Mpumalanga — top things to do

God's Window

They speak about Mpumalanga as the place of the rising sun. Indicative in many ways of the out­door life­style that is the essence of time-out in Mpumalanga, one goes there for the wide open spaces, the sweep­ing moun­tains, tor­rent­ous rivers and water­falls, and val­leys enshrouded in mist.

The  romance of the lowveld beck­ons with its game farms, lodges and bush breaks in the south­ern parts of the Kruger National Park. Think Mpumalanga, and Bourkes Luck Potholes come to mind, fol­lowed swiftly by other geo­graphic icons like God's Window and the Three Rondawels. So much of the Mpumalanga province that lies in the north­ern east­ern parts of the coun­try is now geared to vis­it­ors that it becomes a case of being select­ive about what one does, rather than hav­ing to scour for things to do.

The team at SA Venues has put together a list of the top things you abso­lutely MUST do when in Mpumalanga, fol­lowed by a few of the out-of-the-way, need to have been there before places and spaces that you may not know about ... Continued

Things to do this holiday – the 'I'm getting desperate' list

Things to do ...

I doubt that any of you really need this art­icle. Who actu­ally has to find things to do in the hol­i­day in South Africa? I have a list of 'to do's' that eas­ily com­petes with the aver­age corporation's annual agenda, nev­er­mind adding fur­ther activ­it­ies to the schedule.

But then I'm not being assailed by a never-ending list of rel­at­ives or friends this Christmas, even if my mother-in-law is com­ing to visit. Nonetheless, won­der­ful mother-in-law or not, there are days when con­sult­ing a list of pos­sib­il­it­ies comes in very handy, whether it's for enter­tain­ing friends or grand­moth­ers, or keep­ing chil­dren away from tele­vi­sion sets ... Continued

Blue Water Cafe, Imhoff Farm — children's parties to remember

Blue Water Cafe

The social cal­en­dar of the aver­age pre-schooler without doubt chal­lenges the 'com­ing out' — a cus­tom for girls in those days to enter into soci­ety by attend­ing a vari­ety of balls and dances in search of a hus­band — of the aver­age Jane Austin heroine. At least the out­come for the Emmas of this world is a wed­ding; ours is an over-sugared five year old. This is our ump­teenth birth­day party this year. And as each out­does the other in terms of child enter­tain­ment, the search for avail­able and easy to use ven­ues increases.

On this par­tic­u­lar Saturday, we find ourselves at Imhoff Farm's Blue Water Café, just out­side Kommetjie. It isn't our first visit to the res­taur­ant, although for a lot of the par­ents it is. We've been here before, although admit­tedly not for a children's party ... Continued

Adventure holidays for families with kids around South Africa

South Africa, land of per­petual sun­shine, incred­ible vis­tas, diverse land­scapes and a people who go to the nth degree to make one feel at home, is per­fect for fam­il­ies with chil­dren, who real­ise that hav­ing kids does not mean the end to adven­ture. All nine provinces have some­thing to offer ...

Learn to surf

The Western Cape province's beauty includes the wild Cape Agulhas coast, the Cape Winelands, windswept spaces of the Klein Karoo, Cape Town, and the con­stant reas­sur­ing pres­ence of moun­tains. The Mother City alone holds a host of activ­it­ies, like the Two Oceans Aquarium, the Cape Peninsula National Park, the Planetarium, the MTN ScienCentre, and Ratanga Junction.

Abseil Table Mountain, ride horses at sun­set on Noordhoek beach, learn to surf at Big Bay, Bloubergstrand, take a heli­copter flip over the city, go ostrich rid­ing in Oudtshoorn, moun­tain bik­ing in Langebaan, paraglid­ing in Porterville, and a wine cruise on the river in Robertson ... Continued

Rock on Beethoven at Barnyard in Tygervalley

One of my gym instruct­ors men­tioned he was per­form­ing in Rock on Beethoven at the Willowbridge Barnyard Theatre in Tygervalley so I thought I would find out a bit more about it.  Rock on Beethoven is the sequel to the won­der­fully pop­u­lar Roll over Beethoven.  Roll over Beethoven is the longest run­ning and most suc­cess­ful Barnyard Shows, which, when it ended had been watched by over 500 000 people!

