Long walks in Johannesburg

Even though I've been to Joburg before, I've never really explored too many places here.

On my last stay I was on a nature frenzy and forced those around me to take me to all sorts of parks and nature reserves.

It was green. It was wonderful. It was an absolute pleasure.

This time, I started down a different path of exploring.

I googled, "Things to do in Johannesburg".

After a long summer holiday of guests visiting Cape Town from abroad, I

was all warmed up to be a tourist in the homeland. Why not continue going down this path for a little while longer until I become a real tourist abroad?

Number one on the list was to visit the Apartheid Museum, and... WOW.

Before coming here I had seen a photo of the entrance having two separate entrances - one for "WHITES" and one for "NON-WHITES". So when we arrived and were given two differing tickets, I realised that it wasn't a choice.

You get assigned random tickets, and are then only allowed to enter through your ticket's entrance... amazed before even setting foot in the place.

Then we thought, hmm, I wonder what difference it makes anyway, only to see that once entered you are segregated from the other person with a fence, and do not follow the same paths.

There's no telling if you have the same experience of the first section of the museum or not. (Although I think they are the same - if not very similar).

You're not allowed to take photos inside the museum, so there are no more photos to show how absolutely wonderful this experience was - even though you walk for hours with a lump in your throat and thrills down your spine at how horrible the regime was.

There are accounts from both sides, creatively displayed on opposing sides of your walk - look left, you're hearing the perspective of White South Africa, look right, you're seeing the perspective of Non-White South Africa.

Not only are the stories gut-wrenching, but I suppose the continuous movement of shaking your head from one side to the other so that you can take in both sides will leave you feeling dizzy as well - symbolically shaking your head at how wrong and appalling a lot of it is.

Then there's the virtual reality room - sitting in a chair with goggles and headphones on watching the trial of Walter Sisulu. A must.

After being emotionally traumatised and reminded of a horror we all know of in the back of our minds, we decided to go grab a little pick-me-up from the Johannesburg Zoo.

We were pleasantly surprised taking a stroll through all the animals, some enclosures better than others - however none of the animals seemed distressed.

Some cuter than others, some closer than others, it was a long walk through a seemingly deserted zoo, but many "Aww!"s, many "Ooh!"s and many other sounds of bewilderment in between.

Our favourite by far (not pictured here) was the little baby Chimp, swinging around on his ropes, jumping about in play, tumble turns here and tumble turns there - we could have watched him for ages if we didn't want to see everything else before leaving.

Especially close to the animals, was our proximity to this Giraffe dude, having a chill near the border until he realised we were there and started graciously walking away towards who seemed to be Mamma and Pappa Giraffe.

THEN. On our stroll back to the gate, we passed the Tiger enclosure... and as a little girl started walking towards it, she caught their eyes and they immediately made their way to the fence.

I've never been so close to such a big cat, I could easily touch their paws as they leaned against the wire mesh to have a look at us and the little girl (who was terrified at this point).

Obviously we gawked at their beauty for a long time before deciding to wander on, and when we reached another viewing spot, they jogged along to where we were and gave us a gala in their pond.

This tiger swam up to the glass between us and the water, saying a quick goodbye before we went home to have a restful evening after a long day of walking.