Johannesburg parks

Saturday, February 11th we didn't want a long trip out of town, but we longed to see grass and trees and not just buildings so we drove about 15 minutes to the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens. We aren't sure the reason it is called a botanical garden as only a couple of trees were identified, and there were no flowers. We still enjoyed our walk through the park as it had some steep paths, various terrain with a small waterway, a large lake that had lots of kayaks on it, several ponds and just lots of open space.

Today, February 18th we once again stayed in the city (next week we are going out of town so watch for that update!) and went to the Zoo Lake Park. It is separated from the actual zoo by a small residential area and Jan Smuts Road,  The weather didn't look favorable and we brought an umbrella, but it ended up being a very pleasant walk around the lake. There were a lot of water fowl and a few other birds. There were a surprising number of Hadeda birds which are large - they seem to be ubiquitous in gardens all over South Africa. They are rather a dull color, but have sort of a iridescent lavender on their wings in some lighting. We decided we like Zoo Lake Park best as it has more benches, more things to see and is closer by 5 or so minutes to our flat.

Hadeda Ibis

egrets in a tree