LanaBlogZone

Groot Constantia Turned Out 333 Years! Happy Birthday!

2018-06-12T00:11:00.000+02:00

Cape Town is a beautiful city and coming to this city for me is always like a breath of fresh air. Among all cities in the world Cape Town has an advantage of being a big urban city with many skyscrapers and have small areas, like villages in a city with quiet living. Among places like that is Constantia Groot, which is not far from the center of the city, but it is peaceful and quiet. Just take a wine route R41 and you are there.

Most of all I like history connected to this place. Imagine yourself in 16th century, sailing on a ship, coming to the unknown country. When I go to the Cape Point I always imagine the storms in this place should be severe, the winds are almost unbearable. People who came into this country were very strong and adventurous, otherwise they would not survived here.

Legends… They make the place alive. Funny, isn’t it? When you remember the place you also remember the stories surrounding it. The smell of history makes Groot Constantia like an old lady- grand, noble and sophisticated. The history in Groot Constantia is rich and parallels the history of Cape Town. It all started in 1679 when Simon Van der Stel arrived in Table Bay and becomes a Governor of the Cape. Later on he was granted the land he named Constantia. When it started it was a small place, where slaves did all the work. In 1716 Oloff Bergh becomes the owner of Constantia. His wife Anna de Konningh, was the daughter of a freed slave, and she inherited Constantia later.

Groot Constantia now is a big contemporary vinery with two restaurants, museum and a shop where you can buy a bottle of wine (or two) and also can do wine pairing. Museum is situated in an old building, carefully restored and very well preserved. I went on a tour and found out a lot of interesting facts about Groot Constantia and wine. Historically Groot Constantia wine was very well known even in Europe. Among Groot Constantia customers were Napoleon, Otto Bismark, King Lous XVI of France, Napoleon loved red muscat and his companion Count De Las Cases ordered 30 bottles of red wine a month for Napoleon to comfort him in exile on St Helena.

Now Groot Constantia is producing about 400 tons of grape mass, 600 000 bottles a year of white wine, red wine and brandy. Do you know how long it will take to produce for example red wine from the start of the process to the finish? It takes approximately from 14 to 20 month to produce good wine, ports take the longest up to 20 month to finish. To produce brandy usually takes up to 5 years.

Of course I tasted wine and I must say portions for tasting were very generous. After tasting I felt a bit light headed, so if you come to Groot Constantia you must have a designated driver, who drinks very little or nothing at all. After tasting red wine I felt like I am flying.

Oh, and I have forgotten to mention that there is a substantial exhibition of art on a premises. Many artists display their works and you can buy them.

Well, to come to Groot Constantia and not to try food? Now, let’s go to a restaurant. I had a meal quite few times already and I must say food will never disappoint you. Bread is light, crispy, chips are well done, country style, meat is so gentle you don’t have to fight with this meat to break it in pieces. The whole place is fantastic.See for yourself.

Did I mention the bath with ducks? Children just can’t stay away from the bath, they watch ducks and play. This place is good for family travel. I’ve seen quite a lot of people coming to celebrate birthdays.To find this place is easy. Just go by wine route R41 till you see Groot Constantia road and turn into it.Tourists can come to Groot Constantia by Red Bus. Very convinient!

Well, I had a good weekend and it is time to go back to Johannesburg. I will remember you, Groot Constantia, for the artistic spirit, for your beauty, for the aftertaste of history and I will be back.

How to Pack for Your Next Travel?

2018-04-18T15:41:00.000+02:00

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I am not the biggest expert in packing as well as anybody else, but during my travels I worked out several rules for myself and would like to share them with you. Start packing by doing a check-list.

Rule N 1.

There are no rules. Do what works for you and only for you in current situation. If you want to over pack, do it. Let’s say you plan to go to a theatre or a fancy restaurant or to go dancing, then take those shoes, your favourite dress and your evening going to be a success. Then you can hire a car and your baggage will travel in a car. It also depends on where you are going. You bought a ticket on cruise-lovely! To be honest there is not that much to do on a cruise except to go sightseeing, dancing, swimming in a pool and sitting in a restaurant. Then a lot of clothes will be very handy. Also etiquette requires you to be dressed for the evening in a proper dress, not sports wear or jeans. On a smaller ship you might have a chance to sit in a restaurant near the captain and THEN you need to impress.

Rule N2 .

After traveling for some time I discovered interesting law: the most convenient clothes you wear most of the time. Most convenient clothes are of course jeans. Jeans are versatile, you can go even to the theatre (not all the time though) or to a restaurant. Everyone has those favourite clothes and when you wear them you always hear compliments. After writing this I realised that I am mostly writing for women. Yes, of course, as they say, clothes "make woman a woman". Men usually don’t need to think about their wardrobe so much.

Yeah, what I was talking about… Favourite clothes can save the day. Once I discovered that during one of my travels I did not touch half of my suitcase. Why did I over packed?

And one more advice…Combination of clothes can look like you have a big wardrobe with you. Combine your jeans with different blouses, and every day you look differently. Take only what will be absolutely necessary. The rest you can (might?) buy. Do you like souvenirs? Make some space for those. Did you packed all what you wanted? Good!

Rule N3.

We are increasingly become more technically savvy. How much I regret now that during some of my past travels I did not make any photos. Now I go everywhere with my cellphone (or two, because cameras are usually heavier and cellphones more convenient) and a camera and sometimes take my computer with me. How on Earth I always forget the charger- still remains a mystery to me. Don’t forget your charger, have some money for the local Sim-card if you want to use your cellphone, otherwise your friends and relatives are not going to be able to envy you by looking on all these wonderful photos.

Rule N4.

Know where you are going. Certain places have specific dress code. When I was in Istanbul in Turkey, women are usually not allowed to go into mosque without a scarf on the head and the dress must be with long sleeves and mostly closed. Fortunately tourist’s agencies knew that not all travellers know it and gave us required clothes.

If you are in Rome surely you, probably, want to visit Vatican and St Peters Basilica and if you are not properly dressed (long sleeved dress and covered legs for women, you can wear t-shirt and jeans though, no flip-flops, please) you will remain outside of the church and miss the opportunity to see this beautiful place. If you plan to visit churches general rule is for women not to wear trousers or jeans, and a dress, which leaves too little to imagination and cover your head with a scarf. Western culture may be more permissive, however there are specific rules everywhere and it is very prudent to do some research on a dress code in a place where are you going to travel.

Eastern and African culture not everywhere is so forgiving. North Korea and Sudan prohibit women to wear trousers. In Sudan punishment for wearing trousers is fine or lashings, in North Korea-to attend labor camp. Dubai is the most liberal Muslim country, still the dress code should be modest and reasonable.

Generally speaking one shouldn’t lose one’s head and always dress appropriately. The other advice to try “to blend in”, otherwise the tourist will become a target for thieves and rascals. Respect yourself and have a big respect for the culture of a place you are visiting.

Rule N 5.

The last but not least…. Travel insurance, money, credit cards, tickets, passports, documents and other cards you might find useful during your travel. Usually you need to pack it well in advance (and safely) because last minutes have funny abilities: everything you need is vanishing and nowhere to be found. Toiletries- as little as possible, because they take too much space and could be heavy. Don’t take big tube tooth paste, it is sufficient to have small tube with you. After all you are not planning to stay in a place for years. When you are packing use space saving technique-roll clothes on. Trust me, it saves a lot of space. Don’t forget to take some spare plastic bags for your dirty clothes.

If you are staying in a hotel- you are going to have essentials. Medicines, sunscreen lotion, prevention from malaria (if you travel to malaria areas)- they are necessary, please. Tourist guides? May be? In some places there are tourist information centres, and they will provide maps for free. Take what you need, or might need. Check about immunisation in advance. Yellow fever vaccination is a requirement in some African Countries. Good idea to vaccinate yourself from meningococcal meningitis and flu (even if it is not a requirement)- if you are a frequent traveller.

