The Swartland is a rural farming region in South Africa’s Western Cape province, about an hour northwest of Cape Town. “Swartland” means “black land” in Afrikaans, referring to the endemic renosterbos plant that looks black from a distance at certain times of the year.
Ba-Pita: A New (Old) Restaurant in Melville
Ba-Pita opened at the end of last year in Melville, at the top of 7th Street where the old Golf Tea Room used to be.
A few weeks after it opened, a great article on Ba-Pita’s interesting origin story appeared on New Frame. I shared the article on my Facebook page and it got so much traffic that it somehow felt redundant to write a post of my own.
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A Visit to Mandela House on Vilakazi Street
Sometimes in my quest to discover all of Joburg’s hidden places, I miss out on the un-hidden ones. Such is the case with Mandela House, the Mandela family’s former home on Vilakazi Street in Soweto. It’s probably one of the top five tourist sites in Johannesburg and not only had I never blogged about the house before this, I’d never even visited.
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Five Great Jozi Walks to Prepare for MTN Walk the Talk with 702
If you live in Joburg, you’ve heard of Walk the Talk – in fact you’ve probably walked it. But here’s a quick description for everyone else:
MTN Walk the Talk with 702 (that’s the official name but I’ll call it Walk the Talk for short) is an annual Joburg tradition in which 50,000 (!) people get up early on the fourth Sunday morning in July and walk around Joburg. The main purpose of the walk is to bring people together, but participants can also work as teams to raise money for charitable causes. (Read more here.) This year will be the 18th annual Walk the Talk.
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The Hidden Vegan Restaurant in a Blairgowrie Petrol Station
I’m not a vegetarian and definitely not a vegan. While I totally recognize the benefits of a plant-based diet, both for myself and the planet, I love the occasional burger just a little too much to make that leap. (Don’t even get me started on cheese.)
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My Favorite Jozi Coffee Shops: AFRIKOA in Rosebank
This post, featuring AFRIKOA Café, is the eighth in an occasional series about my favorite coffee shops in Joburg.
I recently wrote a story about AFRIKOA Café – an African chocolate café, champagne bar, and coffee shop – for Lonely Planet Travel News. I want to mention it briefly here too because it’s something really new and different.