5 Outdoorsy Things To Do in Joburg

If this week is anything to go by, winter has arrived in Joburg. Fortunately, we live in one of the greatest cities in the world where outdoor activities are not limited to summertime - although if you're cold averse you may want to get these in quickly before the winter chill sets in.

So as we say farewell to summer, I've rounded up 5 of my all-time favourite outdoorsy things to do in Joburg! Plus one bonus amazing outdoorsy thing that's just out of Joburg.

1. Visit the prettiest park in Joburg

There are stacks of pretty parks in Joburg but this one has something none of the others do: a view of the city skyline. It's called the James and Ethel Gray park, and it's hidden away just next to Melrose Arch. Pack a picnic, the dog, and some friends, and spend the afternoon lounging around and admiring the city. You can read more about it's loveliness here.

2. Take a tour of Soweto, by bike!

If there's one thing I love, it's being a tourist. And (especially!) being a tourist in Joburg. Lebo's Bicycle Tours are the best way to see Soweto because you're surrounded by (actual) tourists and can't help but see the city through their eyes!

It's also incredibly moving as a South African, because the tour stops at both the Hector Pieterson memorial and Nelson Mandela's house in Vilikazi street. It's one of the most eye opening examples of how far we, as a nation, have come - and I love that.

Also, bikes and beer! Check it out here.

3. Learn about Joburg on an inner-city walking tour

The inner city is incredible. It's the vibrant present clashed with decades of history and no matter how often I visit, I learn something new each time. I learned the most when I did a walking tour with Anna-Belle of She Said She Said.

Although it was kind of a once-off event, there are some fantastic companies that offer all kinds of themed tours through the CBD. My favs are Joburg Places (led by Gerald Garner - the ultimate Joburg guru) and Past Experiences who offer everything from shopping and foodie tours to graffiti walks focused on illegitimate street art.

4. Eat and drink. But do it in the sky.

If you want outdoors with a twist - and you're not scared of heights - then Dinner in the Sky is a must. Sure, the food isn't exactly gourmet and the drinks prices are inflated, but you're at a table in the sky. 

If you can do it at sunset, even better (also, cheaper). Check out our experience at the Indaba Hotel here. The table is currently at the Fairway golf resort in Randpark, and you can preview the menu here.

5. Have a picnic on a boat.

One of Joburg's most underrated attractions, Zoo Lake's boats, are a complete blast and they're so cheap they're practically free. The experience is substantially improved with picnic food from Woolies, but that's just a suggestion. If the wind is blowing, use the opportunity to touch the fountain with your foot. We did.

And, finally, one outdoorsy thing just out of Joburg:

+1. Take a cable-car (no, not in Cape Town)

Fourty-five minutes outside of Jozi - and well worth the drive - is the Hartbeespoort aerial cable car. The views from the top are gorgeous, and you can book online to avoid the queues! Here's everything you need to know.

Have a magical time soaking up the sun!

Sandton Walking Tour in Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, the fabulous folks from Johannesburg In Your Pocket invited me to do a walking tour of Sandton. I've done a walking tour of Joburg (which I loved) before, but it hadn't even occurred to me that such a thing existed for Sandton.

Although I'd lived in Sandton for over a year, I was surprised at how much I didn't know! Like where the name 'Sandton' comes from (an amalgamation of the words 'Sandown' and 'Bryanston'), and that there's a tiny church hidden in Sandton that dates back to 1924! We were introduced to a bunch of urban art that I had never even noticed before, and treated to a trip to the Peacemakers Museum!

I'm not going to say too much more - because, spoilers - but I am going to share some of the shots I took throughout the walk. If you're interested in doing the tour yourself, check out the Sandton Tours Facebook Page. Oh, and if you haven't yet, you  must go and explore the Johannesburg In Your Pocket City Guide site. They have stacks of fantastic Joburg content, and you can download the full guide in PDF form for free! It's fabulous!

Joburg's Park With a View

You know what I love about Joburg? I've lived here my entire life, and I still find little gems that I never knew existed. And not because they're new either. Gems that have been there, all along, just quietly being magical.

