Today it is a warm 70 degrees...but rain through this week. It is, after all, the rainy season.
Afrikaans for rain is "...pula..."
And they are happy when it returns...bringing fresh water and life with it.
The purple trees above are Jacaranda and are a beautiful variety of mimosa tree.
They grow everywhere! It is not unusual to see them planted on both sides of a street making a purple tree-tunnel when they are in bloom.
Their spent blossoms littering the streets like fall leaves.
Non-native, they were brought to Jo-burg from Brazil and planted during the gold rush in 1887.
They bloom here in October and November...and the tree's wood is soft and prized by woodworkers who use it much like pine.
https://youtu.be/3mRI3vr1o00
Classified as a megacity, Johannesburg is one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. Home to over nine million people.
It was established in 1886 springing up as a small gold-rush town overnight after the metal was discovered on a local farm. By 1896 the population had grown from a handful of people to 100,000.
Soweto was formed as a separate town (South West Territories) and served as home for black workers and families during Apartheid. Johannesburg populated primarily by whites, at the time. Whites were not allowed in Soweto. Neither were persons of mixed blood which they referred to as "colored" and children of white and black mix were illegal and could be removed and resettled.
Today, Soweto is just recognized as part of Jo-burg.
At one time this area sat over a massive gold deposit and its mining contributed to over 40% of the world's gold!
Religions in the area and predominately Christian, Hindu and Muslim.
Temperatures stay between 78 degrees (high) and 61 degrees (low).
There are more than 14 different languages spoken in this area alone...with the primary language here being Zulu.
One of the more interesting museums in the area is the ACEI Dynamite Factory which documents the history of the mining and settling of Johannesburg.
We will tour it next!!!
Until then....
