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| Gauteng |
| Greater Soweto (Township) |
Soweto, largest 'township' in the country, was developed for exclusive black occupation under the apartheid system from the early 1950s. The name is an acronym for South-Western Townships established on the farms Doornkop ('thorny head'), Klipriviersoog ('rocky river's eye'), Diepkloof, Klipspruit ('rocky creek') and Vogelstruisfontein ('ostrich spring'). The umbrella name Soweto included 26 'townships', such as Meadowlands, Orlando, Dobsonville, Diepkloof as well as Dube, each of which was designed to be a self-sufficient entity. The total area at the time was 6 734ha. The area was consolidated after the Second World War. By 1970 Soweto had 65 968 houses, 143 churches and 127 schools with about 100 000 pupils.
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Today the population of Soweto is a polyglot community, open to all and including members of all the country's indigenous groups. Dominant languages are Zulu, North and South Sotho, Tswana and Xhosa. Commercial life is still conducted largely through thousands of 'spaza' shops (home-based stores) and street stalls; social life through the myriad 'shebeens' (home-based drinking and conversation venues), clubs (much more up market), restaurants, coffee shops, community halls and sports centres.
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Duration:
3 to 4 hours.
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| Johannesburg City, Soweto, Lunch |
Johannesburg is the largest financial, commercial and industrial city in South Africa. However, the once-prosperous central business district is now an area of abandoned office blocks and overpasses, where very few of the original buildings are left standing. It is worth visiting the central area for an insight into how Johannesburg has developed over the decades, but because of safety concerns, it is essential that you go only on an organized tour.
The city's thriving suburbs are clustered around the main highway (motorway/freeway) to Pretoria, the M1. The hills to the north of downtown Johannesburg are where you'll find large residential areas with rows of mansions, well-tended gardens and shopping malls. What is unusual is the amount of protection around the properties - razor wire, guard dogs and armed response warnings are the norm. These suburbs are in fact far safer than central Johannesburg and have a good choice of visitor accommodation, particularly in Rosebank and Sandton. Many of the sights, shopping malls and entertainment complexes are in the suburbs, so there is little reason to venture tight into the city to find facilities. To the east of Rosebank are the trendy suburbs of Melville, Parkhurst and Parktown, where most of Johannesburg's more popular restaurants and nightlife are to be found.
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The rail station and main bus terminal are at the Park City Transit Centre, but on the whole it is safer to stick to radio taxis for transport or to rent a car: Johannesburg is a city where you really do need a car to get around.
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Duration:
6 to 7 hours.
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| Soweto, Johannesburg, Pretoria |
South Africa's most famous township is now a city in its own right - and the only place in the world with a street on which two winners of the Nobel Peace Prize have lived. One of the country's highlights, Soweto (short for South Western Townships). Today, Soweto is South Africa's largest urban living space, with an estimated population of around 4.2 million. In reality, the population is much bigger, swollen by an influx of immigrants from Nigeria, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and other parts of Africa.
Visitors are often surprised to see that much of Soweto is made up of tidy rows of houses, inhabited yb aspiring professionals. Indeed, the township has the highest concentration of millionaires in the country. The most popular sight in Soweto is the house where Nelson and Winnie Mandela lived before he was imprisoned in 1962.
South Africa's financial and industrial capital, the economic hub of the subcontinent if not Africa, Johannesburg owes its origins to the discovery in 1886 of the world's richest gold reef on the grassy highland north of the Vaal, which the burghers of President Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic had named Witwatersrand ('ridge of white waters'). Inevitably, the two most common colloquial names - Gauteng (Sotho) and Egoli (Zulu) - mean 'place of gold'.
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Pretoria is the executive capital of South Africa, the headquarters of most national government departments, including the South African National Defence Force. It was also the capital of the Transvaal Republic from 1860 to 1900, and of the province of Transvaal from 1910 to 1994. It is a city of monuments, memorials and public sculptures redolent with the history of the Transvaal and of South Africa.
