Travel Eye on Pretoria (South Africa)

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Overview:

Known as the Jacaranda City for all the purple blossom-bedecked trees, which line its thoroughfares, Pretoria is a lovely, quiet city. It has a long, involved and fascinating history. Here you will find significant old buildings and fascinating museums.

The Transvaal Museum has natural history displays and is the home of Mrs Ples, the australopithecine fossil found at Sterkfontein in the Cradle of Humankind. Also worth visiting are the Cultural History Museum and Smuts Museum in Irene, outside Pretoria.

Summer can be uncomfortably hot, especially in the lowveld. Higher-altitude areas are pleasantly warm over summer, but the mountains are rain- and mist-prone. The north-eastern regions can be annoyingly humid, but swimming on the east coast is a year-round proposition.

Spring is the best time for wildflowers in the Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces. Winters are mild everywhere except in the highest country, where there are frosts and occasional snowfalls.

Pretoria is a great town - there are quite a few open spaces where you can walk or mountain bike. Near Pretoria is the Premier Game Reserve, next door to the Cullinan Diamond Mine, where the largest diamond in the world was found.

You could do a short horse trail at the Voortrekker Monument or through the Premier Reserve, taking a careful look at some white rhino and a number of eland - which are pretty much the size of a big horse. You could do a tandem skydive or a first jump at the Pretoria Skydiving Club, which is the largest in the country

Locality:

Situated in the north of South Africa, Some 50 km north of Johannesburg lies Pretoria, which resides within the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality

Entertainment/Facilities/Attractions/Things to do:

Pretoria offers all the attractions of a main city. Burgers Park is Pretoria's first park, established in 1882. The Fountains Nature Reserve was proclaimed in 1895, claimed to be the first in Africa. Around Church Square are several buildings built in the late 1800s style.

Raadsaal (Council Hall of the Zuid-Afrikaanche Republiek), Palace of Justice, now home of the Supreme Court, Post Office, old Reserve Bank. Sammy Marks Museum is a Victorian period house of a sumptious lifestyle. Paul Kruger museum is in the house of President Paul Kruger of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. Melrose House, built in 1886, is an example of Victorian lifestyle.

Pretora Art Museum hosts paintings of South African artists. The Pierneef Museum has an exhibit of the artist Pierneef. Van Wouw House was the home of sculptor Anton van Wouw, and exhibits some of his work. The Museum of Science and Technology has exhibits in which visitors can participate.

Pretoria Zoo (the National Zoological Gardens) is the largest zoo in South Africa and with an aquarium. At the State Theatre, consisting of several theatres, productions range from opera and jazz to ballet, drama and cabaret. In the Wonderboom Nature Reserve, just north of the Pretoria Zoo, is a giant fig tree of about 1'000 years old, and which grows over an area of 0,5Ha.