The Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden

A Botanical Garden Built Around The Witpoortjie Waterfall Where The Crocodile River Comes Off The Witwatersrand, With Highveld Grassland And Indigenous Planting Below It And A BREEDING PAIR OF VERREAUX'S EAGLES On The Cliff Beside The Falls, Which Is An Extraordinary Thing To Find Inside A Metropolitan Area Of Ten Million People · Roodepoort, Gauteng

A metropolitan area of ten million people does not usually contain a breeding pair of Verreaux's eagles, which is one of the largest eagles in Africa and a bird of remote mountain cliffs. These ones nest on the crag beside the Witpoortjie waterfall, where the Crocodile river comes off the western end of the Witwatersrand, with Johannesburg's suburbs a few kilometres behind them. The garden built around that waterfall is mostly indigenous - highveld grassland, a cycad collection, aloes that flower through the winter and a long shaded walk along the river below the falls - and it works as both a serious botanical institution and the place the city goes on a Sunday. Two honest notes. The eagles are wild birds and their breeding fails in some years. And the waterfall depends on the river: spectacular after summer storms, and a wet streak on the rock in September, which is when a good many visitors turn up expecting the photograph.

On the western edge of the Witwatersrand at Roodepoort, 35 km west of central Johannesburg, Roodepoort, Gauteng, South Africa

DAYLIGHT HOURS EVERY DAY with an entry fee per adult, which is modest and includes the whole garden. There is a restaurant, a shop, a visitor centre, lawns and picnic areas, and the paths below the falls are made and shaded. THE WITPOORTJIE WATERFALL DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON THE CROCODILE RIVER - it is loud and full after summer storms from November to March and CAN BE A TRICKLE IN THE DRY WINTER, which is the commonest disappointment here. THE VERREAUX'S EAGLES ARE WILD and nest on the crag beside the falls; they are often visible and their BREEDING FAILS IN SOME YEARS, so neither the nest nor a chick is promised. Sunday afternoons and summer concerts fill the lawns completely. It is 35 km west of central Johannesburg. MALARIA-FREE.

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