I ♥ Hurlingham Because ...

I ♥ Hurlingham

Hi, I’m Trish from Hurlingham House in Hurlingham.

Hurlingham IS BEST KNOWN FOR being a peace­ful and safe sub­urb, yet it's only 3km from the heart of Sandton.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT the statue of Nelson Mandela in Mandela Square.

THE BEST archi­tec­tural PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT the Sandton CBD.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT Zoo Lake.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S GOOD, I LIKE TO sit at our swim­ming pool or in a side­walk cafe.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S BAD, I LIKE TO go to Sandton City Mall.

I THINK THE BEST TIME OF YEAR TO VISIT IS spring or sum­mer, BECAUSE the trees in Hurlingham are beau­ti­ful and the weather is good. Continued

I ♥ Chartwell Because ...

I ♥ Chartwell

Hi, I’m Alan from Hoopoe Haven Guest House in Chartwell, in Sandton.

Chartwell IS BEST KNOWN FOR its coun­try atmo­sphere and liv­ing. All plots are from 2.5 to 10 acres in size, so it is very peace­ful. The Lion Park is on the bor­der of Chartwell West 1 km away as the crow flies and just 5 km south is the busy met­ro­polis of four­ways with lots of malls and shops, MonteCasino and plenty of activ­ity like live theatre, ice rink, extra­vag­an­zas, bird park etc. Chartwell is a place where you can relax and just enjoy yourself.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Lion park where you are allowed to touch and play with the lion cubs.
THE BEST hol­i­day PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT bird­park in MonteCasino.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT any of the rid­ing stables in Chartwell or even going for a horse ride at the Rhino and Lion park. Continued

I ♥ Jukskei Park Because ...

I ♥ Jukskei Park

Hi, I’m Ros Warren from Pepperwood Lodge in Jukskei Park.

Jukskei Park IS BEST KNOWN FOR loc­a­tion, loc­a­tion, loc­a­tion ... so well posi­tioned for great ven­ues like the Dome, Northlands Deco Park and MonteCasino yet a quiet leafy sub­urb where you can get a good nights sleep.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT the Lion Park just 10 minutes away. These beau­ti­ful creatures are always such a treat and for a spe­cial memory have your pic­ture taken with a lion cub in your arms.

THE BEST scenic PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN along the Jukskei River that falls and runs through the suburb.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT MonteCasino Bird Park or in the hot air bal­loon that gives a won­der­ful view of the whole area. Continued

I ♥ Sandhurst Because ...

I ♥ Sandhurst

Hi, I’m Cheryl from Mustard Seed Guest House in Sandhurst.

Sandhurst IS BEST KNOWN FOR its stun­ning homes and beau­ti­ful gardens.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT The Mandela Statue. This statue of a 21^st cen­tury icon will tower above you.

THE BEST scenic PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN FROM the top of the Radisson Blu Hotel.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT Mandela Square.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S GOOD, I LIKE TO go for walks through the sub­urb or lie under a tree in the garden with a book.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S BAD, I LIKE TO visit the Sandton Library or have a cof­fee at the Book Shop. Continued

I ♥ Lanseria Because

I ♥ Lanseria

Hi, I’m Lise from Lethabo Estate in Lanseria.

Lanseria IS BEST KNOWN FOR is best known for its air­port which takes you afford­ably to local des­tin­a­tions but also into Wildest Africa. We are in The Cradle Of Humankind and a stone’s throw from the Magaliesberg and are sur­roun­ded by a wide vari­ety of game view­ing and out­door adven­ture activ­ity oppor­tun­it­ies. We are also in a very import­ant geo­graph­ical and his­tor­ical area. Lethabo is situ­ated in the fam­ous Rhenosterspruit Conservancy which is one of the most scen­ic­ally beau­ti­ful areas in South Africa.

In ancient times the area was an inland sea and when it dried it turned into savan­nah grass­lands and dolo­mitic rock areas. The savan­nah grass­lands and three major African rivers, The Jukskei, Hennops con­ver­ging into The Crocodile River, meant huge volumes of ele­phant and sable not to men­tion teem­ing game of all spe­cies were to be found in these val­leys. Continued

I ♥ Muldersdrift Because ...

