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Contact
Information
Mobile+27
(0)73 387 0762
Email
ted@mweb.co
Telephone
+27
(0) 12 807 2803
FAX
+27
(0) 86 515 8095
Address
961
Wagon Wheel Ave
Wapadrand
Pretoria
SOUTH
AFRICA
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TED
STILWELL is a knowledgeable qualified tourist guide
Teds
Tours are private custom-made to suit you
Pretoria
Johannesburg Gold Diamonds
Culture The ancient land Off the beaten
track Pilanesberg Sun City
Mpumalanga People Planet & Prosperity
Some
of our rates
-
These
tours require a minimum of 2 pax.
A single supplement is
required for 1 pax.
These rates are subject to change
without notice.
Includes: Driver/ Registered Guide.
Fuel, Toll Fees and Entrance Fees
Excludes: Portage,
Meals and Refreshments
Please
enquire about special day, weekend and midweek tours to suite
your needs to Pilanesbrg Game Park, North West, Kruger and
Mpumalanga
Site
map:~ Location
and Map
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Gallery /
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& membership / Meet
the People /
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Half day
private city tours are customised
to suit the guests’ needs. The tours last 3-4
hours and prices include entrance to two venues. Standard
tours will include the Voortrekker Monument, a walk around
Church Square, the Old Raadsaal and Union Buildings. If
tourists have a particular interest the tour will incorporate
that particular site, monument or museum. Pretoria is also
renowned for its status as garden city of the world and for
nature lovers a tour of four of its famous parks showcasing
indigenous flora can be arranged.
The
Voortrekker Monument was built to commemorate the Great
Trek from the Cape of Good Hope into the interior of South
Africa from 1835 to 1852. 1938. from the top of the monument
you can enjoy panoramic views of the city bowl. Ted will also
show you the landmarks of the earth when it was still verry
young before there were living organisms and tell you about
the catalymitic events that shaped the ancient land and
brought forth South Africa's abundant mineral wealth of gold,
platimum and daimonds.
The
Union Buildings are
the administrative headquarters of the government and stand
majestically on Meintjieskop, overlooking Pretoria. This
magnificent, crescent shaped red sandstone edifice looks over
the city from the heights of Meintjes Kop, from where there
are panoramic views. Features of note are the statues,
the Garden of Remembrance, the Delville Wood memorial and the
Pretoria war memorial. It is here that President Mandela
was inaugurated in 1994.
Pretoria
is the only city in South Africa with a proper city centre -
Church Square
West facade
Old
Capitol Theatre -
One of the few examples of Gauteng 1930s theatres
Old
Netherlands Bank
Café
Riche -
Erected in 1904 with the doorframes and window sashes from the
old church that stood on the square.
Post
Office Designed
by John Cleland.
Zuid Afrikaanze Bank
Mint
North
facade
Palace
of Justice Dating
from the end of the 19th
century
designed in typical Italian Renaissance Style by Sytze Wierda.
Famous for the Treason Trial. The Rivonia trial in Pretoria
followed in 1964 and Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Amhed
Katrada and others were incarcerated on Robin Island with life
sentences.
Old
Reserve Bank Classical
style of the 1930s
Old
Mutual Classical
style of the 1930s
Eastern
Facade
Eerste
Volks Bank A
good example of Cape architecture
Barclays
Bank FNB
was designed by George Essemont Lieth, one of the masters in
the traditional style in SA
Tudor
House Owned
by George Hays. Designed by John Ellis
Southern
Facade
Standard
Bank Originally
the Grand Hotel
Old
Raadsaal Designed
by Sytze Wierda from Friesland, educated in Amsterdam. Erected
by Kirkness a Scot from the Orkney Islands in 1887 Ionic and
Corinthian pillars. Four bells were cast in Germany for the
clock tower
The
Square
Originally
wagons camped here for nagmaal. Like most European Towns a
church stood in the centre of town. There was dissent amongst
the church and it split into three. The church was broken down
and some materials reused in the construction of the three
sister churches. Paul Kruger’s statue was moved from the
Station to its present place in 1954.