Rule N6

Know what you can take with you on a flight, and what is prohibited. Check you suitcase for prohibited items because you are responsible, otherwise you are going to be in trouble with customs.

Did you packed all what you wanted? Good! Now start taking out what you put in “Just in case I need those items…”

Street Art in Johannesburg (new street art I discovered on weekends)

2017-06-16T19:16:00.000+02:00

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Street Art in Johannesburg started to become more and more popular,probably because city council realised it attracts tourists. You can do a tour or two on street art in a particular area.Most popular tours are the street art in Maboneng and Newclaire.

Street art was not even interesting to people something like 25 years ago.Only the works of Banksy in UK,who made street art the expression of underground culture with political flavour, made street art interesting to other people and generated a lots of other graffiti writers and artists, who either copied Banksy or developed their own style.Banksy subsequently became known and recognised for his work in 2010 and his name was on a list of 100 most influential people by The Time Magazine.

I became inspired by this topic after I read blog of Omo and Eulanda from their blog/site heydipyourtoesin.com. Hey, guys, this one is for you! It took me long time to accomplish, but eventually it was like I have to make this post.

So, what does the street art in Johannesburg tell us about the city and the country and culture?

Street art in SA is not prohibited, strictly speaking.It was a matter for concern when newly elected mayor of Johannesburg Herman Mashaba made a decision to redraft street art. In the mean time most of the best pictures are still there. You can also find shops in Braamfontein selling cans with paint and other stuff.Probably artists can negotiate with the owners of properties where they can place their work. In some places like Maboneng, it became part of tourist attraction and there is a wall of graffiti near the Maboneng's market.When you enter Maboneng area there is an indicator where you can go and see street art.

When I was walking around in Maboneng, local guys showed me street art with great pride. However, names of artists remained hidden under the pseudonyms.Street art in Maboneng is serving a purpose, creating a very special atmosphere to show Maboneng as a place where arts, artists and culture are welcome.Some graffiti pictures were on the wall near the local fishery, some were on the big buildings, some near the gate.

In Newtown I saw graffiti wall with Nobel Laureates and famous people and I think it should be more walls like that.

Then I saw a beautiful street art by an artist Faith47 in Johannesburg CBD just near Gandhi Square. This street art turned unremarkable and grey street wall into something precious. South Africans are so proud of flora and fauna in their country and they always try to show it, in this case in the paintings of running and fighting zebras. Beautiful!

Next stop- Greenside. I saw this three pictures.Probably one of the male faces (or both of them?) are portraits of graffiti artists?

A little bit further down the same street a big picture on the wall of a club.Spectacular!

And these pictures I found on a wall in Malanshof area. When I saw a portrait of one my favourite artists Picasso on the wall I nearly made an accident.I certainly did not expect this picture to be here. And you know how it is, when you are driving you don't usually look around too much. On that day I stuck in traffic!

And to finish it up- some pictures on the Perth street in Westdene.

2017-04-15T22:49:00.000+02:00

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One Sunday in Maboneng.

What is Maboneng? I heard about this place but never been here before. They say it is a new buzzing area in a heart of Johannesburg. The meaning of the word “Maboneng” is from Sotho- “place of light”.

Maboneng precinct is not so big, just couple of streets. What I like here that you can park your car and walk around. Historically, not so long ago this area was decaying. One of property developers Jonathan Liebmann discovered it and thought of a possibility to regenerate one of the central areas of Johannesburg and create a place to promote arts and culture. He teamed up with an architect Enrico Daffonchio and they created Arts on Main in 1990’s.

Arts on Main is situated in 5 connected warehouses and combines some of the best SA galleries and artists: Goodman Gallery, Seippel Gallery and also studios of artists like William Kentridge, Michael Subotzky and Kim Lieberman. I was very surprised to know that Nirox Foundation is also found it’s home on Arts on Main. Nirox also has a big park in Kromdraai by the same name, which is promoting garden sculpture. Other notable tenants are Bailey’s African History Archives, Goethe Institute, Jozi Art Lab. All the above is combined with various shops selling fashion, décor, food, books, art supplies and café’s and restaurants. If you add to that Sunday’s Food Market, Main street Life with 12 Decades Johannesburg Art Hotel, Museum of African Design and Bioscope- now you have Maboneng.

When I parked my car on Fox street and started to walk around I was surprised to see so many people here, on streets and in restaurants. That was so different from Johannesburg CBD. From the beginning you are surrounded by a lots of street art, music on the streets. Evidently this area is attracting a lot of inner city dwellers and also inhabitants from stuffy, snobby North of Johannesburg, probably drawn by artsy atmosphere of Maboneng. Among cars on the market I saw all of a sudden a Hummer. Of course near this car was staying a security guard.

I wasn’t the only person with expensive camera in my hands. I saw at least three groups of people with professional cameras and microphones walking around. One of them was so kind to stop and allow me to photograph him for my blog.

Sunday Market is another interesting event in Maboneng. It has everything what African Market suppose to have. Food was delicious. You can try all kind of food on the market: African food, Asian cuisine and European as well.

Just around the corner was a street with graffiti on the walls. Street art was my initial reason why I wanted to come to this place. Street art is everywhere: on common walls, on the walls of a fishery, on big buildings and on the gates to somebody’s yard. It is quirky, it’s catchy, makes this area special.

Even the small street was transformed into a work of art by placing a lot of abstract figures in it. That was very unusual.

What to do in Maboneng? Except eating, shopping, sightseeing you can also learn how to dance Salsa and Argentine Tango. Recently I saw an invitation for Argentine Tango evening at CHE Argentine Grill on Fox 303 in Maboneng. That concludes my trip to Maboneng, one of my Sundays.

Would you like to try different type of holidays? Try Horse safari!

2016-12-27T20:42:00.000+02:00

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Never knew that I am actually staying in a wonderful place. Not so far away from me is Hartbeespoort Dam and everything what comes with this place: endless possibilities to explore South African nature and wild life. Surprisingly I did not read too much about it in blogs. People just don’t do horse riding anymore?

And it never occurred to me I can’t ride on a horse, I never did. Never in my life.

That thought, however, came later when I saw my horse and was invited to climb on it. Well, good for me, there were no other people, and the program in Groot Verlange Driving Academy was able to foresee the situation like that.

Yes, they cater for complete beginners. Interesting enough, when I googled places for horse riding I found Groot Verlange in Hartbeespoort and other place La WiiDA in Hennopsriver Valley, also not far from Hartbeespoort Dam area. Both cater for beginners. Both have game reserve adjacent to their stables.

I started from Groot Verlange and was not disappointed. Individual attention, very good guidance, support- that was all that I needed. Riding on horses has advantage over driving a car- animals are not so afraid of horses and allow us to come closer. My guide Precious took me inside the game reserve. I am not the first time on photo-safari, but this time it was different. It was just two of us: Precious and me, on horses, and we were able to see more animals. Giraffe were so busy, they barely noticed us. I was able to do a lots of pictures. Kudu, Honeybadger, Zebra, Warthog, Impala, Blesbuck, Waterbuck- everyone saw them, they are usual animals in game reserve. Zebras don’t like to pose usually, however I was able to make couple of shots. Not so easy for beginner to try to balance on a saddle and shoot with my Sony camera. Last, but not least we came to see blue wildebeasts. One of them was not so friendly, he was hiding himself behind the bushes and tried to come closer to us and my horse did not like that. One hour passed like five minutes. Next day I was not able to walk!

Next week I booked myself to another horse riding safari at La WiiDa. This time it was a bit easier. However, my horse Bushman, did not want to obey me until our guide Howard gave me little tree bruch …and it became easier.

