See The Jacaranda Trees
Jacaranda City is famous for its natural beauty and unchanged history where the streets are lined with purple blossom-bedecked trees all year round. In October more than 70,000 Jacaranda trees are in full bloom and the whole town is one big purple-coloured sea of blossoms. These exotic trees were imported from South America over one hundred years ago and the beauty and smell lingers on for eternity. Pretoria, now named Tshwane, lies about 50 km north of Johannesburg and it is the administrative capital of South Africa and the population is just under a million people.
Pretoria is laid out like a chess board and the places of interest are easy to find, but you could get lost inside the museums such as the Cultural History Museum and the Smuts Museum. Ride a short horse trail through the Premier Reserve, taking a careful look at some white rhino or visit the Cullinan Diamond Mine, where the largest diamond in the world was found. The Transvaal Museum is the home of Mrs Ples, the australopithecine fossil found at Sterkfontein in the Cradle of Humankind. Another historic symbol is the bust of one of apartheid's most ardent supporters, JG Strydom, which stood in Strydom Square near the State Theatre. This statue is no longer in its original form as it toppled on the 40th anniversary of the day South Africa became a white-governed republic. Once the sights have been visited, take time to walk through the tress and step over a lavender carpet of fallen Jacarandas.
