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Pretoria, city of jacarandas
Known as the Jacaranda City for the purple bedecked trees lining its streets, Pretoria has all the advantages of a city while retaining an almost rural character. Here you will find many significant old buildings and some fascinating museums. The Transvaal Museum boasts wonderful natural history displays and is the home of Mrs Ples, the australopithecine fossil found at Sterkfontein at the Cradle of Humankind. Also worth visiting are the Cultural History Museum and the Smuts Museum, just outside town. With the coming of true democracy in 1994, the Union Buildings in Pretoria changed overnight from a symbol of white, neo-colonial rule to one of true unity, and the iconic Voortrekker Monument remains well worth a visit.
Pretoria is a wonderful town, with a number of open spaces where you could go walking or mountain-biking. Nearby is the Premier Game Reserve, next door to the Cullinan Diamond Mine, where the world's largest diamond was found. You could follow a short horse trail at the Voortrekker Monument or through the Premier Reserve, perhaps seeing your first white rhino or eland. You could do a tandem skydive or your first solo jump at the Pretoria Skydiving Club, which is the largest in the country. And last but not least, you could treat yourself to a shopping spree in an ultra-modern shopping centre rivalling and even exceeding those found in Europe and the USA (where your currency will go a long way). Or you could enjoy a sidewalk lunch or candle-lit dinner at one of our many fine restaurants. South Africa enjoys more that 300 sunny days a year, and really is, as the slogan proclaims, 'a world in one country'.
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