We were a group of 7 people. Here, at La WiiDA, also the rider not necessarily must have experience in riding, but we needed to go up and down on horses, we must be able to speed up a little bit. We saw amazing animals. We were able to come very closely to a zebra and actually touch her. The workers in La WiiDA were able to tame this zebra. Usually zebras don’t allow to touch themselves and bite even zookeepers.

Howard told us a lot of interesting facts about animals. There are two types of zebras- the plain, Burchell Zebra and Mountain Zebra. Zebra’s stripes are like fingerprints to humans; they are unique to the animal. We saw both types of zebras in game reserve. Of course, it was a lot of game-kudus, impalas. Blue wildebeasts stayed separately. Among them it was one white wildebeest, very rare. Howard told us his price is about one or two million Rands. After sometime going up on a hill we met a giraffe and were riding together with it. Then short break, some rest and we went back.

When I googled again about horse riding in South Africa my attention caught African Big Five Horse Safari in Hoedspruit, near Kruger National Park. Travelers will be able to see very closely elephants, cheetah, rhinos and even lions, but that is definitely not for beginners. And the price is different. May be some other time. Check my account on 500px Svitlana Avramenko

Johannesburg- Interesting Facts.

2016-10-29T15:39:00.001+02:00

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1. Among all the oldest cities in the world-e.g. Damascus, Jerusalem (inhabited from 2800BC) Athens, Beirut, Plovdiv- Johannesburg is a baby. Johannesburg was established in October 1886, which makes it 130 years old. It started as a city built from tents and now it is a modern city with skyscrapers.

2. 50storey Carlton Centre building is the tallest skyscraper in the African Continent.

3. 40% of gold was found in Johannesburg. Because of this fact the other name of Johannesburg is “Egoli”, the City of Gold.

4. There are 20 000 millionaires in Johannesburg.

5. Population in Johannesburg is about 10,5 millions people consist of Black Africans -76.4%; colored 5.6%; White 12.3%; Indian/Asian 4.9%. From other nationalities there are Brits. Americans, Argentinians, Italian, Greek, German Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and,of course, people from different African countries (Zimbabweans, Zambians, DRC, Mali and many more). Johannesburg is biggest Jewish city from all non-Jewish cities with 50000 Jews living here. Indian Community gather once in a year for Bolliwood nights in Sun City. Big Greek Community is very prominent in Johannesburg. Portuguese, Italian restaurants are all over the city. Johannesburg has been known as “melting pot” of all nationalities.

6. You can easily see Christian church, a mosque, a synagogue peacefully situated on one street. There is even Russian Orthodox Church in Midrand, beautifully decorated with 19th century silver icons. It domes covered with 9 carat gold, interior decorations styled in 13th century paintings. There is Greek Orthodox Church in Rosebank.

7. The JSE Securities Exchange is the fourteenth largest securities exchange in the world with the total market capitalization of 2.3 trillion rands.

8. Johannesburg area is home to the Cradle of Humankind- one of the world’s Heritage Sites. It occupies 47000 hectares. World’s oldest hominid fossil “Mrs Ples” was found in the Cradle of Humankind. The area includes Maropeng Cultural Centre, Sterkfontein Caves and Wonder Cave. There is third caves system in SA- Sudwala Caves in Mpumalanga, even older then Sterkfontein and Wonder caves. It existed 240 millions years ago. Sudwala Caves have interesting history. In the beginning of 20th century, during the Second Boer War, Boers used Sudwala Caves to store ammunition for their Long Tom Guns. Also the legend says that Kruger Millions might disappeared in Sudwala Caves when Paul Kruger fled form Pretoria to Mpumalanga.

9. The city has 10mln trees, which makes it one of the greenest cities in the world. In spring we see jacarandas in full bloom, making Johannesburg looks like a big garden, colored in purple. The city is built on 12 river systems and it is over 1000 meters above sea level.

10. The infrastructure (roads,highways)are well developed. Unfortunately it does not make life of commuters easier during the traffic jam. Average time to travel in the morning is 48 minutes. However if you compare to the traffic, let’s say, in Nairobi-traffic jam in Nairobi is so severe, that all the transport comes to a complete stop for hours during mornings and evenings. The best way to travel is by car. Public transport is developing. Gautrain (train and buses) are good, as well as Reya Vaya buses. Now Uber started to operate in Johannesburg as well.

11. Johannesburg is home to many Guinness Records.

* Clapham Gold Night Club in Johannesburg became famous after 435 people participated in speed dating event on the 14th of February 2011.

* Johannesburg had largest chocolate rabbit 3,8 meters tall, weighted 3010 kg. It was on show in Sandton on the 19th march 2010.

* Vredefort Crater near Johannesburg with a diameter 300 km is one of the largest impact craters in the world. It was formed 2 billion years ago.

Inventions.

* “Pratley Patty” was invented by George Pratley from Krugersdorp in 1948. Neil Armstrong used Pratley Patty to keep parts of the landing ship together during the first Moon landing in 1963.

The Best Kept Secret in Johannesburg, part II.

2016-09-24T09:35:00.001+02:00

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In Johannesburg everyone is going somewhere. That is because of the busy nature of this city. Everyone is going either to work or heading for a breakdown or recovering from broken promises, or falling in love again. Proves that nothing stays the same. Do you think Johannesburg is like any other city with its tall buildings, a lot of transport, plenty of shops and restaurants, and banks, and all the fuss and stress?

Think again! It is never too late to take a holiday. You can go fishing (if you particularly dislike physical activity), or go to a game reserve (if you like photo safari), or to dine in a very nice place, where you can enjoy beautiful view.

I decided to go to a game reserve, just 30 minutes away from my place, also in Kromdraai. Rhino&Lion game reserve is not very well known, however not far away from Johannesburg. It is also paired with Wonder Cave. It is amazing how much can change when you are not so far away from city! Just one hour away from busy Johannesburg CBD, with its crazy traffic and narrow streets and from other area with tall buildings- posh, business-like, polished and refined Sandton and you step into Big Calm, country of patience, beauty, fresh air and nature. Today we will go to Rhino&Lion game reserve and Wonder Cave, which is situated on the territory of Rhino&Lion game reserve, the third largest Cave in South Africa. The first is Cango Cave and the second is Sudwala Cave. Wonder Cave was discovered at the end of 19th century in pursuit of gold. There were no gold, only limestone. The Cave never made it into the production line. There is a natural formation of lime stone, but to use the cave as a source of the lime stone proved to be a useless exercise- too expensive and laborious. The Cave itself believed to be (now you must take your hat off…) 2,2 millions years old.

Somewhere in 1980’s it started to be a tourist attraction. To enter the Wonder cave you have to go down 88 steps, then lift, and then you see it. Some formations are as big as 50 ton, beautiful shape and color. There are stalactites, stalagmites, one of the biggest and most beautiful formations called Madonna. We took photographs, again lift and now 88 steps up. When we came out some of us were panting. It was the end of July, there were not so many people. The day was very sunny, as usual in SA (we are spoilt!) and we went to Rhino &Lion Nature Reserve.

Rhino&Lion game reserve has rustic camp rest and luxury log cabins on its premises (how convenient!). If you don’t like you spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/etc-tell them: “Darling! Can you just wait outside for me, till I fetch the key”. And outside is still game reserve, and wild animals sometimes can come, including lions, who’s territory just nearby, over the fence. I’ve never seen anybody outside of little houses.

Just joking, of course.

What will give you the greatest pleasure during events like this? Of course if you see something unexpected. That was rhinos in their natural habitat. And other animals.

The Best Kept Secret in Johannesburg.

2016-08-07T22:23:00.000+02:00

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The Best Kept Secret in Johannesburg.

