If you ever plan a trip to my home country, South Africa, make sure you have plenty of time to see everything! If you don’t have that much time, make sure to visit more than once, planning your trip around all of the provinces.
South Africa covers around 4% of the continent’s land mass, but getting around is very easy. You have two great options available: either hire a car and drive around yourself (which might take some time!) or make use of one of the 10 airports in the country. Three of them are international and the others fly domestic, covering al the provinces in the country.
South Africa is divided into 9 provinces. The first one I am going to write about is Gauteng, the smallest of them all, but don’t be fooled by this fact! It is a big place to see and LOTS to do. The first attraction of interest (according to myself) is Gold Reef City. It is located in the heart of Jo’burg, the heart beat city of sunny South Africa.
In the 1890’s, gold was discovered in Johannesburg and this led to a gold rush from prospectors all over the world. Gold Reef City was built on a former gold mine, centred around shaft number 14 which was started in 1887. This mine was once the richest gold mine in the world, holding a record of 1.4 million kilograms of gold as late as 1978! Today it is a combination of a theme park, a living museum and houses, replicas of the homes during the gold rush. Staff that work here wear clothes representative of that era
When visiting the theme park, one of the rides you have to take is the Anaconda (or a rollercoaster). The miner’s revenge is also worth trying out, my favourite, but if you don’t feel up to this, maybe you would like to take a ride on an old steam train or a historic coach. You can also go down the old mine into the darkness, exploring the remaining underground passages and experience what it feels like in a mine. After this you can visit the small museum where you can witness how real gold is poured into barrels (original arc furnace) every hour.
Gold Reef City also has their own group of mine dancers performing their routines of high kicking and stamping twice a day. After an eventful day, you can visit the great Gold Reef City Casino, eat in one of the beautiful restaurants and sleep over at the hotel (all rooms in classic Victorian d