I ♥ Muldersdrift

Hi, I’m Salomé Odendaal from KoelenRust Estate in Muldersdrift.

Muldersdrift IS BEST KNOWN FOR the Cradle of Humankind, a world her­it­age, ven­ues with con­fer­ence facil­it­ies of inter­na­tional stand­ard and is known as the “wed­ding cap­ital” of Gauteng, with more than 40 wed­ding venues.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT one of the local game farms as a remem­brance of Africa.

THE BEST South African PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT The Rhino & Lion Game Reserve, some­times with baby lion cubs, the Lion Park or at the Maropeng Centre with all its fossils that dates back mil­lions of years.
Continued

I ♥ Colbyn Because ...

I ♥ Colbyn

Hi, I’m Lola Patrick from Moindis Guesthouse in Colbyn.

Colbyn IS BEST KNOWN FOR being the quietest, safest, most well-treed old Eastern sub­urb of Pretoria, minutes from the main routes.
GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT the Union Buildings around the corner from us, a Sir Herbert Baker mas­ter­piece.
THE BEST city PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT the Union Buildings over­look­ing the city basin — espe­cially in spring when the Jacarandas are in full bloom.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT the Voortrekker Monument or the new Freedom Park would be quite memorable.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S GOOD, I LIKE TO hike the Moreletta Spruit and sit on top of the Lynnwood Ridge look­ing over the sub­urbs crack­ing a chilled bottle of sparkles.
WHEN THE WEATHER'S BAD, I LIKE TO stay home at Moindis curl­ing up with a book in front of the crack­ling fire with a Moroccan tagine or cin­na­mon pan­cake.
I THINK THE BEST TIME OF YEAR TO VISIT IS all year long, BECAUSE Pretoria has the most tem­per­ate cli­mate in the coun­try.  Winters are fairly mild here. Continued

I ♥ Rivonia Because ...

I ♥ Rivonia

Hi, I’m Jill Marais from Rivonia Bed & Breakfast in Rivonia.

Rivonia IS BEST KNOWN FOR its res­taur­ants and IT industry.
GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, where Nelson Mandela and ANC mem­bers used to meet and hide out in the apartheid era.
THE BEST spring PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN when our jacaran­das are in bloom.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT Mandela Square in Sandton City. Continued

I ♥ Kyalami Because ...

I ♥ Kyalami

Hi, we're Sandy and Peter from Soul Fusion Guest House in Kyalami.

Kyalami IS BEST KNOWN FOR it’s Motor Racing Circuit that used to be home to the South African Formula 1 Grand Prix, as well as being the ‘Horse Capital’ of the world with a vibrant horse industry and approx­im­ately 5500 horses within the Greater Kyalami Conservancy of 42km². The con­servancy is host to 360 events each year with five major inter­na­tional com­pet­i­tions, as well as the world fam­ous SA Lipizzaners.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT at the Kyalami Castle that offers 360° views of Sandton and Joburg’s sky­line with the Magalisberg in the distance.

THE BEST wed­ding PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN in Soul Fusion's beau­ti­ful garden.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT many loc­a­tions through­out the coun­tryside that offer fant­astic fauna and flora, wet­lands and bird sanc­tu­ar­ies. Continued

When in Jo'burg ...

The Jo'burg Skyline

Johannesburg is not a wee city by any stretch of the ima­gin­a­tion. It's an eco­nomic power­house , the pro­vin­cial cap­ital of Gauteng, has the largest eco­nomy in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is the world's largest city that is not built on a river, lake or coast­line, accord­ing to Wiki.

It is often per­ceived by those who do not live there to be some­thing of a con­crete jungle in which crime of every form and descrip­tion is rife. Some of this must be true as it fea­tures in the Real Clear World's top ten most dan­ger­ous cit­ies in the world not at war (quite a mouth­ful and not neces­sar­ily a cred­it­able list of dan­ger­ous cit­ies), but con­sid­er­ing that London makes it to the list as well, it is obvi­ously a rel­at­ive exper­i­ence and depends very much on how much of a vic­tim you make your­self — strolling around with your pocket bul­ging with a wal­let and your cam­era slung around your neck in the middle of down­time Jo'burg prob­ably qual­i­fies as such. Continued

I ♥ Melville Because ...

