St. Alban’s: A Hidden Cathedral in Ferreirasdorp
This post is not part of my Hidden Joburg series, which I started last year (and will eventually return to). But it should be. St. Alban's Anglican Mission Church in Ferreirasdorp would have been a perfect addition to the Hidden Joburg book and I don't know why it was...
Quirky South Africa, Part 2: Bethulie and the Gariep Dam
As described in my previous post, my mom and I took a road trip from Joburg to the Garden Route and back. Along the way we stopped over in Bethulie for a journey through South African history and a drive around the Gariep Dam, among other things. I'd been to Bethulie...
Quirky South Africa, Part 1: Padstals of the Platteland
My mom came for a visit and the two of us took a weeklong road trip through the South African platteland (Afrikaans for countryside). We drove from Joburg to Bethulie, Bethulie to the Garden Route, up through the Karoo Desert to Hanover, and then back to Joburg. Tiny...
An Epic Journey Across Southern Namibia
I've nipped around the edges of the recent trip Thorsten and I took to southern Namibia. But I haven't gotten to the real heart of the journey yet because I don't know how to explain it. Namibia captured my imagination and then ran away with it, leaving me with...
Veldskoens: Southern Africa’s Favorite Shoes
I can't remember the exact moment when I became aware of veldskoens, a.k.a. vellies. These leather foot coverings -- somewhere between a shoe and a boot -- have always been prolific in rural South Africa, lining the shelves of padstals (farm stalls), small clothing...
The Koichab Dunes: Namibia’s Secret Sand Dunes
Namibia is a giant desert, famous for its towering sand dunes. If you're familiar with African travel then you've probably heard of the Sossusvlei dunes -- which have become dune celebrities, thanks to Instagram -- and maybe Walvis Bay's Dune 7, the tallest dune in...
Kolmanskop: A Ghost Town in the Namib Desert
I have so much to tell you about Namibia. Our weeklong trip to this weird, wonderful country provided enough content to fill a book, and my head is throbbing with all the words (and pictures) clamoring to get out. But I can't tell you everything at once so I'll start...
The Falling Water of Linksfield Ridge (and Other Architectural Marvels)
It's been two months since Thorsten and I joined a Johannesburg Heritage Foundation tour of three crazy houses on New Mountain Road in Linksfield Ridge. I have very limited time to write this post (I'm getting on a plane to Namibia tomorrow -- more on that soon), but...
Chinese Tea and Cake in Bedfordview
Tomorrow is the Lunar New Year -- the Year of the Rabbit -- and this is my first Joburg post of 2023. In celebration of both these facts, I'm thrilled to tell you about Tea and Antique, a brand-new Chinese establishment in Bedfordview. Tea and Antique, which opened...
The Blogitects Do America
Thorsten and I just returned to Joburg after a long trip to the U.S. -- I was there for a month and Thorsten joined me for three weeks. We had a fun, emotional, hilarious, exciting, and utterly exhausting time. The tired but happy Blogitects (one architect, one...
Trixie and Brixie
As I write this, I'm sitting in my aunt's house in chilly Sleepy Hollow, New York. But let me backtrack a couple of weeks to a summer day in Johannesburg, South Africa, when I was typing away in my home office and a skinny black kitten walked through the open glass...
Hidden Joburg: The Freemasons’ Hall in Parktown
My quest to visit all of the places featured in the Hidden Johannesburg book continues. With my recent trip to the Freemasons' Hall, which I'm about to tell you about, I have now visited 20 of the 28 places in the book. This will be my final Hidden Joburg post of the...
Art in Fordsburg at Lilian Road Studios
I've visited Lilian Road Studios, a collection of artists' studios in a historic, dilapidated building in Fordsburg, many times. Several great Joburg artists have had studios at Lilian Road, including Hannelie Coetzee and Hermann Niebuhr. Now there is a group of...
Hidden Joburg: The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helen
For the newest installment in my Hidden Joburg series, I visited a church in Hillbrow that I've been curious about for years. The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helen is around the corner from the Hillbrow Boxing Club, and I have driven, jogged,...
Heather Mason
I’m an American writer/blogger/photographer living a quirky life in Johannesburg. Follow along as I explore Johannesburg, South Africa, and the rest of the world.
