TAKE A HIKE

Big day out in the Blyde River Canyon

- GRANT CHRISTIE

Choose your own adventure in the world's largest green canyon.

The sharp whistle of a sombre greenbul rings out. I look around. Trees stretch towards the sun and spread a beautiful canopy; a stream trickles along beside the trail and the air is thick with humidity. Suddenly, a crimson flash catches my eye. I duck off the trail to follow the scarlet streak, which comes to rest in a matumi tree. It's not the greenbul, it's a narina trogon - a lifer for most people. What a sighting!

A few minutes later, I arrive at the edge of a clear pool at the base of a waterfall. This is paradise, and it's not difficult to find... Indeed, the Waterfall Trail is one of three easily accessible trails in the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve.

Deciding what constitutes a "canyon", and then measuring that canyon, is not an exact science. But if you look at length and average depth, the Blyde - at 26 km long and averaging 750m deep - is only smaller than the Fish River Canyon in Namibia and the Grand Canyon in the USA. It looks nothing like those arid canyons, however. The subtropical climate makes this the largest so-called "green" canyon on the planet.

What makes it even more remarkable is that the Ohrigstad River has carved its own 16 km canyon, which intersects with the Blyde at the centre of what is now the Blyderivierpoort Dam. The gravity-arch construction of the dam was completed in 1974. The wall is 240 m long and 71 m tall, and holds back more than 54 million cubic metres of water. Yikes! Hippos, crocs, and more than 30 species of fish live in these waters. And all this majesty is contained within a 290 km² nature reserve.