I also did not know. This place is just only 20 min from me and 20-30 min from Krugersdorp, or 15 min from very busy Shopping Centre Cradlestone and Silverstar Casino. When you turn on the road towards Forum Homini Hotel and Restaurant (by the way- very good restaurant, gourmet food, and situated in a picturesque setting, but I will tell you all about it in my next post), you are entering Cradle of Humankind world. From this road you can go to Sterkfontein Caves, but today we will go together with you, my reader, to a completely different place.

I don’t like to talk too much about places, may be because I am more visual person, and I like to show pictures. However, Google does not like it. Google likes more text in our blogs, that’s why my blog will never be profitable. Because I like pictures more. How you can describe the place, without showing you all the beauty, the colors, and the pure nature? Big city, Like Johannesburg, becomes too much for me at the end of the week, so I started to look for places where you can breath with fresh air, preferably never poisoned with serious portion of petrol, oil and stress. Place, where you can sit quietly and practice your photographic skills, in a company of likeminded people, reflect, meditate, refresh, kick out the stress of my work and thoughts about what was done, what wasn’t. Oh, and I’ve forgotten, it is a place where I can wear my weekend clothes too. What? It is important to look after yourself. Well, I am just kidding.

On that day, I was actually looking for a trout farm and some piece and quiet, and if I could entertain myself with some beautiful landscape and make some pictures- that would be a bonus too. I was lost; appeared for the best. When I turned off the road to the first available place where I though I would be able to ask for directions, I never knew that I will find such a beautiful place. It was a trout farm, now turned out a park. “Nirox”. People, who sponsored this park, wanted to turn it into something like a gallery, where they will sell sculptures. There are a lot of big sculptures scattered throughout all the beautiful places. In a far away corner of this park I found “Singing Stones”. If you place your hands in front of the stone you can hear electronic musical sounds.Some sculptures were very unusual. Oh, and there were chairs, which reminded me "The Game of Thrones".Usually I did not see too many people at ones, there were may be 20- 30 cars parked. Some of them were photographers.Enough talking, please look at my photos.

Our host was very cordial, invited us for a cup of coffee. Since then, each and every weekend I was trying to come to see the place. But that is not all. In my next post I will tell you about the trout farm. I did found that trout farm, and much more!

(To be continued)

Oyster Festival in Johannesburg

2016-08-06T21:18:00.000+02:00

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Wow! It is this time of the year again. Because the weather is not good, it is cold and windy, no more travelling. Most of Johannesburg residents prefer either to stay at home or to go locally. May be to Oyster Festival at Montecasino. You kill two birds with one stone. Montecasino is pleasant on it’s own and here it’s an Oyster Festival. 6500 oysters must be eaten, plenty of other food and more than 50 different types of wine is waiting for you.

Johannesburg today is looking like a 40-something beautiful woman, lived a lot, loved a lot, a bit tired. She woke up in the morning and in need of pain killers or something stronger, may be a joint, and definitely in need of make up. Everything today looks grey, no sun. It is incredibly cold and windy, recent rains brought chill and the air is humid. So, there is nothing else to do, and I decided to go with my friend. She has a tendency to jump on a last train, and it is almost impossible to get her out of her home earlier. It was Sunday, and only one hour till the end of the festival. Never mind. You can do a lot in one hour. You can fall in love in one hour, you can divorce in one hour, you can fix your relationships in one hour- whatever you prefer.

Today was the coldest day in Johannesburg we experienced so far. Still there were quite a lot of enthusiastic people, centered mainly near the stalls with wine. That was where we went. Forget the oysters, first thing- to put something inside yourself that will warm you up. Stalls with food- pastries, plenty of cheese (how can you taste wine without cheese?), pizza, biltong; lonely stall with something meaty, sweets, chocolates. I bought roasted pistachio Turkish sweets on special. If it happens you’ll be in Istanbul either to see a city or changing flights, and you want to use your time to try some sweets- do you know how much it will cost you? Yes, that what I am talking about.

During events like that you might find real treasures, at least you are hoping to find something extraordinary, that will tickle your palate, amuse you and left you guessing how was it that you did not know about this food/drink before? South African wines are well known for it’s high quality and they are very popular inside the country and abroad. Some of the sellers were also winemakers and were proud to present their wines. You can find quite good quality wines at very affordable price. I moved to the busiest corner and tried muscatel from Bulgarian couple. It was amazing. It reminded me Odessa’s Shampagne? But without bubbles.

Then I moved to the other corner and found fantastic wine. Unbelievable combination of different notes: fruity, something from muscat grapes, and honey, plenty of honey.That was Lourensford Honey Liqueur.Apparently you can find it in Makro, but the price is obviously going to be different, may be 50% more.

I will show you different pictures from encounters at the Festival. After we drank a little bit more, we started to make friends. Some of them asked me to take their pictures. Before we get completely drunk we decided who is going to be a dedicated driver. It was getting dark. Driving home and meeting fat, unfriendly traffic officer was not on my plans. Did I mention oysters? With all that food around who need oysters? May be some other time.

Canopy Tour in Magalies Video

2016-05-01T12:11:00.001+02:00

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Sun City Holidays.

2016-01-08T22:07:00.000+02:00

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Sun City Holidays

We decided to go somewhere in a very popular place, definitely not the road less traveled. Our choice was Sun City in North West in South Africa. A place where you will feel happy, amazing, luxurious and unforgettable, something to remember about hot summer days and not very far from home- only 2 hours drive from us. Thank you, that would be Sun City and adjacent Pilanesburg National Park.

What do we know about Pilanesburg National Park Complex? It was proclaimed as a reserve in 1979 and since then started to develop into popular tourist destination. Wild life was increasing as well. Pilanesburg National park Complex proudly hosting “The Big Five”: lion, leopard, black and white rhino, elephant and buffalo. Rhinos are hunted species everywhere, and as we were told even in Pilanesburg. Pilanesburg National Park Complex is fairly big, has 188 km of visitor’s roads, and has more than 6000 head of game population. The other animals you can see there are springboks, brown hyena, blue wildebeest, impala, zebra. Birds life is abundant here as well. You can have two choices: either go on foot rhino tracking, or go with Mankwe Gametrackers, which is 3 hours drive, usually early mornings or afternoons. We have chosen gametrackers in the afternoon, and I congratulated myself later with wise decision. There are so much to do and to see in Sun City, by the end of the day we were almost finished.

Sun City resort was also started to develop in 1979 with participation of Sol Kerzner as South African version of Las Vegas. It was inspired by African culture. The legend said that initially there was a residence of one of African Kings, which vanished after an earthquake. It has 2 casinos, 4 hotels, Waterworld, crocodile sanctuary, 2 golf courses, plenty of restaurants and a timeshare complex, Super Bowl Arena with its concerts and beauty pageants shows It is easily accessible from Pretoria (about 1hour and 20 minutes) and Johannesburg (2 hours drive).

One of the main hotels is the Palace of the Lost City, the most beautiful and famous hotel. When you come there and see it you embrace its luxury (not in material sense, although prices are quite high there). Its beautiful, with meticulous attention to details, culturally appropriate design will leave you gasping. Waterworld near Cabanas hotel is a main attraction in summer. Water skiing, jet skiing, parasailing, paragliding, cruising around lake- just a few activities you can do there.

The Valley of Waves is accessible to everyone, even visitors for a day. It has 5 water slides, one of them not for the faint hearted, it is called the Temple of Courage. You slide from 70 meters height, incredible experience. The other one is Tarantula waterslide, from the height of 17meters, you go through the tunnel and dive into the deep pool. Obviously, you have to be able to swim very well to go on that dive. For kids and others there is Lazy river, Sacred river slide, Mamba slide (be careful, Stephan Zwanzger said he stuck on it, and he is 85 kg guy). Entrance to the Valley of Waves lead you through the spectacular Bridge of Time.

