Recently, we read about a park full of bunnies that was in the nearby suburb of Benoni. It was a nice warm day when we visited and although we weren’t completely impressed by the park itself, the kids did have fun with all of the bunnies and we had some good play time. It made for a solid weekend adventure.
Its always nice to find more public parks to visit that are relatively safe.
In South Africa the fear of the unknown is always present. Many Johannesburg neighborhoods go so far as to block of certain roads that lead into their areas. They’ll hire a security guard who monitors the one singular main entrance exclusively, taking down license plate numbers, etc. Seeing as this pooling of funds and hiring of security is often privately done, it makes for lots of unmarked dead-ends and unexpected U-turns while driving around. One day, we noticed an unmanned gate and opted to drive in without ill intention. We left without incident after a nice walk. It was very pretty and very quiet and we made some nice conversation with the other people who also chose to stroll on this day.
If you haven’t noticed by now, Jimmy is our family photographer. This lovely church is in our neighborhood and the early morning light is quite charming. It was very peaceful the day we stopped by to take photographs. The building was really well-maintained and I think Jimmy captured the mood and architecture nicely.
My rotational work schedule in Botswana takes me away from my family for two weeks at a time and then I come home and spend a week with them before I head back to Botswana for more work. It has been manageable and Jimmy is such an amazing husband and Dad that he holds everything together when I am away working.
The best part of rotational work abroad? Coming home and having my family meet me at the airport:
The view from our balcony sure is great. The silhouette of some non-nuclear smoke stacks are our constant companions every sunrise and sunset. Curiosity got the best of us recently so we went for an adventurous sojourn. Take a peek at one of the street names we found along the way! You can read more about the Kelvin Power Station here.
– Jimmy
A month or so ago, Jimmy’s Aunt & Uncle in Australia emailed us about a park they saw online that was close to our home in Johannesburg. We quickly went online and found the coordinates and made it a priority to go visit.
Gillooly’s Farm was once a private farm that was sold to the local government in 1944. It is very large at 44ha in size and it is free for anyone to use although, like any place in this city, there are guards at the entrance and it is all fenced in. It has been a fun place for us to go visit with the kids. A place they can run around quite freely and play on some 70’s/80’s style playground equipment.
The longer we are in South Africa the more we are expanding our circle of comfort and finding fun and interesting places to go. Here are some pics from the past few weeks at Gillooly’s:
teaching the kids to roll down a hill 🙂
Lady carrying an antique chest-of-drawers on her head….amazing.
Another skateboard post? Yes, another skateboard post. While utilizing “Google Earth” looking at a ditch (to skate) I discovered a close-by mall that had what looked like a skatepark. After a quick drive we confirmed it and after R30 (approx $3) I was rolling around. Here are some photos of a successful session.
-Jimmy