Paul
Kruger’s Statue by Anton van Wouw and cast in Italy
The
Kruger House was the home of President Paul Kruger for
the last 16 years of his life as President of the Zuid
Africaansche Republiek. The museum at the back is of
particular interest to tourist from the Netherlands as it
depicts the rich relationship between the old President, Paul
Kruger, and the young monarch, Queen Wilhelmina.
The
building of the Pretoria City Hall was inaugurated in
1935. The designing architect, Joseph Lockwood-Hall
(1873-1941. The building follows the semi-Italian classical
style, which was popular for public buildings during the
1920’s and 1930’s and has a carillon of 32 bells.
The front of the hall is graced by statues of Andries
Pretorius, after whom Pretoria is named, Marthinus Wessel
Pretorius, founder of the city and President of the ZAR. To
the rear is the statue of Chief Tshwane after who the
metropolitan city of Tshwane is named
The
Transvaal Museum was founded in 1892 by the government
of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek, and moved into its current
premises in Paul Kruger Street in 1912. The museum is a
wonderful place to take a stroll through the exhibits. Part
one of the Genesis of Life traces the origins of life on
earth, from the simplest to most complex life forms. Part two
looks at the prehistory and early life of man, and at
prehistoric creatures including whales, hoofed mammals and
primates.
Melrose
house is a Victorian mansion, with its balconies,
verandas, gables and turrets, was built by businessman George
Heys in 1886. The Peace of Vereeniging, ending the Anglo-Boer
War, was signed here in 1902. The house is now a museum.
Sammy
Marks Museum, the former home of magnate Sammy Marks has
been restored to its exact condition in 1886 and includes
beautiful collections of furniture and decorative objects from
the 1880s. 48 grand rooms filled with fine furniture,
paintings, glassware and porcelain, mostly from England The
furniture reflects late Victorian and early Edwardian tastes -
heavy, dark and very solid.
Cullinan
Diamond Mine, original stone miner’s cottages, a
turn-of-the-century station and authentic trading centre
buildings flank the jacaranda and oak lined streets. The Big
Hole One cup of diamonds a day still mined. The Volcanic pipe
1,2 million years old and 32 ha largest in the world.. In 1905
that the Cullinan diamond was found, and at 3106 carats in its
uncut state it was, and still is, the largest diamond ever
discovered in the world!
The
National Botanic Garden
hosts the National Biodiversity Institute
and depicts the biodiversity of South African fauna. It is set
up into plant and tree species of the seven bionomes in South
Africa from the succulent Karoo, the grassland savannah to
tropical rainforest. Of particular interest are the cycads,
living fossils from the Jurassic period and the Ndebele
Sangoma (Medicine persons) medicinal gardens.
The
Tswaing Meteorite Crater is one of three pristine
meteorite impact craters in the world. 220,000 years ago
Homo sapiens witnessed this 'messenger from space'. The impact
blast was equivalent to one thousand atomic bombs. The crater
hike is 7km and follows the rim of the crater before
descending into the brine filled lake below. Bushveld trees
and small animals can be seen.
For
those that missed these two of the big five the Rhino
& Lion Park offers
the opportunity to catch up. You can also cuddle a lion
cub and have your picture taken with a real live cheetah. The
Wonder Caves in the park are also worth a visit.
Pilanesberg
National Park is
one of the larger national parks in South Africa> the park
covers 500 square kilometres. The park is encircled by four
rings of hills, a geologically fascinating alkaline complex,
one of the largest of its kind in the world, which was
produced by volcanic action 1,200 million years ago! Big five
country in a malaria free area.
Sun
City is a theme resort including
the Palace of the Lost City, the Valley of the Waves with a
beach and waves, the Sun City Golf course, a rain forest,
casinos and much more. Worth doing is surfing in the Valey of
the Waves and strolling through the sun drenched tropical
forest.
The
Cradle of Human Kind is unique
in the world because of its hominoid fossil treasure. Maporeng
is an interactive museum dealing
with the origins of earth and mankind, our ancestors, people
of South Afric, the environment and the future of earth. The
first complete skull of a mature Austalopithicus, the world
famous Mrs. Ples was discovered in the Sterkfontein
Caves. Stalagmites
and stalactites are to be seen on the cave tour.
