the mountain to South Africa.  Now the North American missionary group which  purchased the whole kit-and-caboodle in the last couple of years
is trying to revitalize this very poor rural area to become more self-sufficient and sustainable.  Part of that effort is to train the local Swazi in tourism activities which includes
the new Bulembu Bed & Breakfast which Rick is walking toward (Above R) after visiting the garden through the gate (Top R).