Cadillac Shack

One of the most unlikely things you may expect to find in the little village of Storms River in the Tsitsikamma on the Garden Route is a Cadillac museum. The Cadillac Shack is a small privately owned collection of these magnificent cars which can be viewed by prior appointment when in the area. Michael Caine might tell you that the Big Three Cadillac's are the '58, '59 and '60 as they have the biggest fins of all the Cadillac's. The people of Storms River will tell you that possibly, unlike anywhere else in the world, you can see all 3 of them in their high street. Now I'm not sure if these are the actual three or only some of them, but the cars I saw the other day when I was there was magnificent.

Tree Fern

Today's post are all shots of new tree fern shoots. I love ferns and specially tree ferns. These I took in front of the hotel I stayed at in Johannesburg recently, but for me there is nothing like seeing a great tree fern growing inside an indigenous forest.

Seed pods

Just a couple of Random ... shots I took of different kinds of seed pods during my recent trip to Johannesburg.

Johannesburg Zoo

I don't think I've been to a proper zoo since I was 11 years old and we visited the Pretoria Zoo while in the old Transvaal to visit relatives (actual people and not zoo primates). On my recent stay in Johannesburg I decided to take a free morning and head down the M1 to the Johannesburg Zoo to see what it is about.

The Zoo is situated surprisingly close to the Johannesburg City Centre. Established in 1904, it has traditionally been owned and operated by the City of Johannesburg. However nowadays it is a registered Section 21 non-profit organisation. While there I could just not get over the fact that the concrete jungle was in the background the whole time.

The zoo must be an awesome place to take city kids to experience wild animals in close proximity without being divided from them by a tv screen. This was quite evident by the fact that there were hordes of school kids about oohing and aahing at the animals. Not to sound spoiled, but for me it was a little bit boring. The main reason must be that I am used to seeing most of these animals in the wild in game reserves around Port Elizabeth. How fortunate we are down here to have these places so close. But not to take away from the Johannesburg Zoo. They have very good facilities and give kids the opportunity to see what they may never otherwise get to see.

I did take loads of pics of the animals, but again I prefer natural pics and not walls, fences and other man made structures in the back ground. But I want to show this pic just to show that it was a bit of a chilly day.

Is this cruelty to animals???

Ok, so this one is a bit tongue in cheek. But heck, its Saturday night and we don't want anything too serious. On my recent visit to Johannesburg we walked past this curio shop in the Nelson Mandela Square mall section of the of Sandton City every night after dinner. To stop would be thieves from carrying the hippo away, it gets chained to the door. I felt so sorry for it. Shame, poor hippo.

Liliesleaf Farm

While visiting Janet and Mr P (Greetings from Gauteng) for lunch during my Johannesburg trip, I asked them for suggestions on things to do while in the area. Mr P suggested I look up Liliesleaf Farm close to Sandton.

Liliesleaf Farm was purchased through an overseas contact of the SA Communist Party to be used in secret by African National Congress activists in the 1960s. A white family was put in the main house as a front while activists came and went pretending to be farm workers. It was here that many prominent African National Congress leaders were arrested, leading to the Rivonia Trial and many of these men going to jail for more than 20 years.

Nelson Mandela needed a safe place to operate from, and lived there under the assumed name of David Motsamayi as a worker in blue overalls employed by the owner to look after the farm. I stayed in a small room behind the house. Here our guide, Jacqueine Otukile, is showing my colleague Sadie around Madiba's room.

The property has only been open as a museum for the last year and contains many items and memorabilia from around the time of the events.

The exhibits are very interactive with many video and voice clips telling the story of the dramatic events leading up to the police raid and the raid itself

The buildings have been restored to their earlier condition with lots of photos on display which was taken after the police raid.

The visit was definitively one of the highlights of my stay in Gauteng. Unfortunately it seems that a lot of South Africans don't know of Liliesleaf Farm existence and most visitors are international tourists.

Michelangelo Towers

Connected to the Sandton City Shopping Centre and Nelson Mandela Square is the exquisite Michelangelo Towers. One of Sandton's landmark buildings and rising an impressive 143 metres above the Sandton skyline, the Towers offers panoramic views of the Magaliesberg and Gauteng. It consists of an all-suite hotel and boasts its own shopping mall. We stayed at the hotel across the road and every morning walked through the Michelangelo Towers Mall to get to our exhibit stand. The shops in the mall only sells the most expensive clothes, goods and jewelry. Maybe one day when my boat comes in I may be able to afford to shop there.