Unusual monuments

At the end of August I took a road trip to Johannesburg and on my travels discovered two slightly unusual monuments.  Discovered by the way, as there were Geocaches hidden close to both.

 

The first one was a monument just outside of Middelburg in the Eastern Cape.  The stone monument has a picture of a chair on it and the sign says "Stoel Monument" (Chair Monument).  So what is the story behind the Stoel Monument?  There's a long and a short so I will keep to the short.  During the Anglo Boer War Commandant J. C. Lotter was well known for his daring hit and run tactics employed against the British forces.  Lotter and most of his commando were caught near Graaff-Reinet.  Lotter stood accused of "murder, marauding and disgraceful conduct of a cruel nature" and was charged with human rights violations and war crimes.  He was found guilty and sent to Middleburg where he was sentenced to death.  At the spot where the monument stands is where he was tied to a chair and shot.  Get it? Tied to a chair and shot = chair monument to remember him.   

The second unusual monument I got to visit on the trip was the Bles Bridges Monument outside Bloemhof in North West Province.  Bles Bridges was a much beloved and very popular Afrikaans singer who died in 2000 in a car accident on this spot just outside Bloemhof.  The local business chamber decided to put up a monument to remember him by and there you have it, a monument that looks like a grave stone with a guitar on it. 

A very unusual beach

Can you guess where this beach is?

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Technically it's not a beach.  Not a coastal one anyway.  It is the sandveld on the banks of the Bloemhof Dam on the border between the North West Province and the Free State.

Bloemhof Dam was built in the late 1960's and is located at the confluence of the Vaal River and the Vet River.  At 25 000 hectares the dam with it's 4 270 m long dam wall is one of the largest in South Africa.  The dam itself is very shallow as it isn't located in a gorge and stretches up to a 100 km upstream from the wall. 

 

The area around the dam has been declared a protected area with the Bloemhof Dam Nature Reserve on the North West side is the more prominent Sandveld Nature Reserve in the Free State.  The Sandveld Nature Reserve is one of South Africa's top birding spots with 295 bird species recorded here as well as game like giraffe, buffalo, eland, gemsbok, and rare sable and roan antelope.

Sweef teen sonop met 'n Warmlugballon

Ahhhhhh, om rustig te sweef deur die lug terwyl die son opkom in die ooste. Die stilte word net gebreek deur die klank van die vlam wat kort kort meer warm lug in die ballon inblaas. 'n Uitsig soos min met plaaswerkers wat oppad is lande toe doer onder jou and die Hartebeespoortdam wat glinster in die verte.  Daar is bitter min dinge wat naby kom aan 'n warmlugballon vlug saam met die legendariese Bill Harrop homself.

Ek moet eerlik wees en sê dat 'n vlug op 'n warmlugballon nie regting op by bucketlist was nie omdat ek hoogtevrees het, maar toe ek die kans kry om op 'n vlug te gaan het ek nie nee gesê nie.  Die eerste deel van die vlug het ons reedelik laag gevlieg en vir my was dit die lekkerste deel van die vlug.  Diep in my hart het het bebid dat ons nie regtig baie hoër sal gaan nie, maar ek het geweet dat dit uiteindelik sal kom.

En dit het.  Ek kon hoor die ander mense in die mandjie was baie opgewonde toe Bill aankondig dat dit nou tyd is om bietjie hoogte te kry.  Ek was nie heeltemal so seker nie.  Op, op, op het ons gegaan en op 'n stadeem het ons 1000 meter bo die grond gesweef.  My vingers al hoe dieper in die mandjie se rand probeer indruk en my hart het in my keel geklop.  Maar die adrenalien het gepomp and ek het dit darem reggekry om een of twee fotos daar van bo af te neem. 

Vir 'n uur of so het ek gevoel soos 'n arend wat op die lugstrome sweef, maar voor jy dit weet stryk ons neer en pik die ondersteuningsvoertuig ons op op betyds terug te wees vir ontbyt.  Dit was regtig 'n wonderlikke ervaring om te onthou en oor en oor vir mense van te vertel.  Iets wat ek enigetyd weer sal doen.

Floating on air

A while ago I had the privilege to go on the ultimate adventure hot air ballooning with Bill Harrop near Magaliesberg north of Johannesburg. I have posted two pics of it before (Hot Air Ballooning), but wanted to show of a couple more pics from the experience.

If you would like to see more pics featuring the sky by photographers from all over the world, visit the good people at Skywatch.

Sitting Giraffe

On my recent visit to Sun City I got to go on a game drive into the Pilanesberg National Park. Although we didn't see a huge amount of game, we did see this very unusual sight of a giraffe sitting down. What makes this unusual is the fact that giraffes don't usually sit down much in reserves where there are predators like lions as they can't get up that fast being all neck and legs. This makes them more vulnerable sitting down than other animals (although they can still see a long way even when sitting, LOL)

Features around the Palace

The Palace at the Lost City is surrounded by a lot of different features, all of which ads to the theme and atmosphere.

