Post Number 5 - Pretoria

Place: Pretoria

Country: South Africa

Location: Central, North Eastern South Africa Gauteng Province

Climate: Transitional between Highveld and Bushveld - Subtropical

Pretoria, Capital of South Africa - well I thought it was, until I did a little bit of research. It appears there are three capitals of South Africa, Pretoria (Administrative), Cape Town (Legislative) and Bloemfontein (Judicial). All too confusing for this "little black duck" (translation - Not me, no way, I'm not going to get involved). OK, let's get back on track here ...

We only spent a day in Pretoria, my impressions were of a modern, leafy, colourful, cosmopolitan city, with many impressive and significant buildings and parks. It was very hazy so it wasn't at its best to view and truly appreciate. Being October, the most striking feature was the Jacaranda trees. Pretoria is sometimes called "Jacaranda City" and it's easy to see why.





There are more than 50,000 Jacarandas in Pretoria and as they are an exotic plant (they come from Argentina) they have been placed on the "weed and invader plant list", which means they have to be destroyed. This has created quite a debate - it appears they may be able to remain but not replaced if ans when they die. Jacaranda's are also very popular in Australia, expescially in regional areas - Grafton springs to mind.

Kobus, our driver (and the man with the 13 dogs and 4 snakes) took us for a drive around the city, ending up at Union Building and gardens. Funny name for the residentency of the government and presidency.






Many hands make light work.

We stayed at the much awarded Court Classique Hotel. Whist it was evident why it has won it's awards, we must have visited on an "off day" as the front desk service was quite poor. The gardens were very impressive but in comparing it with Ten Bompass in Johannesburg, it came up short in every other aspect.






A whistle stop visit of Pretoria whet my appetite to come back, if possible, and spend more time looking around. The building that houses UNISA, caught me eye as it's HUGE, as did the communications tower with the big soccer ball.