Sun City has a zip line called Zip2000, and it is the fastest zip line in the world. It is better than bangy jumping, because there is a sliding feeling not a falling feeling. You can slide alone, or you can slide tandem. To add that Zip2000 is 2km long and you will be sliding from the height 280 meters. Hot–air balloon flying , Segway tours, helicopter rides, maize - activities available for each and every person’s taste.

Interesting to know that 2 golf courses are unique. Both were designed by famous Gary Player, both are so big, that carts are mandatory. Lost City golf course has signature 13th hole where 30 crocodiles are hidden in the water. On the 15 hole you might have interference of the nearby zebras and giraffe.

Super Bowl Arena have seen many famous musicians and artists. Queen, Frank Sinatra, Rod Steward, Michael Jackson to name but a few, they all performed there.

Quite few movies were shot in Sun City. If you remember “Who am I” with Jackie Chan, several scenes were shot in Lost City Palace hotel. Sun City is favorite place for Bollywood. At least 2 movies were shot there: “Here Pheri “(2000), “Welcome” (2007). Some scenes were shot in Sun City for “Furious7” starring Van Diesel, Kurt Russel, and Jason Statham. Most recent was “Blended” starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.

We were in Sun City only one day. We were in Waterworld and Valley of Waves, and in the afternoon went with Mankwe Gametrackers. Unfortunately we had to go back and felt like we came out of the dream. But the good news is that Sun City is not that far from our home and we are definitely going to come back for more.Sun City holidays once a year what doctor ordered.

Lions Park, Johannesburg what is new?

2015-12-18T13:31:00.000+02:00

What’s new in Lions Park In Johannesburg?

We went to Lions Park on Sunday. We live nearby, and we couldn’t help noticing some changes happened after unfortunate accident with American tourist.

First-people are more careful; more people prefer going with a tour guide in a special vehicle. And really this is more fun. Your have a tour guide, he gives you interesting information, meet people, socialize.

Second-I don’t know if it is a time of the year or just a coincidence, we saw less people than usually in Lions Park.

Our tour guide showed us the lioness, responsible for attack on a tourist.On the first picture on the left she is looking at you.

It is difficult to figure out what triggered lionesses’s behavior. As far as I was able to see, quite few people in the past open windows to make a better shot. May be just wrong place, wrong time. May be the American tourist used a flash and lioness thought it was a weapon. But it is good that people are more careful now.

Our tour guide told us another story of unfortunate encounter with lions. One of tourists from Kenya insisted on entering lion’s section without necessary precautions, actually he just jumped the gate against the rules of the park and against advice of the stuff in the evening, when lions are more active and of course he was eaten out. That happened in 2008.

We met very cute giraffe, wandering around. They told us she owns the place. In the evenings she comes to stuff members going home asking for food. She visits the shop, scavengers leaves from the trees. It is a good chance to see giraffe so close. She is probably 3 meters tall. Tour guides are more visible on the ground. As you might know Lions Park is one of the places participating in volunteers program.People from all over the world are able to come and live and work in Lions Park.

What was new: you can walk and have a nice photo shot with lions and cheetahs.

When I saw the expression on the face of tourists, who took photos with lions and cheetahs very closely- it was something incredible.

Bond, James Bond, new movie “Spectre”, Guinness records , Casino Royale.

2015-11-08T10:10:00.001+02:00

Bond, James Bond, new movie “Spectre”, Guinness records and much more. “Casino Royale”

“Spectre” is the name of new movie in "Bondiana" franchise. The premiere in London was a total success with 3 royals attending and attracted a lot of media attention.

Daniel Craig was magnificent together with his co-stars Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux. Now "Bondiana" spreads across 53 years with 24 movies and 6 actors playing Bond.

Bond became older, even Bond girls became older too.

The franchise is known to achieve 50 world’s Guinness records in stunts department, music , and popularity.

Past Bondiana movies were remarkable for the longest speedboat jump in the film (Live and Let Die), the highest bungee jump from the structure (Golden Eye), the most cannon rolls in a car (Casino Royale) and much more.

Bond theme song from “Live and Let Die” by Sir Paul McCartney and Wings received Oscar nomination for the best original song in a movie. It was the only one, so far, from all the 24 movies.

So, what is your favorite Bond movie, which stunts do you like most, which moments you can’t forget?

Mine is definitely Casino Royale. It marked the appearance of a new actor- Daniel Craig, who gave completely new meaning the events on a screen, made it more contemporary.

Bond’s changed.

He is still elegant, suave, and seductive but we also see him during difficult tasks, when he must be stronger, fitter, more athletic than his enemies.

He is covered in blood, sweat, and mud, and who knows what, very often.

We see different side of him- more human, intelligent; he is in love.

Casino Royale is, probably, one of the movies nominated for the best dialogues and love scenes in these series.

Eva Green, who plays Vespa Lynd, is a perfect fit as Bond’s female co-star. Her character is Bond’s love interest and their chemistry is undeniable.

Their dialogue is fresh, sharp, very intelligent and unexpected.

This movie grasps you entirely and does not leave till the end. It leads you from one high point to the other: the game in Casino, after that the chase after kidnapped Vesper, and Bond’s torture.

Than the best part is love scene, which is one of the best (I think) in the world’s cinematography.

What happened after that you all know.

I found quite a lot of GIF’s from Casino Royale. I hope you enjoy them like I did.

And the end.

What to do on weekend. Magaliesburg Canopy Tour

2015-10-30T17:04:00.000+02:00

Canopy Tour in Magaliesburg Gauteng.

Have you ever tried Canopy Tour?

Never heard of?

Me too.

Recently I went to the Travel Fair in North Gate and received a booklet with information.

There are 6 Canopy Tours in South Africa; the biggest is Tsitsikamma near Knysna in Cape area. In Gauteng you can go to the real Canopy Tour near Magaliesburg or Ama Zwing Zwing Tour, which is the same type of adventure.

I wanted to try something new and not hiking, although it was a lot of hiking as well. Basically, Canopy Tour is when you slide on a line over Ysterhoot Cloof to the different side of ravine and you do it 10 times, because there are 11 decks.

To go there you can start from William Nicol Drive (R511) and stay on it until you cross N4 and reach R104/R27, then turn left, go to Sparkling Waters Hotel and Spa. The office for Canopy Tours situated in the Hotel.

I booked my place in a group for a specific time and (or, Gosh!) I was late. My group left without me and I went with another group, where it was a space.

I do not regret it. It was such fun!

Eight people (boys and girls in their 20’s-30’s) came together from different places in Gauteng for a Canopy Tour, because they used to travel around South Africa on bicycles.

Short instructions (and a lot of jokes); we put on our gear, climbed on a 4x4 and left to the ravines.

Couple of people already had experience how it is to slide on a zip line, the rest of us- newbies.

-Short discussion who is going to be the first, jokes, smiles, and it was proposed “ladies go first”.

I realized, that I have to go over a ravine and the height should be like 50-60 meters.

I will be hanging on the height of 60 meters!

Too late!

We are already there.

I am not going to be scared.

After all this exercise is for people from 7 to 70 years old.

I was the third and it was a lot of fun.

Our 3 guides were so good, patient, courteous, supportive and one of them was filming those, who wanted to have memory of Canopy Tour.

At the end we were pro’s!

When we came back we received a CD with the film.

Now we can proudly call ourselves “survivors” of Canopy Tour.

Lunch.

Sorry, it was all over.

My trip to Nairobi, part II

2015-10-25T15:17:00.000+02:00

My trip to Nairobi, part II

Nairobi’s National Park is a big tourist attraction and it is situated not far from the city. From the park you can see buildings and International airport.

The price to enter into the national Park in October for international visitors was $50 per person, (compare this to the price for Kenyan citizen- 500 Ksh). You can go in a hired car (for 4000 Ksh per day approximately) or you can hire a car with the driver in a park (the later can cost you +- $70 ).

Park rules prohibit to go out of the car in the park.We all remember how an american tourist was mouled by a lioness.