Rock on Beethoven is a com­edy; Ludwig von Beethoven comes back to life and ana­lyses mod­ern day music!  The show fea­tures rocked up cloas­sic music as well as rock and roll hits that have the audi­ence up on their feet and cheer­ing!  The music is a set of hits from Pink Floyd, Tina Turner, Cold Play, Gloria Gaynor, Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, Toto and many more. Continued

All Aboard the Hexpass Express

Matroosberg Station

For the rail afi­cion­ados amongst us, per­haps the Hexpass Express will be of interest.  This little train com­prises two coaches and is drawn by a vin­tage Fordson 35 horse power tractor; trav­el­ling at a max­imum speed of 20 kilo­metres per hour.  The rail­road was ori­gin­ally aban­doned but the coaches now climb the steep levels of the Hex River Pass between the sta­tions of Hexpas and Matroosberg.  Dating back to the 1870’s, the route runs through one of the most beau­ti­ful areas in the Western Cape.

The Hexpass Express offers three dif­fer­ent trips.  The first is a trip from Hexpas Station to Tunnel Station and back again.  This jour­ney takes approx­im­ately four hours with time included to relax and have a pic­nic at Tunnel Station (bring your own pic­nic).  Continued

Dirty Boots Adventure Guide South Africa Now Available to Order

The Dirty Boots adven­ture guide can now be ordered for free from the web­site, offer­ing over 100 adven­ture activ­it­ies from hun­dreds of tour oper­at­ors. With an easy to use index and in the per­fect travel size, the guide is the ideal resource for adventure-seekers look­ing for the best adven­tures across South Africa. Continued

Creative ways to have fun in the snow

Build a snow man

Heavy snow­falls over parts of South Africa overnight have given many fam­il­ies the chance to enjoy fun in the white stuff. Here are some simple but cre­at­ive ways to enjoy snow that you may not have thought of before:

First things first!
Wrap every­one up warmly — I know it sounds obvi­ous, but chil­dren are not pen­guins and aren’t auto­mat­ic­ally enthu­si­astic about ven­tur­ing out into freez­ing con­di­tions! To per­suade them to have fun in the cold out­side they will need to feel very warm and toasty on the inside! Continued

Soccer Cinema screens soccer stories

Soccer Cinema

You’ve bought the Bafana Bafana sup­port­ers shirt, you’ve got your South African flag fly­ing proudly from your car, you’ve put up with the seem­ingly never end­ing road works and finally the FIFA World Cup is only four short days away.

As a way to build up the atmo­sphere of this great tour­na­ment even fur­ther, Soccer Cinema will be screen­ing soc­cer stor­ies across the coun­try.  This is doc­u­ment­ary cinema and will give the pub­lic an insight into teams and well-known play­ers as well as high­light­ing events from foot­ball his­tory.  I must admit, as a staunch rugby fan I don’t know much about foot­ball apart from the fact that Diego Maradona is a legend in his coun­try and Wayne Rooney gets paid a for­tune! Continued

Get running — half marathons coming up in the Western Cape

Half Marathons

South Africa is in gen­eral, sports mad, and a week­end would not be a week­end without a sport­ing event of some kind tak­ing place.  Running is one of our more pop­u­lar pas­times and it’s not uncom­mon to see run­ning die hards out pound­ing the pave­ments in the early hours of the morn­ing or the last hours of the evening.

The Comrades Marathon is around the corner and per­haps some of you have friends that are tak­ing part in the worlds greatest road race again this year or you know someone that will be tack­ling the 89km feat for the first time.  Maybe you’ve been inspired by someone who fin­ished this years Two Oceans or maybe you just want to start get­ting fit ... Continued

A few unusual things to do in Cape Town ...

