Federale Stene and Malelane Stene join to embrace Arbor Month

Malelane Stene had the privilege of supplying bricks to this innovative Lifestyle Centre and Graskop Gorge Lift – the latest and most innovative tourism development in South Africa and the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The lifestyle centre, centrally located on the Panorama Route, boasts a number of small retail outlets, a community craft market and a restaurant situated on the cliff edge.

The main attraction, however, is the glass lift that takes you down 51 meters, whilst you enjoy the spectacular view of the waterfall and Afromontane forest around you.

An extensive network of elevated walkways, suspension bridges and interactive exhibits lead you along the 500m forest trails and across the streams. The site’s towering cliffs have been cut back over time by the Motitsi River, with the Panorama Gorge waterfall which plummets 70m into the gorge below.

The ride down with the elevator only takes a few minutes, but you can spend hours exploring the indigenous forest below. And one ticket is good for multiple daily rides down into the forest.

Towering trees, tiny flowers or clusters of mushroom that contend for attention with towering rocks, the rushing waterfall, insects, reptiles, birds and mammals, serenity…this is all part of the magic so go view the splendour of nature this month and appreciate the beauty of clay bricks.

To keep the tradition of Arbor Month going, Federale Stene has planted 10 Karee Trees (Rhus lancea) at their factory. The Karee trees don’t have an aggressive root system therefore they are safe to plant near paved surfaces.

These evergreen trees are a hardy park or street tree that require minimal care and can survive most extreme weather conditions, same as clay bricks. The trees will thrive under the full Mpumalanga sun too.

The Federale Stene factory is working hard on improving the factory to become more eco-friendly and believe the trees will bring a newfound “going green” aesthetic look when driving down to the brickyard to go collect customer clay bricks.

Federale Stene	Malelane Stene