#Tours

Last Thursday evening I went to Soweto with a group of journalists, tourists, and locals, and we did a simple yet revolutionary thing: We walked around at night. The walk was part of a new tourism experience called “Soweto Night Out”, founded by the creator of Funk It I’m Walking.

Every time I think I’ve visited all the historic churches in downtown Joburg, another one pops out of the woodwork. My latest “discovery” is the spectacular Cathedral of St. Mary the Virgin, or St. Mary’s Cathedral, on Wanderers Street in the Joburg CBD.

I recently learned a bonkers statistic: Around 40% of all of the hominid fossils ever discovered were unearthed in the Cradle of Humankind. In other words, close to half of all the known fossils from our human ancestors – in the entire world – came out of the ground right here in Gauteng Province. This UNESCO World Heritage Site, less than an hour from Joburg, is more than a bunch of bucolic green hills – it’s one of the most important archeological regions on earth.

This jumpsuit love story began eight months ago, when I booked a Caraci experience on Airbnb to celebrate my birthday. Thorsten and I spent a glorious day in the Joburg CBD, shopping for African print fabric, learning how to sew, hanging out in the city, and having fabulous jackets made to our exact measurements.

Last weekend Thorsten and I visited Dolobran, one of Joburg’s oldest, quirkiest, and most mysterious mansions, on a tour with the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation (JHF). Dolobran is unique among Joburg’s “Randlord” mansions (other examples of which include Villa Arcadia and the View) in that it’s privately owned, still occupied by descendants of the original owners, and almost never open to the public. Saturday’s tour was open only to JHF members and photography wasn’t allowed inside.

This week, the last week of October, is peak jacaranda week in Joburg. The trees are laden with flowers and each breeze brings a shower of purple blossoms raining down onto the street. But the Pretoria jacarandas peaked about two weeks ago, and I was lucky enough to catch them during an epic photowalk hosted by Johannesburg In Your Pocket and the Joburg Photowalkers.