In Jacaranda season you have to ‘do’ the Westcliff steps

Speak to many Jozi-ites and you will hear a common refrain of how beautiful the leafy suburbs are at the moment. Wonderful warm weather, luscious sparkling green gardens and parks, the white cotton- wool clouds scudding across high crystal blue skies that are so particular to the Highveld, all make for a lighter spirit.
And perhaps because we haven’t had incessant rain storms and no severe wind or hail, the jacarandas are particularly splendid this year.

On Sunday morning I walked with 2 friends, braving 3 sets of the stone steps in Westcliff. While mere mortals like us puff and pant our way up at a slow steady pace, others scamper up and down in training for climbing Mount Killie [Kilamanjaro in Kenya]. We chatted to a young woman who had returned from climbing up to Machu Pichu. To keep her fitness level up, she had just done a cool 8 sets up and down with a further 2 sets to go !

Despite our rather more sedate ascent our reward was the view from the top of the steps. And if you want to get a really glorious view of the purple splashes over the Joburg’s northern Parks suburbs , take a drive up to the top of Munro Drive. There is probably a couple of weeks left before the jacaranda blossoms finally fade.
So my pick of the week is to get out there and climb to a vantage point where you can see their glorious display. It is so worth it !
Hi Liz. I absolutely love all the photos of the Jacaranda trees. I am definitely going to make a point of walking the Westcliff steps soon.
Beaut pics – no doubt someone else drew attention to fact that the first pic is sideways!
Lol xxx
It’s weird. When I first loaded it was sideways, I managed to change it and it now shows the right way up on my screen. Computers have a mind of their own!