Join the Circus

There’s always one at the party. You know who I mean, the per­son who is talk­ing about their latest adven­ture wrest­ling wild bulls in Chile, doing Kilimanjaro on a uni­cycle or cliff diving in Fiji. You know the type. The adven­ture junkie, the one with all the good stor­ies. Unfortunately I’ve never really been like that.  Given a choice between sky­diving and chilling on the beach, the beach wins every time. But I’ve decided that I need to exper­i­ence new things and expand my horizons.

So here are some inter­est­ing things to try out in Cape Town... Continued

101 Things to Do with Kids in Cape Town

Kids wish list

As much as your kids will tell you they can’t wait for the school hol­i­days, the words "I’m bored," will inev­it­ably cross their lips when the hol­i­days are longer than a week or 10 days. So we've com­piled a list of "101 things to do with kids in Cape Town", revis­it­ing pop­u­lar kid-friendly ven­ues and includ­ing a few new finds to help you keep them busy. We hope our list will inspire a few out­ings or per­haps give you some fresh ideas for school holidays ...

Have fun explor­ing new places and revis­it­ing old favour­ites with your kids and we hope the 'kid' inside you will enjoy these out­ings too ... Continued

Things to Do with Kids in the Cape Town City Bowl

Open-top bus

... things to Do with Kids in the Cape Town City Bowl
We start our fun out­ings in the Cape Town City Bowl where there are a num­ber of activ­it­ies to delight chil­dren of all ages. A fun activ­ity is to catch the double decker open-top bus (#1) for a 2 hour guided trip around the Mother City. The tour includes the Waterfront and city centre, stops at Table Mountain and con­cludes with a coastal drive back through Camps Bay. It's a hop-on hop-off type tour so you can jump off any­time (plan ahead and park your car some­where close by) or make like tour­ists and take the full two hour tour! It’s a great way to see our beau­ti­ful city.

An altern­at­ive is to “hop-off” at Table Mountain and take your kids up to the top of Table Mountain in the Cable Car (#2). Whilst kids may not appre­ci­ate the views quite as much as adults do, the floor of the cable-car rotates 360 degrees on the ascent and des­cent (which takes 5–10 minutes) and the exper­i­ence of the ride is sure to impress. Continued

Things to Do with Kids in Blaauwberg

Blouberg beaches

... things to Do with Kids in Blaauwberg
Continue the school hol­i­days with a day in Blaauwberg and enjoy a very spe­cial exper­i­ence — get a group of 8 (kids and par­ents) and take them for a "behind the scenes" tour at SANCCOB (#67). It's highly edu­ca­tional, inter­est­ing and very mov­ing to see the work that is done here. It costs R45.00 per per­son (kids under 1 year go free) and lasts about 45 minutes to an hour.

After the tour at SANCCOB, take your beach buck­ets and spades to Bloubergstrand Beach (#68) for a day of fun and sun, and all of the usual beach activ­it­ies so pop­u­lar with kids. Or try Small Bay Beach — pro­tec­ted behind rocks, there is a play park halfway along the beach spe­cially for the kids. Continued

Just Jinjer to perform at The Assembly in Cape Town this April

Just Jinjer

The last time I saw Just Jinjer per­form I was a very young, barely turned 18 year old girl at a dingy bar in Table View, but I was so excited to watch this band per­form. I remem­ber the smokey room packed to burst­ing with people of a like mind, all ready to rock to the sound of Just Jinjer. I will never for­get stand­ing as close to the front of the stage as pos­sible and stretch­ing out my hand in anti­cip­a­tion of touch­ing the hand of lead singer, Art Matthews.

What a rush. It was an abso­lute blast that even­ing and has been firmly imprin­ted into my memory bank. I was dare I say a little bit more than excited when I found out that Just Jinjer would be per­form­ing not one, but two shows at The Assembly in Harrington Street, Cape Town, this April. Continued