Johannesburg, South Africa
(and vicinity)

Best to hold phone horizontally!

South Africa 2010

I was asked to go to Johannesburg on business in late 2010. A colleague and I went from our Vancouver office to help out on a project in Mosambique that was being designed in South Africa. We took full advantage of our weekends to travel to game parks and other attractions that were close enough to Johannesburg to make a weekend visit practical.

Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg is a big city with over 4 million inhabitants. When I was there, it was a little bit screwed up, with the central business district (CBD) largely abandoned by business and occupied by squatters. Recovery efforts were under way, and I think they have been successful, but I didn't try to check.

There was still plenty to see, including lots of game parks and animal sanctuaries.

When you visit game parks in South Africa there are lots of chances to photograph Lions, Giraffes, Elephants and so on. I found I have many photos of similar beasts, so I have had to seek out photos of other worthy subjects.

Rhino and Lion Reserve

Almost inevitably, we had to start with a big game park, and a very good one. Despite the park name they had lots of different animals there. Not all of them were African species, but that is common all around the world as we all like to import exotic species.

Some of the exotics would be part of a breeding program they have here to preserve endangered species.

Walter Sisulu Gardens

For a change of pace, we went to the Walter Sisulu Gardens. Nice place and clearly a favorite venue for budding photographers as there was more than one group of them trying out their lenses and tripods.

Elephant Sanctuary

The Elephant Sanctuary near Hartbeespoort Dam provides a safe haven and “halfway house” for African elephants. (to quote Wikipedia). The main focus of the sanctuary is to educate visitors about all aspects of elephants and elephant husbandry.

They do a good job too if our experience there is any guide. They start off with lessons about the elepant's skeleton and body, told by an African with wonderful skills as a raconteur. He kept us amused with tales of escaping a rampaging elephant by running as fast as possible while dropping items of clothing for the elepant to stop and tromp on. He said this would explain the sight of an African sprinting stark naked from the bush!

Feeding an elephant through his trunk was odd. (It took care of transferring the food to his mouth.) It was also odd to lead one around by his trunk. One feels rather silly.

Pilanesburg Park

⁨Pilanesberg National Park⁩ lies in the root zone of an extinct volcano that last erupted 1200 million years ago. The area is geologically ancient. (Wikipedia). It is large, nearly 600 square kilometres.

The park has a rich array of southern African wildlife including the Big Five, the five most dangerous game animals in Africa: the lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and African buffalo.

The roads in the park are a little rough but can be travelled with a standard road vehicle. We tried that and smashed the sump on our car. That curtailed our driving. We were rescued by the park staff, and subsequently did our touring on park vehicles, hosted by park rangers, and that had advantages as the various park vehicle stayed in touch and knew where best to go to see the animals. We went at night too, and the ranger had a spotlight to show us the animals.

Gold Reef City

Gold Reef City is a casino and amusement park built on the site of the original Crown Mines, one of the most productive gold mines in the area, which operated from the late 1800s to the early 1970s.

There are a lot of amusement park rides, and looking at their current web page is looks like they continually introduce new ones and retire older ones. Must be a very profitable complex.

We went there to take a break from viewing wild animals and see something completely different. Our visit included a trip down the mine - or at least as far as you can go now. The original mine was very deep. I found a reference that said it was 2,819 meters (9,249 feet) deep. Much of it is flooded.

Johannesburg Zoo

Johannesburg Zoo was opened in 1904, so it has a venerable history. It's a 81 hecare (200 acre) property located just a little north of the city centre. They have 320 species there, and boast a breeding programme that includes white lions, which are unusual. (Wikipedia)

We saw all sorts of animals.

Blyde River

Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve includes "God's Window", and having seen and enjoyed the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy", where it features, we just had to go there.

Unfortunately for us, it was very misty, which apparently is not unusual. That was the case in the movie, but we had forgotten. God's Window is on the edge of the Drakensberg Escarpment, where the ground elevation drops sharply 700 metres to the Lowveld. It would be nice to see. Maybe some other time, but the misty environment we saw was dramatic too.

We also went to the Bourke's Luck Potholes on the Treur River. The rocks there have been sculpted into fantastic shapes by the water whirling boulders around in the potholes.

Then on to The Three Rondavals. They are three round, grass-covered mountain tops with somewhat pointed peaks. They quite closely resemble the traditional round rondavels or African homesteads (Wikipedia).

Lion and Safari Park

The last park we visited before leaving South Africa to return home was the Lion and Safari Park in Roodepoort (since relocated to Hartbeespoort).

Again a great collection of animals. They also offered a face-to-face opportunity with giraffes and ostriches, which gave us a new perspective and opportunity for close-up photos.

For me it was a good thing it was the last park we planned to visit because my long lens failed beyond repair.

Oddments

There are always a few photos left over that are worth showing but don't amount to a large group. So here are a few more photos from Hartbeespoort and Pretoria.