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| Apartheids Museum, Johannesburg, Soweto |
One of the finest museums in the country, the Apartheid Museum provides an excellent insight into what South Africa - past and present - is all about. This extraordinarily powerful museum was officially opened by Nelson Mandela in April 2002 and it has already become the city's leading visitor attraction. It is divided into 'spaces', which highlight aspects of South Africa's recent history. When paying your entry fee you are issued with a random white or non-white ticket that takes you through one of two different entry points to symbolize segregation. The building itself has an innovative design to reflect the museum's chilling theme, using harsh concrete, raw brick, steel bars and barbed wire.
The museum begins with a 15 minute video, taking you briefly through Voortrekker history to the Afrikaner government of 1948, which implemented apartheid. The 'spaces' are dedicated to the rise of nationalism in 1948, pass laws, segregation, the first response from townships such as Sharpeville and Langa, the forced removals and the implementation of the Group Areas Act. From here, exhibits cover the rise of Black Consciousness, the student uprisings in Soweto in 1976, and political prisoners and executions.
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The reforms during the 1980s and 1990s are well documented, including President F.W. de Klerk's unbanning of political parties, Mandela's release, the first democratic elections in 1994, the lifting of sanctions and the new constitution. The exhibitions effectively use multimedia, such as television screens, recorded interviews and news footage, all providing a startlingly clear picture of the harshness and tragedy of the apartheid years. You should allow several hours for visit here.
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| Soweto, Johannesburg, Gold Reef City |
South Africa's most famous township is now a city in its own right - and the only place in the world with a street on which two winners of the Nobel Peace Prize have lived. One of the country's highlights, Soweto (short for South Western Townships). Today, Soweto is South Africa's largest urban living space, with an estimated population of around 4.2 million. In reality, the population is much bigger, swollen by an influx of immigrants from Nigeria, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and other parts of Africa.
Visitors are often surprised to see that much of Soweto is made up of tidy rows of houses, inhabited yb aspiring professionals. Indeed, the township has the highest concentration of millionaires in the country. The most popular sight in Soweto is the house where Nelson and Winnie Mandela lived before he was imprisoned in 1962.
When it was just six years old Johannesburg was already the largest town in South Africa, but there are few remnants of the exuberant early years. No city on earth has grown faster. In fact, it is the only metropolis in the world to have been entirely rebuilt within one century.
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Gold Reef City is built on the site of one of Johannesburg's gold mining areas, but today has developed into a garish theme park with rides, amusement arcades and a gaudy casino. Of greater interest are the original miners' cottages and the tour of the gold mine, which drops to a depth of about 220m (720ft), taking you down No. 14 Shaft, one of the richest deposits of gold in its day.
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| Gold Reef City |
This lively and imaginative reconstruction of Johannesburg of the 1890s is situated some 8 km (5 miles) south of the city. It was built around Shaft 14, a gold mine that was in use from 1887-1971.
The Gold Reef City theme and fun park aims to recapture that transient time during which Johannesburg slipped, quite unobtrusively, from mining camp to city. There are interesting museums to visit and an informative underground tour of the now disused mine. Daily displays of tribal, gumboot and cancan dancing complement the festive atmosphere.
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Duration:
Guided tour 4 to 5 hours. No children under 6. Theme park 9am to 5pm
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| Pretoria City Tour (Jacaranda City) |
Pretoria is a city of tree-lined avenues, fascinating architecture and many historic monuments. The general lifestyle is part historic and conservative and part young and creative. Pretoria is regarded as the original home of the Afrikaans community, especially those who opposed British rule. The Union Buildings, in Church Street, are situated in beautiful gardens. They were designed by Sir Herbert Baker and built to house the Government Ministerial Offices. Voortrekker Monument comprises huge figures of the Great Trek leaders on the four corners of this granite monument, designed by Gerard Moerdyk. The Monument is surrounded by a laager of life-size ox-wagons. There is also a Voortrekker museum and a restaurant.
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President Kruger House, in Church Street, is a National Monument, and has been completely restored. The house now contains many personal possessions of Paul Kruger, who lived here until 1900. The President's state and private railway coaches are also on display.