The best time to come to Nairobi National Park is in the early morning; then according to our driver you can see lion and leopard, may be a rhino. Rhinos are sitting in the water the whole day, because their skin is very sensitive to the sun. Usually, you will be able to see only small part of their horn, which looks like a stick or a brunch of a tree. Our driver (his name is Dan)told us that they are able to react very quickly if something or somebody disturb them and able to kill in a minute.

Right near the entrance we saw baboons and a warthog, a little bit further down- red-eared fox. Near the lake we saw flamingos and ducks.

Plenty of zebras and hartebeests were seen along the road and later we saw several cars near lion eating zebra. Lion was far away from the road and only a tourist’s couple in a big 4X4 and with good camera was able to make a proper picture of the animal.Little bit further down we were able to see several wildebeests.

All the animals were gathering near the road in the evening, Our driver Dan explained that the road is warmer than the grass, that’s why animals prefer to sleep on the road at night.

Dan thought I would like to see more ostriches or flamingos. I had to remind him that I live in South Africa and see very often couple of friendly ostriches just 15 minutes away from my home. He also said that if I would have come in the morning than probably will be able to see a leopard.Dan said in the mornings usually either lion or leopard come very close to his car and even scratches on the door.Scarry!

I said I can show to Dan a picture of leopard, which I made in South Africa. We were laughing a little bit about it, when we saw gorgeous gracious giraffe crossing the road just in front of us. Wow! And I was able to make a little video.

Unfortunately I could not spend any more time in Kenya, my flight was on Sunday.

Next time probably will be worthwhile to go to Maasai Mara and lake Nakuru and spend there at least 4 days. What to see there?

-Migration of animals and beautiful flamingos, plenty of flamingos.

When and where to go in Nairobi. My trip to Nairobi, Kenya

2015-10-25T14:34:00.000+02:00

My trip to Nairobi, Kenya.

Once in a while, I have to go for a seminar or a conference. This year conference was in Kenya; timing was good- October. El Ninjo (the rainy season )did not start yet, but animals started to migrate.

Kenya is a world capital of safari . A lot of tourists are going there to see “the real Africa”. Of course it was interesting to go there, not to mention that after I started to blog more and met with some bloggers on travel chats on Internet, I got to know the most experienced, “seasoned” travellers were in Kenya several times.

So, I am going to Kenya.

I went to travel clinic and had vaccination against yellow fever and tablets for prophylaxis from malaria well in advance before my trip.

Applied for a single entry visa; it was possible to do it electronically; made my life much easier.

Currently all medical services are on high alert because of several cases of people who had Ebola fever in South Africa and Guinea, so custom services check for sick people quite thoroughly, and health precautions are quite important.

We arrived in Nairobi in the morning . I went to the local bank to draw money in Kenyan shillings. Hired a taxi and arrived to Boma Inn Hotel. Boma and Boma Inn hotel are 2 hotels, which were funded by Red Cross, and proceeds go to that organization.

Nairobi is a big city with the population of 3 million people and growing rapidly. It has two airports- Jomo Kenyatta International airport and Wilsom Aerodrom, which is serving mostly local flights.

National currency- Kenyan shilling, the course was in early October 103K/shl= $1. There were no problems with exchanging currency. Forex bereaus are everywhere. Banks (Barkley, Standard Bank, Kenyan Commercial Bank) are able to exchange currency at best rate for tourists. Credit cards are also accepted, with 5% extra fee. Internet is fairly good quality. Internet Cafés are everywhere, Wi-Fi in hotels. The best Internet provider is Safaricom.

To finish with Internet... Kenyans have great respect to Internet. Each and every hotel, lodge or Guest house offers Wi-Fi .In Kenyan International airport I saw a station to recharge cell phones, laptops, tablets. Not so many airports are able to provide service like that.

Traffic in Nairobi only good when there is no traffic jam. To travel during weekdays early mornings and afternoons is a nightmare. You will stay in traffic for hours. Streets are very narrow, cars on streets are packed like sardines in a tin. How Kenyans are driving in conditions like that and without accidents? We did not see accidents in a city.

By the way,it is very normal to try to reduce the fee for taxi services, or souvenirs on the market. The asking price is usually much higher than the real price. So, try to negotiate.

What to do and what to see in Nairobi?

Plenty cafés and restaurants .The best and very famous is restaurant “Carnivore”, where they are able to offer you crocodile and game meat.

The best is to book in advance, because this restaurant is very popular.

Night life is in Westlands with its clubs and restaurants. The most popular is “Treehouse” Club.

Don’t forget local markets, especially if you want to buy souvenirs.

There are several animal centres in Nairobi: Elephant Orphanage, Giraffe Centre and Mamba Village. In Elephant orphanage tourists are able to see elephant calves and rhinos, in Giraffe Centre to see and even to receive a kiss from giraffe. This park is known as Kissing Giraffe Park. In Mamba Village you will be able to see crocodiles and ostriches.

(To be continued)

Golden Gate National Park

2015-10-24T19:00:00.000+02:00

Part II

Golden Gate Highlands National Park.

The same day, but in the afternoon I went to the Golden Gate National Park. This park situated approximately 1 hour from Harrismith. The road is very convenient. From Warden street in Harrismith you have to find way to N5, go on a highway and drive to the right from Harrismith until you see R712. Turn left to R712 and you are on the road to Clarens, little town in a middle of Maluti Mountains. Clarens is a nice place to stay for weekend, and to go around and explore.

Right after Clarens (it took me 10 minutes) I saw mountains. Should be Golden Gate National Park.

I recalled what I’ve read on Internet about Golden Gate. Golden Gate belongs to Sun Parks. Golden Gate is home to many animals: wildebeest, eland, blesbok, springbok and zebra, and rare birds: bold ibis and bearded vulture. There are several view points: Ribbokkop, which is the highest point in the park, Zuluhoek lookout and Drakensberg view. 21 hotels in the vicinity can offer you a decent accommodation. The best way to see and experience this place would be to stay there for at least one or two days and to go hiking. Unfortunately, did not have time for that and I just decided to go around in my car and to see the place.

It is amazing how often you stay at home and know nothing about places around you. Life is what happens around us and sometimes you might find yourself stuck on a problem, and can’t find a solution. It is a sign. You need to go. It does not matter where to, you just go; even if it is around the corner. The best places usually are around you. Traveling will open your eyes, recharge your batteries, give you completely different prospective. And I am not talking about traveling. It helps finding different angle; be it your problem or feeling or just to have a break in your life.

It was an afternoon.

Holiday.

Quite a few people today.

I saw a man, who was jogging; young couple was taking photos.

Near the road I saw beautiful Hotel –Golden Gate Hotel, also there are chalets. Little bit further down I saw Glen Reenen Rest Camp for backpackers and people who would like to stay in their tents. Near the camp was a big restaurant.

The name golden was given to this place because of the color of mountains, especially in the light of the sun on the sunset.

I made some pictures, and slowly my mood started to change.

The tension went away, my thoughts cleared up.

This is perfect getaway. Clean air, not a lot of visitors, absence of noise, majestic views, mountains, (and, I have forgotten – you can have holidays, which will not break a bank for you)-everything makes this place special.

The sun was going down and I was watching the mountains glow and slowly fade away. Road R712 goes via Golden Gate Park right towards Harrismith, but it was not the same road that brought me here. The road was like a snake, after 10 minutes it was dark already, and I started to doubt that I am able to find my way back easily.

We were 3 cars, traveling together. Going back was not so easy, but the road was good and we made it.

Well, at the end of the day, I decided it was worth it.

Harrismith, Free State. Where to go on holiday. Local is lekker.

2015-09-25T13:25:00.001+02:00

Harrismith , Free State Part1 Where to go on holidays if you have only 1 or 2 days.