You know what I love about bloggers? They find these little spots of wonder and share them, so that people like me - who would otherwise never have known about them - can appreciate them. And that's one of the reasons I absolutely eat up everything that Heather writes in her Joburg blog 2Summers. Like the James and Ethel Gray Park (read Heather's post about it here).

I checked it out on Google Maps and discovered that it's been hiding just a couple of kilometers from my office, so I roped JD in one Sunday afternoon and we went to find it. It was a little tricky to pin down the entrance to the park, and we ended up getting it wrong the first time. Note that it's not the Acrobranch entrance - keep driving around the park until you find the neat little circular parking lot.

From the parking lot the view is hidden by the trees, so that you almost don't realise it's hiding there. Once you start walking though, the city skyline comes into view, and its spectacular! There are benches strategically positioned so that you can sit and admire the view, but the grass was so inviting that we found a patch in front of a boulder and made it our vantage point instead.

From here, we headed down a few blocks into Oaklands, to Tortellino D'Oro, because I had heard rumours that they make real gelato. They do. And - spoiler alert - its spectacular. So if your walk builds up an appetite, I highly recommend a gelato pitstop on the way home. Or, better yet, start at Tortellino, grab a take away, and eat your ice cream in park! Italian gelato and a view of Joburg? Yes please.

Soweto By Bike: Lebo's Bicycle Tours

Soweto absolutely oozes charm. Okay, maybe not at first glance, and maybe not if you associate ‘charm’ with small European towns in the snow, decorated with fairy lights, only accessible by steam trains. But hear me out. 

There aren’t many fairy lights, there are no steam trains, and there sure as hell isn’t any snow, but you know what there is, in abundance? Friendliness. Colour. Warmth. I swear, the city of Soweto is keeping Plascon in business. There are paintings everywhere, from signs, to store names, to graffiti, and all of it colourful. And the people are some of the friendliest, most welcoming people you’ll meet anywhere in the world.

Now, I haven’t spent a lot of time in Soweto, so when Lebo’s Soweto Bicycle Tours said that I could review one of their tours, I was pretty thrilled! We arrived at Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers (side note: such a cool place!) just before 10am, decked out in our cycling gear and sneakers, and met the rest of the group. We spent about fifteen minutes picking a bicycle - they were all in working order, but each had its own quirks and JD ended up with a mountain bike that sang softly to him throughout the tour. 

Our tour guide, Tshepo, who was born and raised in Soweto, introduced the tour and gave us the history of Soweto. Despite living in Joburg my entire life, there was so much that I didn’t know about this once-township just 30kms away from my house. It was absolutely fascinating (but, no, I’m not going to tell you because, spoilers). We all introduced ourselves and I was surprised to find that, of the 30ish people on the tour, we were the only South Africans!

The tour started with a cycle through the main roads and suburbs of Soweto, with tiny one-bedroomed houses next to mansions, and luxury German cars parked outside of dilapidated compound-style hostels. It was the most juxtaposed community set up I’ve ever seen. And everywhere we went, children would run out of their homes and gardens, yelling to greet us and running to give us high-fives as we cycled past. Many kids ran along with us until they got tired, and then they waved and shouted until we were out of sight. At one point, an excited little girl ran up to me, took my hand, and, ran alongside me all the way down her street. I felt like Lance Armstrong doing the Tour de France! (But, you know, sober.)

Our first stop was a neighbourhood takeout, that consisted of a kitchen, a pool table, a basin, and a couple of plastic tables with a few chairs. There, we were introduced to the local delicacy: cow head. The meat was chopped up into chunks, so that it was difficult to distinguish where exactly in the head it came from, but Tshepo pointed out a piece covered in something resembling small spikes. That was the tongue. 

Our second stop was the Hector Pieterson memorial. We gathered in front of the it as Tshepo gave us the details of that sad day, just a few decades ago, when Hector was killed. As a proudly born and bred South African, it was quite emotional to comprehend how far we’ve come in such a relatively short time - something that, as a tourist in another city, I’ve never felt before. We were given some time to explore the museum, which was a fascinating recollection of the history of the Bantu schooling system and the protests for non-Afrikaans teaching.

