The most obvious metric for measuring these micro-climates though is the Jacaranda bloom. Pretoria was purple way before Johannesburg. The Jacarandas began blooming in early October in Sandton and have been full blown bloomed for weeks now in the northern suburbs. But in the western suburbs like West Cliff and Parkview, the Jacs are still being shy.
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| map of the Westcliff Stairs |
We tried to coordinate our walk of the Westcliff Stairs with the peak of the Jacaranda bloom in Parkview and West Cliff but it is a moving target. The Jacs were really just starting to bloom for our walk. At least Mother Nature gave us a nice cool day for it. Thanks Mom!
Watch your step on the stone stairs!
Our walking team ...
West Cliff is full of heritage buildings and blue plaques which made for some interesting sights along the way.
And the equally historic Ridge School.
Cool ironwork!
A detail of the Jozi skyline with its famous lightning storms.
The view from the top, breathtaking.
The view from the bottom, equally breath-taking. To be totally truthful, we walked very few steps up. Marguerite planned our walk to maximize the heritage sight spotting and therefore we mostly walked down the steps. That was okay with me as Marguerite is very familiar with the stairs having used them to train for her and her husband Jim's climb up Kilimanjaro!
We
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| jacs and coral trees |
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| detail of a coral tree |
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| jacs and brugmansia |
This will be magnificent in about a week or two. Vince and I will be back ... and this time we will walk all the way up the stairs!
A friend showed me your blog recently and I must tell you that I found it inspiring. We live close to Kanonklip and feel really privileged that all of this is just 'across the road' Cheers Peter Cole
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