The Palace is set is a man made forest with lots of streams, waterfalls and cascades. Just below the swimming pools in the forest is a suspended rope bride over beautiful cascades.

At the bottom of the gardens just above the Valley of the Waves is the pool deck overlooking the wave pool. On the deck level there is yet another swimming pool surrounded by "ruins" and an amphitheatre.

Right in front of the main entrance to the Palace hotel is a fountain with bronze sculptures of two cheetah chasing some impala. It depicts an action scene and is extremely well done.

In one of the courtyard of the Palace stands the life size bronze sculpture of a bull elephant. It is an absolutely awesome sculpture. Unfortunately there was nobody around when I was in the courtyard to get a photo that shows the scale of it.

The Palace of the Lost City

The Palace of the Lost City is an ultra luxury hotel situated in Sun City. The Palace was designed as the royal palace of the ancient civilization that used to live in the Lost City. It is surrounded by Fantastic gardens and a man made forest with all kinds of features.

The Palace Towers at night

The Palace as seen from one of the forest paths with one of the cascading streams in the foreground

The main swimming pool area

Palace fountain

Lost City at Sun City

The Lost City at Sun City is a fantasy development which recreates an African themed lost city which was inhabited by an ancient civilization complete with ruins of lost temples, statues and carvings of animals, caves, lakes and much more.

It all starts on the Bridge of Time. Lined with elephants and surrounded by cliffs carved with wild animals, the Bridge of Time moves and rumbles every hour as if a volcano is about to erupt, smoke and all...

The Kong Gates open up on the Monkey Spring Plaza with magnificent view to the Palace of the Lost City in the background and the Valley of the Waves below.

The Valley of the Waves is an awesome playground with a wave pool creating surfable wave washing onto the man made beach. Other activities in the valley includes several ault slides, tube rides and the Slide of Courage, a near vertical slide that will leave your heart (and stomach) in your throat. The Valley creates an amphitheatre of fun and relaxation.

Gardens at the Cascades Hotel

The gardens behind the Cascades Hotel at Sun City is absolutely awesome. Not gardens in the traditional sense, but a man made forest garden with streams, ponds and waterfalls. At the bottom of the garden there is a small lake with an aviary next to it, so there are bird sounds all the time. Everything is super green as there are so much water around.

On the walk through the gardens visitors will come across several more secluded paths as well as a suspension bridge.

The cascading streams and waterfalls make for some wonderful photo opportunities. Personally I love the sound of water running, so it is great that you can open your hotel room's windows and get the sound of water coming into your room.

Gary Player Country Club

Just beyond the Cascades Hotel in Sun City is a golfer's paradise. The Gary Player Country Club is one of the country's premier golf courses.

The course is one of the world's longest golf courses and stretches over 7000 meters. It borders the Lost City golf course (also designed by Gary Player) as well as the Pilanesberg National Park.

In 2008 Compleat Golfer awarded it the #1 position on their Top 10 Courses in South Africa list. It is home to the annual Nedbank Challenge (previously known as the Million Dollar Challenge), an invitation 12 player event which features some of the biggest names in world golf every year.

The clubhouse is situated between the Cascades Hotel and the Sun City Hotel (top). I did not get to play it (I don't really play golf), but the bit I did see of it made me want to have a round to be able to say I did. Maybe one day.

Sun City - Cascades Hotel

Sun City is situated about two hours away from Johannesburg in the North West Province. The resort was opened in 1979 and was developed in the old independent black homeland of Bophuthatswana. The reason was because it contained a casino and gambling was illegal in South Africa. As was topless revue shows which was very popular at the time. Today the resort is a world renown holiday destination with 4 hotels, three of them 5 star. It also has casinos, the Super Bowl arena for shows and exhibits, some awesome "forest" gardens, a wave pool with slides and two Gary Player designed golf courses. The centre piece of the resort is the Palace of the Lost City Hotel. I got to spend four days in the resort earlier this week and over the next couple of days will show off some of the sights and sounds of Sun City.

I got to stay in the Cascades Hotel which is very centrally located in the resort. The hotel is named after all the (man made) streams and waterfalls flowing through the gardens around the hotel. These gardens I will feature another day.

Hot Air Ballooning

A little while ago the Damselfly and me got to go away for a weekend without the Rugrats. Last year I won a weekend trip up to the Gauteng province, all expenses paid, and this was the first opportunity we had to use the prize. One of the activities we got to do was hot air ballooning at Magaliesberg with Bill Harrop's Original Hot Air Ballooning safaris. This man is a legend and we were lucky enough to actually be on the balloon that he was piloting that day. That morning they had 4 of their balloons up which gave me a great opportunity to get balloon pics.

Hot air ballooning at sunrise

Balloon reflextion in the river