Johannesburg Zoo

The Johannesburg Zoo was established in 1904 and encompasses 54 hectares of beautiful landscaped gardens and over 2070 animals and 365 different species.

The last time I had been to the Zoo was in 1978 on a family outing to Johannesburg when we lived in Vanderbijlpark. This was Ruth's first time at the Zoo. The Zoo is only about 3 blocks from where we live, so we thought it was about time we went for a visit.We arrived at about midday on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The carpark was packed and the streets outside the Zoo were full of cars. Still a very popular destination for Joburgers...The Cheetah enclosure was the first destination. Unfortunately the male was separated from the females as they only put them together during the mating season. the Cheetah above is one of the females.The Wild Dogs were quite cute too, but I wouldn't trust them with a 3 year old....

Above is a stunning example of South Africa's national bird....the Blue Crane.
The The South African National Museum of Military History borders the Zoo and the above monument is to the Anglo Boer War Memorial. I see this monument every afternoon on my drive home from work.
The above statue is a memorial for "Max the Gorilla". In 1997, an escaping burglar jumped over the Zoo wall and into the Gorilla enclosure. The burglar was promptly attacked by Max. Max was shot twice by the burglar and was taken to Millpark hospital where he was successfully operated on to remove the bullets. The burglar in turn was shot and arrested by the police.

I remember it well. The newspapers had a field day, as at the time, crime in Joburg was at its peak and everyone was applauding Max for doing a better job than the local police in fighting crime.

Sun City

Ruth and I decided to visit my Niece Tanya and her boyfriend George in Rustenburg which is about 48km from Sun City.

The last time I went to Sun City was around 1993. The Lost City and the Valley of the Waves didn't even exist then.

We left Jozi on Saturday morning at around 11:30am and took the slow and meandering R24 to Rustenburg.

Just as we arrived in Rustenburg, we decided to stop for a bite to eat at the roadhouse pictured above. Ruth has never eaten at a roadhouse as they don't exist in New Zealand. So, it was a first and novel experience for her. The food was really good, which we washed down with a wonderful strawberry milkshake. This is the kind of roadhouse I remember from years ago. Today, people suffer by eating the likes of shoddy 'food' at Mcdonalds and Steers.

We had a great 'braai' at Tanya and George's place in the evening. Lordy, Rustenburg gets hot. It must have been around 35 c that afternoon.

We left Rustenburg at 08:30 and headed off to Sun City on the Sunday morning. After parking your car, you jump on a monorail which takes you to the main hotel. There are around 3 hotels at Sun City and also the self-catering 'Cabanas'.

Ruth and I would like to go back sometime and stay for a few days. Fantastic place to relax and enjoy all that they have to offer. Gambling is huge here, but we are not really gamblers, so there is no interest there.
After we arrived, we headed straight for the the Valley of the Waves. Man, this is really impressive. Waterslides, wave pool, more waterslides. There is a waterslide called the "Temple of Courage". Not for the feinthearted. George didn't blink and eyelid before plummeting down this near vertical slide. Apparently you drop for around 17 metres before rejoining the slide. Took me a little while to build up the courage, but after a little while I thought "what the F$%*" and just did it. Was quite quite a thrill and ended up with my swimming trunks nearly slicing me in two!

We left Sun City just before 3pm, parted ways with Tanya and George and headed back to Jozi.