I am not sure what the real reason is why I like Pretoria. Is it because it reminds me of the Kruger National Park where you see exotic birds and trees everywhere and sleep in a rest camp (in Pretoria it is called your suburb) behind electric fences with the wilderness outside? Or is it the great weather or having the luxuries of a city while still having a more town-like feeling to it – some people from Pretoria still say they are going to the “dorp” (village) for shopping! Or is it because it is called the jacaranda city?

My son has been living in Pretoria for more than three years and we decide to pay him a visit on our way to Kruger where I have an important meeting. On our way to Pretoria, we stay in Beaufort West (as usual, we stay at @Mangos) to pay Anette’s parents a visit. We then move on to Bloemfontein, having a pleasant lunch in Colesberg at Bordeaux. This time the traffic from Colesberg on the N1 is not as heavy as it was last year. We have made sure that the place we stay over in Bloemfontein (At the Villa) is not in the city centre itself but on the outside and easy to access from the N1. Anette is a valued member of Booking.com and we get a luxury room for a special price. Breakfast is included and the staff is very friendly. 

Just outside Bloemfontein, on our way to Pretoria, we come across an overturned long truck on the N1. The police are not yet there, but two ambulances have arrived (or more likely drove by) and one is regulating the blocked road which would otherwise have been a nightmare. After escaping the traffic jam, we stop at Kroonvaal Shell Ultra City and then enter Gauteng a little while later as we cross the Vaal River. You recognise the industrial hub of South Africa by the smoke emitting from the factories at Sasolburg on the right. We negotiate the freeways through Johannesburg – the drivers are so well-behaved one can drive most of the time with cruise control switched on! But it takes only one driver to spoil it. Just before Pretoria, the N1 makes a turn to the east. We are in the second lane from the right and I notice a car parked on the right shoulder. In the rightmost lane is a small truck which, while we pass it on its left, obscures the parked car from my view. The next moment the truck swerves into my lane without any warning and I have to do the same to my left to avoid a collision at 120 km per hour. Fortunately, at this moment, there is no vehicle in the lane left of me! After the shock caused by this sudden action and the sound of screeching tires, we carry on, noticing that the near-collision was caused by the stationary car suddenly pulling into the fast lane in front of the truck without any warning! It takes one idiot to ruin your day and even your life.

We arrive at our guest house (Maribelle’s Bed and Breakfast) in the east of Pretoria. It is in one of those fenced-in suburbs that we, from Stellenbosch, are not used to. But it is a beautiful and quiet suburb. Our host, Chris, is very friendly and his place is excellent value for money. Every morning he serves us breakfast next to his pool and feeds the grey louries and black-collared barbets in his lush garden. He has banana trees and other subtropical plants. To me this is very different from back home and I really feel on holiday in Pretoria. Pretoria also has its share of lightning in summer and, although it is already the last week of April, it still happens. Some houses have thatched roofs with accompanying lightning conductors and it makes me feel very uncomfortable to sit next to one of those long poles while it is trying to lure a lightning strike to it… Pretoria has many hills and trees which make the suburbs very attractive. Being the capital of South Africa it has many government department head offices – the Reserve Bank, Bureau for Standards, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, SANParks, and so I can continue. The city even has a national park within – the SANParks head office is in Groenkloof which is an officially proclaimed national park!

We will always have fond memories of Pretoria.