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| Lesedi Cultural Village Tour |
Quite close to or at least within easy driving distance of the two major cities are several 'cultural villages' that showcase traditional lifestyles, costumes, crafts and customs of various indigenous groups.
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Duration:
Just show: 7 hours.
Show / lunch: 5 - 6 hours
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The biggest and probably most commercial of these is Lesedi, off the R512 south of Hartbeespoort Dam, which in fact comprises four separate villages, each focusing on a different culture (Zhosa, Zulu, Basotho and Pedi). A visit may include a traditional feast, complete with singing and dancing, and an overnight stay.
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| Pretoria Zoo |
Pretoria's National Zoological Gardens are the largest in Africa and among the world's foremost. Founded in 1899 as a farm with a few indigenous animals on the banks of the Apies River, the zoo today covers 50ha north of Boom Street. It is home to 750 specimens of 135 mammal species, nearly 2000 specimens of 236 bird species and 600 specimens of 95 reptile species. There are also several rare exotic animals, among them the ruffed lemur, pigmy hippopotamus, scimitar-horned oryx, addaz antelope, Waldrapp ibis, European bison, pigmy crocodile, and the only pair of Grevy's zebra in the country.
The zoo also has a complete collection of Africa's cat family, and all four anthropoid apes (orang-outang, gorilla, chimpanzee and gibbon). It was the first zoo in the world to record the birth of a white rhino in captivity and is the only zoo in Africa with an insectarium, a white tiger, as well as a breeding pair of Prezewalski horses.
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| Sterkfontein Caves and Maropeng |
The town of Krugersdorp has gained international recognition for one of the world's most significant archaeological sites discovered at Sterkfontein ('strong spring') Caves, about 10km northwest of the town.
The caves were discovered in 1896 when the prospector Guigimo Martinaglia, searching for gold and lime, blasted his way into them. The rich deposits of bat guano were removed ruring the following few years and in the process much damage was done to the stalactites and other dripstone formations. By the end of the 1800s it was known that the caves were rich in bone-bearing breccia but the systematic scientific excavations, by Dr Robert Broom of the Transvaal Museum and his colleagues at the University of the Witwatersrand, started only in 1936. During the following three years they found many hominid fossils, including crania, upper and lower jaws, teeth and limb bones.
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| Note |
Duration:
3 to 4 hours.
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| Market Theatre Complex / Museum Africa |
The Market Theatre Complex is the centre of the Newtown Cultural Precinct that includes the South African Breweries Museum, the Workers' Museum and Library, and MuseuMAfricA. In total, it houses three theatres and two art galleries, restaurants, coffee shops, and a lively shopping arcade.
Each Saturday morning, flea market traders gather on the square ouside to sell everything from curios to ornaments and clothing.
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Opposite the Market Theatre but part of the complex, the Africana Museum (1935) was relaunched in 1994 as MuseuMAfricA. The theme is Johannesburg and its people at various stages of socio-political transformation.
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| Phone for show and quotation. |
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| Wildlife Tours |
| De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre |
The R566 east from Brits takes the traveler to the railway siding and village of De Wildt, about 18km distant, which was named for E. de Wildt, an engineer with the Dutch railway company NZASM, which surveyed the line from Pretoria to Rustenburg in 1905.
De Wildt is known for two unique features. The first is Margaret Roberts' herbal centre, where this internationally known expert grows an astonishing variety of herbs and regularly gives lectures and demonstrations. Nearby is the De Wildt Cheetah Research Centre, where the first ever cheetahs were bred in captivity.
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Duration:
6 to 8 hours.
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| Pilanesberg Game Reserve |
The malaria-free Pilanesberg National Park covers an area of more than 500 square kilometers. Situated between the dry Kalahari and the sour, moist Lowveld, the park traverses the floor of an ancient and now long-extinct volcano, providing a number of interesting habitats for the varied fauna and flora of the park. The Pilanesberg is home to 10 000 animals, including all the major mammal species found in Southern Africa. Lion, leopard, elephant, black and white rhino and buffalo roam the area.