I ♥ Melville

Hi, I’m Andrew Cleland from The Hillside House in Melville, Johannesburg.

Melville IS BEST KNOWN FOR its vibrant night life, trendy cof­fee shops and vari­ety of eat­ing joints.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT 4^th Ave, between 7^th & 8^th Street, because there is a great view of the Joburg sky­line in the background.

THE BEST day­time PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT any­one of the fol­low­ing spots — the  Johannesburg Botanical Gardens, the Johannesburg Zoo, Melville Koppies, or why not stop at The Westcliff Hotel for a High Tea.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT The Hillside House, in our lovely indi­gen­ous garden. Continued

I ♥ Benoni Because ...

I ♥ Benoni

Hi, I’m Michelle Smith from Avoca Lodge in Benoni on Gauteng's East Rand.

Benoni IS BEST KNOWN FOR being the City of Lakes.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Ebotse Golf and Country Estate, which is a pic­tur­esque golf estate around the Rynfield Lake. The estate makes the most of its nat­ural envir­on­ment and includes boat­ing, fish­ing, cyc­ling, jog­ging and walk­ing trails.

THE BEST nature PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN in the fields at Bullfrog Pan when the cos­mos flowers are in full bloom. The pan is a won­der­ful spot to escape city life and it boasts over 150 spe­cies of bird includ­ing the African purple swamp hen, marsh owl and in winter flocks of spur-winged geese. Flamingos are often seen in the open water dur­ing the colder months. Continued

The International Stamp Show in Gauteng from 27 to 31 October 2010

International Stamp Show

When I was younger I used to col­lect stamps, I’m not sure if this was because I was try­ing to get another badge to sew onto my uni­form or if I just decided to do this as a hobby. Either way, I spent a fair amount of time col­lect­ing a vari­ety of stamps and put­ting them into my stamp book – which I am sure is col­lect­ing a ser­i­ous pile of dust on my mom’s book­shelf now. Stamp col­lect­ing, or phil­a­tely, is an extremely pop­u­lar hobby world­wide and this October you can visit the International Stamp Show at the Sandton Convention Centre from 27–31 October 2010. Continued

Activities at Maropeng Centre on Heritage Day

Maropeng

As I am sure you are well aware there is a pub­lic hol­i­day this week – Friday 24 September 2010 is National Heritage Day in South Africa. If you’ve for­got­ten or (shock hor­ror) you don’t know why we cel­eb­rate Heritage Day let me tell you. It is a fairly recent pub­lic hol­i­day which recog­nises all aspects of South African cul­ture. Which I think is some­thing quite spe­cial besides mean­ing that we get the day off.

Now if you’re not already cel­eb­rat­ing the day with a braai – National Braai Day, and you can’t think of any­thing to do, rather than spend the day laz­ing about why not head out to Maropeng in the Cradle of Humankind for their cel­eb­ra­tion where more than 8000 people are expec­ted ... Continued

Visit the Irene Dairy Farm for a farm style breakfast or five litre bucket of milk!

Irene Dairy Farm

I have vis­ited Irene in Northern Gauteng a hand­ful of times and one of my most favour­ite spots is the cen­tury old Irene Dairy Farm.  The farm star­ted oper­at­ing in 1889 and now, five gen­er­a­tions down the line it’s still the van der Byl fam­ily at the helm.

The farm was ori­gin­ally pur­chased by an Alois Nellmapius and after nam­ing the vil­lage for his daugh­ter (Irene means peace) he set about cre­at­ing Irene Estate.  Farmlands were expan­ded but only five years later the land was sold to Albertus van der Byl and its still belongs to that fam­ily.  Albertus built up the dairy herd, planted hun­dreds of trees and laid out the beau­ti­ful Irene Golf Course (I’ve walked the course and it’s lit­er­ally a walk in the coun­try).  The vil­lage of Irene has grown with the gen­er­a­tions and through this time the fam­ily has worked tire­lessly to keep the farm atmo­sphere ... Continued