Harrismith is a small town in the middle of the road between Durban and Johannesburg.

I was invited to see this town and did not go last week. This week I am free, and it is Heritage Day and I decided to go.

My journey started from Lanseria airport , then I took N3 and carried on throughout Johannesburg, East Rand, offramp to Heidelberg, to Vereeniging. There are two Toll Plazas on my way to Harrismith : Wilge Toll Plaza and Hoek Plaza. Road to Harrismith is rather monotonous, but not very busy. It took me 3 hours drive to reach Harrismith, and only because I have started from Lanseria.

The town is very small, only several streets. Despite that I found that amount of Bed & breakfast, guest houses, hotels are rather disproportionate for the small town. My first choice was De Oude Huise Yard, it was easy to find it, but unfortunately they were fully booked and Sandra Cronje arranged for me a place to stay in Lali’s and loved it immediately.

Lali's has wooden floors, very quiet, conveniently situated, fantastic breakfast. One of the advantages of small towns ,I believe, is the absence of noise, that specific noise of the big city, that is always with you and you become tired of it. Here it is heaven for holidays. In this town has plenty of beautiful scenery, flowers, mountains, and rich history.

I could not believe my eyes when I found old Harrismith Chronicles in the library for the last 100 years. Curiosity killed the cat and I peeked into old newspaper. Some rather interesting materials I found there. Lovely library worker Kai showed me around and agreed to pose for my photo.

Old Town Hall, unfortunately needs some restorations. Monument to all Harrysmith citizens who died in the WWI.

Church.

(to be continued)

Things to do in Johannesburg on weekends

2015-08-08T12:29:00.000+02:00

Things to do on weekends in Johannesburg.

On weekends we all are taking slow, especially in the morning.

So, you’ve done your morning routine exercises and now you can take time for yourself, or your kids or your family, or your friends.

Here’s what you can do in Johannesburg.

If you are an active person you can go on one of Canopy Tours (there is one in Magaliesburg 0145350150). Fantastic journey, you’ll be sliding across Ysterhout Cloof, enjoying the view from the height of the mountain. Fresh air, beautiful nature and incredible photos.

You can do Ballon Safari, in Hartbeespoort Dam, Hot Air Balloon safari with Bill Harrop (011-705-32-01). Reservations are essential, make sure you dressed well, because it is cold in the mornings. Don’t forget to take good cameras( may be two) to take fantastic photos .

If you an art lover you can go to Art Galleries:

Art Strip in Jan Smuts avenue, Rosebank

Goodman’s Gallery

Artspace

Kim Sacks

Art One Sixty

Circo

Do you want to have a dinner and a fabulous evening and to dance?

Go to Cantare (011 511-0505)

Coco Bongo at Montecasino 011 511 1826/7

Chicago Piano Bar on Beyers Naude (011 794-33-83)

On Saturdays if you come dressed Chicago 20’s style together with your partner you will get a bottle of Bubbly for free (may be!). There is a little dance arena, where you can show how gracious you (your partner) are. Food is very good, plenty of parking.

Rub shoulders with famous people in beautiful places.

Rock Café on Nelson Mandela Square.

The name says it all. Must for rock lovers.

Restaurant and Cellar on Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton.

Wine testing, buying wines, dining. You can spot famous people visiting Johannesburg there, so look around.

Bar with a view.

There’s plenty:

Sun Bar at Sandton Sun Hotel.

Open spaces, you don’t feel overcrowded, best cocktails, fantastic crowd, you are in the right place. Near Sandton City.

The Island Bar, Southern Hyde Park. (011-341-80-80)

One of the best views in town. Rub shoulders with famous people. At the end of the month place is packed, make sure you have your reservations done in advance. Enjoy sundowners on the pool deck. View of the city is breathtaking.

Central One Bar and Restaurant, Blue Gautrain.

Location, location, location! Prices are reasonable. Enjoy it.

Bar at Four Season’s Hotel, the Westcliff. (011-481-60-60)

If you want to impress your guests take them there. Incredible service, beautiful view, cocktails, seafood. Best sundowners in town.

For a variety, good quality food go to Bright Water Commons in Randburg.

McGuinty Irish Bar.

Very popular, best beer and bar food. Try Salmon salad, will not be disappointed. TV- big screen, rugby, rugby, rugby. On St Patrick’s Day it is packed, as well on all major holidays.

Babylon Again. Greek Restaurant.

Homely atmosphere, food- will leave your guests speechless. One of the best lamb dishes in town. Greek music, fire place- nice in winter. In summer guests are going “wild”, breaking plates (one plate-R5). Good for company dinner.

Ocean Basket.

As always very good, this restaurant is South African favourite. But here you enjoy the view.

Scrooge.

Very good restaurant, survived all the competitions. Very good food, especially seafood. Enjoy the view and service.

Ghosts of Johannesburg, part II . Hazel Crane

2015-08-07T23:07:00.002+02:00

One of the beautiful socialites and businesswomen of Johannesburg was Hazel Crane. She was a firm favourite of A-list personalities after she became close friend of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Hazel was present at most of charity events and she was known for her exceptional generosity.

Hazel Crane made headlines of Johannesburg newspapers once again on the 10th of November 2003 after she was shot on her way to the court to testify against a man, who was accused in murdering her estranged husband, and who she helped to arrest. Hazel died shortly afterwards in Millpark Hospital.

Hazel was a self-made millionaire, businesswoman and socialite.

Hazel was born in Northern Ireland, Belfast. Later on she became a nurse in Zimbabwe, she had to care for her family after her first husband died at the age 25. At that time she was pregnant with her second child. She emigrated to South Africa with two children and nevertheless was able to make a fortune for herself.

She was adventurous, loved men, loved risk and was not afraid of doing something that others would consider illegal. She shared her adventures in one of the interviews and described how she would hide diamonds in her son’s nappies or in her hair.

Before her untimely death Hazel was working together with British journalist known as David Kray(not his real name) on her memoirs.

In the book “Hazel Crane, Queen of Diamonds” she speaks about herself:

“It was an exciting world for me: going into Egypt and Saudi, Kuwait and Qatar, to the Lebanon and Dubai. I would gather business group from South Africa and from the UK and take them into these countries and tried to put different deals together.”

She was quite opened about her relationships with her third husband Shai Avissar, describing how she married and later divorced him, because she was afraid Shai would claim half of her estate. Despite all the problems in their relationships her affection to Shai was, probably, the cause for her assassination. Hazel wanted to catch his killers and helped to find and arrest a man, who was known for his connections to the Israeli mafia and was accused in killing Shai Avissar. After Hazel’s death there were some whispering that she knew too much, she could identify some shady people, who were involved with Shai.

Hazel’s death and circumstances around it had shaken society. The book “Hazel Crane, Queen of Diamonds” opened a curtain over how Hazel made her fortune in a shady business of currency trading, smuggling diamonds and emeralds. However, for people and friends who knew her, she was always known as beautiful petit blond, who was able to donate a lot of money to charity and worked tirelessly on many projects; one of them was project of educational sponsorship for poor students. She remained in the memory who knew her as “stylish and elegant”, an” incurable flirt”, “never ending fun”.

Hazel Crane qualifies to be a ghost of Johannesburg. Her soul would never find peace and her ghost was seen near her home in Abbotsford and near Millpark Hospital .

Mostly unknown and fun facts about South Africa

2015-07-29T18:22:00.001+02:00

Mostly unknown and fun facts about South Africa

1 South African territory is 5 times bigger than Japan and 3 times bigger than Texas.

2 They say there are more than 2000 shipwrecks near SA coasts.

3 Chris Hani Baragwanath is the biggest hospital in the world.

4. Durban is the largest port in Africa.

5. The best place to watch whales is in Hermanus.

6. Table Mountain is the oldest mountain in the world.

7. South Africa is one of the countries with the cleanest drinking water. Krugersdorp’s water has “blue drop” certificate for quality of its drinking water.