SOWETO
is a city of contrasts: luxurious mansions across the road
from tin shanties, green fields and streams around the corner
from piles of garbage, the biggest public hospital in the
world with the world's highest HIV infection rate, and a
friendliness and cheerfulness that disguises a high
unemployment rate.
Soweto,
an acronym for South Western Township, was begun in 1904 and
from the 1950s, became the government's dumping ground for
unwanted black settlements in white suburbs. Its first houses
were made of tin and wood, the township only getting brick
houses in 1933, built by Edwin Orlando, who gave his name to
the first suburb of Orlando. Soweto is huge, stretching across
a vast area 20 kilometres south west of the city. Its people
speak nine of the country's 11 languages. The tour covers only
the eastern suburbs of the township, namely Diepkloof,
Orlando, Dube and Pimville. Baragwanath Hospital takes
its name from a Welshman, John Albert Baragwanath ("bara"
means bread, "gwanath" means wheat), who started a
refreshment post and hostel for wagon drivers travelling to
Kimberley, soon after the discovery of gold on the
Witwatersrand. He called it the Wayside Inn, but it became
known as Baragwanath's Place. Orlando East and to the famous
Regina Mundi Catholic Church, built in 1962. This
church played a significant role in the South Africa of the
60s, 70s and 80s, when political parties and gatherings were
banned. The church became a meeting place of people fighting
to overthrow the apartheid government. Orlando West, and a
drive past Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's mansion, with security
cameras at the gate and each corner of the high walls and
bullet-proof windows. Around the corner is Vilakazi Street,
the street of two Nobel Peace Prize winners: Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Tutu's house
has blue-grey walls and electric fencing with a white house
peeping over the walls. It has a neat pavement garden with
shrubs and trees. Up the hill is the Mandela home from the
1960s, now a museum It's a matchbox house comprising four
interleading rooms, containing memorabilia from the short time
they had together before Mandela went into hiding, was
arrested and eventually imprisoned for 27 years. Hector
Pieterson Museum Hector, 12, was one of the first casualties
of the Soweto uprising of 16 June, 1976, when over 500 people
were killed as they protested over the imposition of Afrikaans
as a medium of instruction in township schools. A news
photograph of the dying Hector being carried by a fellow
student, was published around the world. Shortly afterwards
journalists approached the Pieterson family for pictures of
Hector.
Apartheid
Museum lets
you feel that you were in the townships in the 70s and 80s,
dodging police bullets or teargas canisters, or marching and
toy-toying with thousands of school children, or carrying the
body of a comrade into a nearby house. This extraordinarily
powerful museum has already become the city's leading tourist
attraction, an obligatory stop for visitors and residents
alike. The Museum, with its large blown-up photographs, metal
cages and numerous monitors recording continuous replays of
apartheid scenes set in a double volume ceiling, concrete and
red brick walls and grey concrete floor. Black people were
displaced from the land through colonial wars and the
imposition of poll taxes, and white farmers were displaced
through the Anglo Boer War. The Museum occupies approximately
6 000 square metres on a seven-hectare site which consists of
natural recreated veld and indigenous bush habitat containing
a lake and paths, alongside its stark but stunning building.
The synergy between the natural element and the building
finish of plaster, concrete, red brick, rusted and galvanised
steel, creates a harmonious relationship between the structure
and the environment.
The
SAB World of
Beer
ranks as one of South Africa’s top two tourist
experiences, offering nearly 50 000 visitors a year a uniquely
memorable encounter with the magic of beer and brewing...SAB
World of Beer … is like nothing you’ll experience
elsewhere...
Gold Reef City
is a recreation of turn-of-the-century Johannesburg, when
prospectors flooded the area following the discovery of gold
in the 1890s. With its Victorian houses and geological
displays, it offers many fascinating insights into life in
Johannesburg long before the technological age. In the centre
of Gold Reef City stands Shaft No 14, opened in 1887 and only
closed after 84 years of operation in 1971. Underground tours
are offered, taking the visitor beneath the surface to see
original mining techniques as well as more modern methods.
Back on the surface demonstrations of gold pouring can be
viewed and tours taken with multilingual guides dressed in
period costumes. There are some more contemporary attractions
too - the longest rollercoaster in South Africa and the
largest big wheel in Africa, rising 60 metres high.
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