The Area

Kruger National Park

The world-renowned Kruger National Park is 10 kilometres away from Blue Jay Lodge and offers a wildlife experience that ranks with the best in Africa. Established in 1898 to protect the wildlife of the South African Lowveld, this national park of nearly 2 million hectares is unrivalled in the diversity of its life forms and is a world leader in advanced environmental management techniques and policies.

Kruger is home to an impressive number of species: 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals.

The Blyde River Canyon

The third largest canyon in the world and the largest green canyon. Magnificent views from Gods Window, Worlds View and The Three Rondavels.

Gods Window is a spectacular 1000m drop on the edge of the Escarpment. Incredible views across the Kruger National Park into Mozambique.

NNearby Sabie and Graskop have a superb variety of interesting rock formations and waterfalls, including the Berlin Falls, Macmac Falls, Forest Falls, Lisbon Falls and Lone Creek Falls

Hazyview

Hazyview is strategically situated 35kms east of Sabie and 17km west of the Kruger National Park, midway between the spectacular scenery of the great escarpment and the world-famous game lodges - a town on a crossroads, where six major roads, all leading to different tourist attractions, converge.

The first recorded mention of Hazyview was by Harry Wolhuter, the famous Kruger National Park ranger. His life was saved here by Perry, a French-Canadian member of Steinaeckers Horse, a cavalry regiment in the Anglo-Boer War. Wolhuter was suffering from Black Water fever.

Perry was granted a farm on the Sabie River by the government and there he founded a trading store. He had no family and on his death he willed the farm to Wolhuter, who was obliged to sell it to liquidate his debts.

TThe village of Hazyview was officially promulgated in 1959 when the first Post Office was established and Hazyview station came into being when the old Selati line was re-routed outside the Kruger National Park at Kaapmuiden in the late 1960s.

Hazyview is now not only a tourism hub, but also a thriving farming community - a centre for the farming of bananas, coffee, avocados, mangoes. lychees, citrus fruits and macadamias among other things. More than half of the worlds bananas are grown within 100km of Hazyview and the ground is so fertile it is said that if you planted a gum boot youd grow a rubber tree! The bananas were planted in the 1950s and since then the number of farms has grown and grown.

Hazyview is the perfect place for a base for a holiday - golf, tennis, bowls, horse-riding, squash, river-rafting, bird-watching, hiking, mountain biking, history tours and magnificent game-viewing are all available and to be strongly recommended. Recommended places to visit during your stay at Blue Jay Lodge/span>