8.SA has the longest wine route in the world- it is Route 62.

9. The first heart transplant was done by Dr. Christiaan Barnard in 1967 in Cape Town Groote Schuur Hospital.

10. SA has 90% of world’s known supply of platinum, 41%- of gold.

11. The world’s largest diamond was found in Cullinan Diamond Mine in 1905 and it was cut into lesser diamonds, which are now part of the British Crown.

12.The Tugela Falls is the second highest waterfall in the world.

13. Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world (after the 1st-Grand Canyon in the USA and the 2nd is the Fish River Canyon in Namibia)

14. Kruger National Park has the most animal species in Africa.

15. Cape Floral Kingdom has 9600 plants in the world, and they are on 70% unique – can be found only in SA.

16. SA is home to 8 World Heritage Sites. Only in SA you can stay on one of Heritage sites- Robben Island and look at the other- Table Mountain.

17.SA’s GDP constitutes about 25% of GDP from the whole Africa.

18. South African Breweries are the second largest in the world.

19. Three of the fastest land animals live in South Africa- cheetah, wildebeest and the lion.

20. UNISA is the largest correspondence university in the world.

GHOSTS OF JOHANNESBURG, part I

2015-07-25T23:20:00.000+02:00

Ghosts of Johannesburg.

Each and every city has its ghosts. In England every more or less respectable castle or town has ghosts too. The price of a place sometimes include price of a ghosts and the more famous ghosts are the higher the price of the castle or home.

Johannesburg is relatively new city. The history of Johannesburg can be counted from 1886, after the gold rush started. Despite being relatively “young’ Johannesburg has its ghosts too.

Ghosts N1

Daisy de Melker.

Daisy is a famous infamous woman, a nurse, “pure devil”, a woman, who was convicted in murdering 3 people by poisoning them (2 husbands for their insurance money and her son) and a second woman ever hanged in this country. She is as famous as Jack the Ripper in England. Daisy’s ghost was seen in places where she lived: in houses in Bertrams and Turffontein and also haunts Court 3 in Johannesburg Supreme Court.

Daisy’s ghost lives in children’s ward in Transvaal Memorial Children’s Hospital in Hillbrow, Johannesburg and, they say, was responsible for couple of death of children, when no cause could be found.

Ghost N2

Jose Dale Lace.

She was born Josephine Brink at Richmond in the Karoo. Adventurous, beautiful, dangerous woman, she definitely had incredible power and influence over men she met in her life. Her history started in England, where she was sent to study in elite school. English aristocrat Sir Cecil John Rhodes proposed to her and she was presented to Queen Victoria.

Apparently something went wrong, she did not marry Rhodes. Later she was spotted as mistress of Baron Grimthorpe. She had affairs with some famous people, including Edward the VII.

Then she became an actress and performed on stage. In England she met Dale Lace, an incredibly rich man and married him twice; second time- in Cape Town.

After that Dale Laces stayed in Northwards in Johannesburg. Jose was very eccentric. She is known for her habit of going out on streets of Johannesburg in a carriage with two zebras and her servants announced her appearance with the sound of a bugle. Dale Lace became bankrupt and died.

Jose lived in a small house at the end of her life.

Her ghost haunts Northwards Mansion (which was designed by Sir Herbert Baker, who also designed the Union Building in Pretoria) and also, as they say, guards her portrait in London’s Royal Academy.

Do you like ghost stories? Would you like to go on a Johannesburg’s Ghost Tour? Mystery Ghost Bus Tours Mobile: +27 (0) 79 193 7536 Email: tour@mysteryghostbus.co.za

LIONS PARK, STAY SAFE.

2015-06-20T19:01:00.000+02:00

I still can't believe that a woman died from a lionesses attack in Lions Park in Johannesburg. When we visited park everything was so peaceful. But we know that once in a while animals are able to attack people, even if they lived with and known these people for a long time.

Joy Adamson died after lions attacked her, however later police thought that the burglar was implicated.

A witness, a 37 year old engineer from Johannesburg, who followed Kathrine Chappel saw how she opened the window of her car to make a picture and lioness attacked her. Everything happened so quickly. People, who witnessed attack were able only to hoot. Lioness practically teared off woman's shoulder, no one was able to interfere. She died shortly afterwards.

We went to Lions Park twice. It was a perfect summer day. There were a lot of visitors. We, and other people (among them were pupils), were able to watch animals and even touch lion's cubs. That was an unforgettable experience.

"When we practice loving kindness and compassion we are the first to benefit". (Rumi). That was from the blog mirelatushe.blogspot.com. Wonderful words!

In that little video you can see how adorable are the lion cubs.

That was, probably one of the tragic accidents, which can happen anywhere.

Next time, when you visit Lions Park, if you want that perfect pictures, don't forget to bring your GoPro, which can be easily mounted outside from your car on the front windscreen.

When your dream come true...

2015-05-03T16:51:00.000+02:00

…The washing machine shuddered, the radio died, and the kettle stopped mid boil. The power was out again. She peered out of her window to make sure it wasn’t just her house was affected and then when she saw it…

Her lottery ticket. She won R3.000. 000 and was it true?

Really?

Three million rands?

No kidding.

O, my God! Well, she must pinch herself that it is true.

It is true. She verified with Lotto people. She did won.

Nice. Well done. Do you really think she doesn’t know what to do with all that money?

Hah!

Nothing, like that.

Bite your elbow.

She knows what to do. And all that stupid, talk that people who won lottery, spent money for stupid things and become broken, because they don’t know how to manage their money… Not her, of course.

So, really, what’s the plan?

I think she should go to USA and try to settle there. After all, this land is a land for all immigrants. I am watching all that movies about life in USA and I think, I can picture myself in it. Imagine, you are in New-York, strolling on Madison avenue,sitting in a café, dancing on Time Square.

Or, you are visiting Hollywood, with all the excitement of being in California, possibility to rub shoulders with interesting people. Or, picture yourself in a movie. “Gossip Girl”, may be? “Something’s gotta give”? “It’s complicated!” Or “The Good Wife”, for example.

I can do it.

No, I can totally do it.

I heard, that more and more of my friends, and even family are emigrating, even my brother –in-law, who, I thought, was not able to do anything.

Now he got up and found a job in Mexico with American visa.

Imagine yourself in USA- your basics are covered, and you work- not because you have to, but because you love to work, something creative of course.

Three million rands not a lot of money, they can be finished soon.

But with good luck and some knowledge we can manage to live and to reinvest our capital.

And to travel, of course…

All nice talks on internet how he, or she went here and there.

Well, in reality, very often it sucks.

The plane is late, may be the weather is not good, accommodation is expensive, you are running out of patience with all travel arrangements, the food is not right for you and you are realizing that possibly the best place is now your home, sweet home with whatever you like it there.

But next day comes, and you are ready for adventure again.

So, next stop is Hawaii? You are sitting on a beach, sipping “Margeritas”, “Pina Coladas” and watch sunset and the sea. Not bad.

Or Tailand?

Or Arctica?

I think it is time to wake up.

SPONTANEOUS JOURNEY, part II

2015-04-30T17:37:00.000+02:00

SPONTANEOUS JOURNEY, part II

.Next day was Sunday. It was time to go back to the city, back to work. That's why Sunday is a bit sad day. Still I have another day. They promised me photo-safari!

It was my first time to see animals so closely, and I was excited. Not all of my photos were good. But I tried to come as close to animals as possible. South Africans have the luxury to watch animals and birds in game reserves. Parents usually take kids with them, that's how kids learn to love nature and animals. I went on photosafari with one family, and they were totally happy. I saved few photos from that journey.

The last photos of statures were on entrance and when you were leaving. And it was very nice picture with request to clean your room-I like it.