I left with a heavier heart than when I arrived, but the tour quickly changed tune as we cycled into Vilikasi street to visit Nelson Mandela and Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu’s homes, and I was reminded of how much hope these two men brought our nation.

Tshepo took us to a local shebeen where we shared beers and chatted to the locals, and then it was time to brave the uphills back to Lebo’s Backpackers. I was happy to hear that this was not the end of the tour, as we gathered around the tables to indulge in kofta (or bunny chow), which, after four hours of cycling, tasted like heaven! We were also offered chicken feet, which I politely declined (because I was so full, of course).

The tour was equal parts fascinating and moving, especially as a South African, and I left with a full tummy and a warm heart. Once more, Soweto had shown me its colour and kindness, and I’m so grateful to live in a country where I can physically experience the progress we’ve made. 

A huge thank you to Tshepo and the rest of the team for a truly marvellous tour! This really is the best way to see Soweto, and one hell of an experience whether you’re a tourist from overseas or Jozi! You can find Lebo’s Bicycle Tours on their website, on Twitter, Facebook, and on Tripadvisor. And if cycling isn’t your thing, they also have tuk-tuk tours on the cutest painted tuk-tuks! 

Just Darling Berry Farm

I have been raving, to anyone who has made the mistake of standing still for too long, about how JD and I had the most romantic Valentines Day ever. And the extra annoying thing is, I haven’t even been exaggerating.

We went to the Just Darling raspberry farm, half an hour outside of Joburg (just far out enough to get the wide-open space feel), for a candlelight picnic in their berry orchards. It almost sounded too good to be true, so I was bracing myself for a reality check (like mosquitos. Or candles setting fire to my skirt. Or the zombie apocalypse). But it really was just as magical (and zombie-less) as I was hoping!

We arrived just before sunset, and, armed with our Just Darling bucket, headed into the fields to pick and taste to our hearts content. I tend to think of raspberries as luxury goods, which is basically economist-speak for expensive, and expensive means that you can only eat a few at a time. So to see rows and rows of freshly grown berries that we were encouraged to eat as we picked, almost put me in an excitement coma. And oh my gosh, fresh raspberries put store-bought raspberries TO SHAME.

Once I was literally incapable of eating another berry, we took our take-home stash to be weighed, collected our picnic blankets, and found ourselves a spot in the orchards. The lovely people at Just Darling had organised everything beautifully, with each picnic spot secluded between the rows of berries, and surrounded by fairy lights and white lanterns. They gave each couple a cheese, fruit and cracker platter, a bottle of (very very nice) wine, beautiful wine glasses, and a candlelight lantern.

We put out our blankets, cracked open the wine, and tucked into the picnic to the background serenades of Norah Jones and John Meyer. It couldn’t have been more perfect. When we were done, we collected the berries we had picked earlier, which were now in punnets with our names on them, to take home with us.

Needless to say, I've already eaten them all, so I’m already planning my return visit! Fortunately, Just Darling has just announced that they will be hosting an organic market on the 2nd of March 2014, complete with handcrafted products, artisanal eats, and organic produce for sale! (You can find all the details here.)

But, if you can’t wait that long (I don't blame you), they are open for berry picking every weekend from Wednesday to Friday. Entrance is R30 for adults and R20 for kids, and you're welcome to eat as much as you like while in the fields! The berries you pick are put in a punnet for you and weighed at R100/kg (but don't worry, raspberries are super light). 

There's also a gorgeous coffee bar which serves freshly baked cakes, muffins, scones, and the delicious cheese platters we had on our picnic. Make sure you book for the berry picking so they're ready and waiting for you with a bucket! The berry season runs from now until the end of March, so go soon while the orchards are still showing off!

To book your berry picking visit, email Abigail at abigail@justdarling.co.za, and be sure to follow the Just Darling facebook page for regular updates.