Besides the Big Five, visitors can also see wild dog, zebra, brown hyena, giraffe, hippo, crocodile and many other animals. Mankwe Dam, situated in the centre of the reserve, is a gathering point for many of the animals, providing excellent photographic opportunities. With over 300 counted bird species, the bird-life is prolific and has been well catalogued for the benefit of birding enthusiasts.
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Duration:
9 to 10 hours.
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| Entertainment Tours |
| Hartebeespoortdam Views / ½ day Sun City |
Hartbeespoort Dam, situated on the Crocodile River, lies just south of Brits in a narrow defile between Silkaatsnek and Kommandonek in the Magaliesberg range. It irrigates 16 000 ha of intensively cultivated land and provides water-related recreational facilities for the people of Pretoria and Johannesburg.
Tucked away on the fringes of the Kalahari Desert is Sun City, a neon-lit extravaganza of kitsch surrounded by bush. It is South Africa's third most visited attraction, along with nearby Pilanesberg National Park, after Soweto and the Kruger National Park. While it may not appeal to everyone, if you're in the area it is worth a visit just to experience the sheer indulgence of the place.
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Duration:
10 to 11 hours.
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| Full day Sun City |
Approximately 40km south of Northam the R510 reaches the village of Mogwase (Heystekrand) where a road turns off west for Sun City and the Pilanesburg National Park.
Sun City was the first of several major casino and holiday resorts conjured up on the South African veld by the Johannesburg-born hotel magnate Sol Kerzner, son of Russian immigrants. It was built soon after the Bophuthatswana 'homeland' was granted 'independence' in 1977 (gambling was prohibited in South Africa but allowed in the 'independent homelands', of which Bophuthatswana was the second). The complex includes the Superbowl, a huge concert arena, four luxury hotels, including the Palace of the Lost City, as well as a great may sporting and gambling facilities. A $1-milllion international golf tournament is held at one of Sun City's two courses each November/December.
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| Cullinan Diamond Tour |
The morning of 25 June 1905 proceeded like any other at Premier Mine at Cullinan - until Frederick Wells, surface manager, by chance found himself in the exact position required for his eye to catch a particularly bright reflection of the pale winter sun from the wall of the open workings.
Carefully dislodged from the gravel, the object that reflected the sun turned out to be the largest diamond ever discovered - all of 3 025 carats. It measured 11 cm by 6 cm by 5 cm. Wells was given a government of the Transvaal colony for the nominal sum of ?125,000, of which the company had to return about half in taxes! Then, at the suggestion of General Louis Botha, prime minister of the Transvaal in those years, it was decided to present the stone to Britain's King Edward VII so that it may be included in the Crown Jewels.
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Duration:
5 to 6 hours.
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| Lion Park and Hot Air Ballooning |
If your ambition is to photograph lions, you are unlikely to get any closer to them than here: There are more than 50 in the park, including many cubs (with which you can have close encounters) and a rare male white lion.
Although the animals are bred in captivity, they are well cared for and have ample space in the drive-through enclosures. The lions are accustomed to vehicles and don't think twice about strolling right up to a car, so keep windows closed and adhere to any safety notices. The Lion Park is on the way to Lesedi.
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Established in 1981, Bill Harrop's "Original" Balloon Safaris operates from a riverside country base, bordering Gauteng and North-West Province. Guests can savour coffee as dawn breaks over the balloon field and the Magaliesberg Mountains. The flight lasts for about one hour and includes a champagne breakfast after landing.
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| Phone for quotation. |
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| Elephant Sanctuary |
The Elephant Sanctuary, nestled in pristine, unspoiled bush is the home to six African elephants. Elephants are highly intelligent and delightful and you will discover a different character and personality within each one. Sleep next to the elephants in our exclusive 10 bed Indo-African lodge, or visit us during the day for an exciting, educationally-oriented elephant program, hosted and guided by experienced guides.
Your encounter with these magnificent animals will deepen your understanding and change you forever.
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| Phone for quotation. |
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| Adventure Tours |
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| Horse Riding and River Rafting |
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Please phone for quotations on all of the above mentioned tours.
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| Long Tours Available |
| Please view our Tour Packages page for our Long Tours. |
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