How have I never blogged about 44 Stanley Avenue, the coolest shopping and dining complex in Joburg, which is only five minutes from my house?
I guess it’s wrong to say I’ve never blogged about 44 Stanley; I’ve mentioned it countless times over the years (see here and here) when writing about specific restaurants or shops that are there. But I’ve never written a dedicated post about 44 Stanley as a destination and it’s about time I did – especially now, with the holidays upon us.
I’ve been dreadfully uninspired lately, struggling to think of anything I want to blog about despite having a long list of great ideas (many of which you, my readers, provided in September). I’m finding it hard to feel positive about life at the moment. But on Saturday Thorsten and I got the chance to visit Indwe Park, an indigenous garden and sculpture park in Braamfontein, and I knew I had my topic for today.
A couple of years ago I started a “Hidden Joburg” series – a quest to visit all 28 places in the book Hidden Johannesburg, by Paul Duncan and Alain Proust. Then I got sidetracked. I published my last Hidden Joburg post in December 2022. But finally, almost two years later, I have a new Hidden Joburg place to add to the series: the home of the late sculptor Edoardo Villa in Kew.
Our recent visit to St. Lucia was a stop along the way to the final destination of our KwaZulu-Natal road trip: Mtunzini, a coastal town off the N2 highway, where we spent five days hanging out on near-empty beaches and wandering through tropical forests.
St. Lucia, the tourist town along South Africa’s northern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) coast – not to be confused with St. Lucia the Caribbean island – has near-mythical status among South Africans. The town is completely surrounded by iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is famous for its ubiquitous hippos, who spend most of their time in the St. Lucia estuary but are also known to stroll about town at night.