Public spaces in cities usually attract interesting characters – especially if the spaces are also tourist attractions. Church Square in Pretoria is no exception – and has the added characteristic that it is a favourite gathering place for the start of protest marches...
The most famous book on South African birds is Roberts’ Birds of Southern Africa, first published in 1940. The book was so authoritative that all birds in South Africa are now identified by their “R” number, the number they were given in the book. The book is...
In the months prior to the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899 the government of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR – the South African Republic) four forts were constructed to defend the capital, Pretoria. One of these, Fort Klapperkop, was built at a...
“If thou would’st view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight;” – from Canto Second of the “Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Sir Walter Scott. It is not really necessary (though not a bad idea either – though you...
A scheme to provide employment to many otherwise unemployed people during the Great Depression of the late 1920s has developed into a wonderful nature reserve where zebras, birds, buck and vegetation abound in peace. The Rietvlei Dam Nature Reserve to the east of...
