Travel
2 Hours at Gold Reef City
We spent the weekend at Gold Reef City for annual Toastmasters conference. We arrived in a beautifully warn Thursday afternoon, and we had a couple of hours to spare before the formalities started. So what better way to spend it than wondering around the theme park.
The theme park is made to look like and old mining town, complete with mine trucks full of ore, old houses, and mining equipment strewn all over the place. It is a little cheesy, but not too over the top. The theme park is home to the (real) Crown Mines #14 shaft, which stretches over 3500m deep, and it its time was the deepest shaft in the world.
Today, you can travel down the shaft to a depth of about 250m and get a taste of what it is like working in a gold mine. being a theme park, there are the usual set of rides such as roller coasters and ferris wheels.
Ferris wheel, note the soccer balls.
One of the many roller coasters.
Sign for town square. The whole park is laid out to look like Johannesburg around 1900.
There are peacocks wondering around all over the place, in particular around the Protea Hotel where we stayed. The rooms have just been redone, and it is very nice.
Old steam engine.
Gold Reef City is a great place to spend a day, but in honesty, a day is probably long enough, you could probably even get away with 1/2 a day if you were pressed for time.
Ferris Wheel at Gold Reef City
The ferris wheel at Gold Reef City in Johannesburg, taken late at night. I didn’t have my tripod with me, so a table and cell phone became my extra camera gear :-)
Langebaan skyline
The Langebaan skyline at sunset. I love the silhouette effect of the skyline, especially the outline of the roofs. It reminds me of a dessert oasis at sunset.
(another) sunset
Ok, so it was 2 sunsets in a row, however this pic is really different from yesterday’s pic.
This was taken at Langebaan, standing on the balcony of our holiday house, watching a west-coast sun setting over the lagoon. Even though winter is coming, we still get the best weather this time of the year, and it was just wonderful standing outside enjoying a wind-free evening.
Langebaan is a small holiday community about 100km North of Cape Town. It is home to the West Coast National Park, and (although I cannot confirm) the largest lagoon in the Southern Hemisphere.
I have been going there since I was a little boy, and I still find it to be an amazing place.
Pumphouse on the river
Old pumphouse on the Vaal River.