Blogs from Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa, Africa

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Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria December 26th 2020

The day has come. Originally we would pack our bags, give back the rent a car at Cape Town airport, fly to Joburg and connect to Zurich. Thank you Swiss Government for making a mess of things, and especially thanks to Nenad's parents who told us not to worry about them, but to enjoy Namibia. They are looking forward to our pictures and stories. Well, now we pack, give back the rent a car, fly to Joburg, go to Pretoria, make a Covid test, leave half of the luggage in the hotel, fly to Windhoeck and continue discovering Africa's driest sub Saharan country, Namibia. Oh almost forgotten, restart a Malaria prophylaxes. The northern part of Namibia (Etosha), where we shall start, is during the rainy season a malaria risk area. As predicted, with the wine bottles ... read more
Nui got her Thai
Namibia here we come
Ready for new adventures

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria November 28th 2020

Early dawn we drove to Pretoria about 50 km North of Johannesburg. Pretoria, is one of the three capital cities in modern South Africa. The other two are Bloemfontein and Cape Town. Pretoria was founded in 1855 by the Boer leader Marthinus Pretorius, (his people also called Voortrekkers) and named it after his father, Andries Pretorius. Pretorius father had become a national hero of the Voortrekkers after his victory over king Dingane and the Zulu Africans in the Battle of Blood River in 1838. They founded the Transvaal Republic with Pretoria as its capital. After the discovery of diamonds and gold in the Boers areas the British Empire annexed the territories they earlier agreed to assign to them, leading to the Boer Wars. The lost war resulted in the end of the Transvaal Boer Republic and ... read more
Union Building gardens
visiting dignitaries
Voortrekker Monument

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria June 23rd 2017

Since moving to South Africa back in February this year, I have to admit, I've been indulging a little bit golf wise! Why not?!? I can easily say today that South Africa is currently the best country when it comes to quality/price ratio for golfing. And there must be well over 500 golf courses to play all over the country! Maybe one day I'll be lucky to be able to declare that I have play all the courses the country has to offer. For the moment, I'm happy to play as many of the best 100 golf courses the country has to offer! This week, my girls not being at home, I drove all the way to Pretoria for some serious golf. I stay for few nights at the Sheraton in Pretoria. The hotel is an ... read more
Gary Player course, Sun City!
The 19th at Sun City!
Union Buildings, as from my room in Pretoria...

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria July 12th 2016

Geo: -25.7332, 28.2102... read more

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria October 19th 2015

When I hear the name Pretoria it conjures up images of grand colonial era buildings, wide avenues and historical monuments. As Johannesburg is not far from Pretoria we decided to visit. There is an efficient train service between these two cities so we decided to leave thecar at home.. The Gautrain (with 'Gau' pronounced somewhere between "cow" and "how") is a modern, comfortable and relatively cheap service. Pretoria is about 25 minutes on the train from Johannesburg and a single ticket costs around R50 (£2.50). The Gautrain service is connected to the rest of the city by a network of buses. Unfortunately on the day we traveled there was a strike, though at out local bus stop this wasn't mentioned. We arrived at the garish Monte Casino and waited for the bus. We carried on waiting ... read more
Gautrain
Gautrain Platform
Pretoria

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria April 11th 2014

Yesterday we were going to catch the train to Pretoria, South Africa’s capital, but to do that we had to find the station, so with dud confident that he could take us to the station direct, we wondered through the streets in circles for half an hour until dud swallowed his pride and asked for directions. From the station we caught the train to Pretoria and set off from the station to find the parliament house, and lo, more wandering under the guidance of the great dud. Then he again relented and we caught the bus back to the train station were we got a taxi to monument hill from there we climbed the 500 steps up to the top were I looked town and my legs literally turned to jelly as the marble floor made ... read more
IMG_1354

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria April 4th 2014

Aviator Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa--Wednesday-Friday, April 2nd-4th Before we left home, we had made arrangements to stay in Johannesburg for three days longer than the rest of the group. First, we knew we needed to get rested before the 17 hour flight back to the US and second, we wanted to see Pretoria. It seemed to us to be an incomplete tour of South Africa if we didn’t see the Administrative capitol, which was only 30-40 miles north of Johannesburg. We were both not sure where we had heard the song, “We are marching to Pretoria,” but that was also part of our desire to see the place. (Thought originally it might be a Scout song Dad sang which might be true, but The Weavers recorded it in the 60's and we might more “recently” heard ... read more
2104-23 Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria--Carving on wall around upper gardens
2104-24 Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria--Upper gardens
2104-25 Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria--a little closer

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria March 10th 2014

The last few days of my stay in Kenya I spent in Niarobi. The first day I visited kibera which is a slum just on the outskirts of Nirobi town. I could only view it from a distance because I'm told it's not advisable to enter without a guide and I hadn't got time to arrange one. The sites of the slums even from a distance were a shock. Their homes, the overcrowding, the rubbish and the smell was discussing. Really hard to imagine living in such squalor. The following day, I've visited an elephant sanctuary set within Niarobi national park. I managed to find a motorbike taxi who took me. Asking each rider for a price to take me ranged from Sh5000 £35 to my eventual acceptance of Sh500 £3.50. It's approximately 20 mins from ... read more
Kibera Slums
Kibera Slums
Elephant sanctuary

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria July 1st 2013

It all took about 30 hours. I was in Bangkok thinking about my next destination, with a high chance of it being Egypt. But then I took a look at the map again and realized that doing a detour in South Africa wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. 30 hours later I had my flight ticket and I left 3 days after. South Africa is a country I had been wanting to visit since about 5 years. In those 3 days I managed to gather information from several different sources. I've got a good friend back home, Claudio fuentes, whose mom is South African and she sent me some info. Another person who helped was Meltem, a German girl who I met diving in NZ. She was recently in SA and also contributed with ... read more
Having dinner with the Viljoens and friends
With Tess
Catching a break

Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Pretoria March 8th 2013

I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on March 7th-I was happy and delighted because I heard Michael Jackson on the radio. Not a popular America song like Thriller or Billie Jean but a song that was not so popular. I was delighted because YES people "get it" and were not judgmental like America. I know most people probably will not be excited but those that know me...."get it"!! :-) But anyways, I hired a transfer from the airport to the lodge. Last night (the 7th) we had our trip meeting and ate at the lodge. In total there were 10 travelers and 3 people supporting the trip (driver, cook, and guide). Of the travelers... 7 female; 3 male 2 couples; 6 solo travelers 1 male solo; 5 female solo 1 nurse, 1 zoologist, 3 retirees, 2 ... read more
How people live
Hospital?!?
Enterance to the hospital




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