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.