Three Days in Pretoria

According to an old adage, a tour of Pretoria can truly bring to life the history of South Africa for which three days may prove rather inadequate. However, you might not have more time than this. So 3 days might be all that you can spend. Besides, it also depends on the mental make up of the person as to how he/she wishes to spend those precious days. For instance, a person more interested in sampling the night life of a city may become bored to death when invited to enter into a museum loaded with relics pertaining to the history of the place (which incidentally is true in the case of Pretoria).

However, since Africa is known for fascinating wild life, well preserved in many national game reserves that may become difficult to visit within such tight schedule, the time bound traveler may visit Pretoria’s famed Hartebeespoort Dam Snake & Animal Park that features lions, tigers, panthers, cheetahs, pumas, chimpanzees as well as many other primates, all kept in natural surroundings on day one. The Park is also home to many Animal TV and Movie Stars that regularly appear in local and international films and videos. Since most of the Park attendants have been well trained in breeding of threatened or endangered species like the Blackfoot wild Cat, Cape Hunting dog, etc they often impart such training activities to visitors who are interested in the subject.

The traveler may, during the first half of the day, visit Pretoria’s Hartebeespoort Aqurium that hosts an exciting array of African Pelicans, seals and other semi-aquatic animals and birds indigenous to Africa. On weekends, the Park attendants present live shows involving these rare species. The second half of the day may be spent at the Van Gaalen Cheese Farm to experience the fascinating process of cheese making according to old Dutch traditions and recipes. The wary traveler can have cheese with farm-style lunch along with coffee and cakes at the same premises at a nominal cost. Wine tasting is also offered on certain traditional Dutch holidays.

The third or the last day is a full day program at the Gaabo Motho Cultural Village where dancers from different African groups perform on a daily basis. Here they offer traditional accommodation in African village-like surroundings where drums beat to the tune of music played by Zulu, Ndebele, Tswana, Venda and other tribes. This gives the opportunity to the visitor to sample life as led by many African tribes in the most unorthodox way. Amazingly enough, the Gaabo Motho has conference center that can accommodate 300 people (in U-shape conference type) or 500 participants in cinema style.