The town owes its formal founding to the discovery of gold in 1871, by which time the area had already become a popular camping ground for hunters and explorers. Its restored settler buildings, numerous high quality restaurants, friendly bars and coffee shops along with the surrounding tranquil forests, exhilarating activities and plentiful scenic views continue to make it a wonderful friendly hangout for a peaceful retreat. Sabie even won the coveted South African Town of the Year in 2012.

• St Peter’s Anglican Church – designed by Sir Herbert Baker, South Africa’s favourite architect, who also designed the somewhat larger Union Buildings in Pretoria

• Mac-Mac Pools offers a lovely 3km wander through the grasslands. Excellent birding including, among many species, the bizarre secretary bird 

• The Trichardt Potgieter Gedenkplaat is proof that we South Africans love monuments and will build a memorial to anything. This is the spot where the two itinerant Voortrekkers, to their mutual relief, rediscovered each other.

• Lone Creek Falls – a spectacular 70m drop, unusual in that you can really get underneath it and traipse around the base

• Lone Creek Hike – a gentle wander through the forest to the top of the falls for a different perspective

• Maria Shires Falls  - a chortling waterfall hurtles out of the forest at great speed only metres from the road

• Forest Falls – the only waterfall in the region that is longer than it is high. A 3 km walk through fragrant forests or longer if you take the superb Graskop Day hike.

• Bridal Veil Falls offers a gentle walk into the cool of the forest and a lightly spraying waterfall dropping from an attractive overhang.

• Loerie trail – a 10km day walk through the plantations, grassland and rocky outcrops

• Mac-Mac Falls – one of the region’s iconic sites, this twin-chuted waterfall cascades 65 metres over the escarpment and into the meandering river below. It is such a popular sight that it is even a National Monument

• Jock Topograph – for fans of SA’s most famous hound, this roadside spot maps out the relevant events of Jock of the Bushveld’s drama-filled life

• The Devil’s Knuckles – an impressive line of rugged outcrops on the ascent to the Long Tom Pass from the Sabie side.

• Long Tom Pass is 2150m above sea level at its highest point. Tarred in 1963, it was until recently, the highest tarred motor road in our country. It follows the old wagon road to the coast and remains a popular and famous alternative route into the region.

• Lydenburg, Sabie and their environs offer some of the very best river and dam fly-fishing for rainbow and brown trout anywhere in the world

• The SAFCOL Forestry Museum: Sabie boasts the only museum on the continent dedicated to the timber industry and the gold-mining which spawned it. The town is, after all, surrounded by one of the largest man-made forests in the world.

• The Long Tom cannon on the ascent to the pass is now a monument to commemorate the last use of the Creusot cannon during the Second Anglo-Boer War, but also, maybe more relevantly, a superb viewpoint

• With a guide it is possible to visit a number of archaeological sites from the Stone and Iron Ages in the Skull and Brooklands caves

• Sabie offers some of the best mountain bike trails in the country. Cycle at night and allow the fireflies to light your route for you!

• Sabie has a fun, challenging and scenic nine-hole golf course

DID YOU KNOW?

The Long Tom (Creusot) Cannon was made in France and was accurate over a range of up to 10 kilometres, far longer than any British cannon of that era. The Boers destroyed all their Long Toms to prevent them from falling into British hands, so anything you see is a replica!

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Sabie Information: +27 (0)13 764 3599

From: Kruger Lowveld Tourism Site