African Design Magazine ADM #37 February 2018 | Page 9
‘Into the forest I go…to feed my mind…and nd my soul.'
BREAKING
GLASS CEILINGS
ithin the mountainous province of Mpumalanga, South Africa, the opening of the
Graskop Gorge lift development (Phase 1) has taken place. The second phase of the
project will include a 40-bed boutique hotel. The focal point of this development is a
viewing lift that carries the visitors 51 metres down into the spectacular Graskop Gorge.
Total visitor count for January was 15,831.
There, a wooden walkway, rising and falling and crossing suspension bridges guide visitors
along a 500 metre interpretation trail through the local indigenous forests.
“As well as offering a spectacular tourism experience, the Graskop project has an educational
role — revealing the signicance of our indigenous forest biome that covers just 0.56% of South
Africa but is home to about 5% of plant species. Only the Fynbos has a greater oral diversity.
Although South Africa has never had a great deal of forest, many of the forests have been logged
for timber,” - Karl Lane, Hamilton-Fynch
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