Every year in October and November the streets of Johannesburg and Pretoria fill with purple, as thousands of beautiful jacaranda trees bloom over Gauteng’s two great cities. It’s a spectacle that fills those who live in Gauteng with great pride, and which we consider to be a major tourist attraction.
This is our fourth year of marking out this season and giving it the attention we think it deserves.
We celebrate the jacaranda spring with our #jacarandainyourpocket photo competition. This year’s competition (entries close on Monday, November 15) is our biggest yet with prizes that include stayovers at top Joburg hotels Radisson Red Rosebank, The Northcliff and Pablo House. All of these hotels offer exceptional tree views of Joburg, one of the world’s most tree-filled cities. See details of how to enter below.
Supported by Gauteng Tourism, Gautrain and Radisson Red Rosebank, this jacaranda season we also organised six free guided jacaranda experiences, with a focus on photography. The walks, e-scooter tour and cycling routes followed different trails through the purple streets of Rosebank and surrounds, ending with drinks and an incredible view of the neighbourhood and beyond from the Radisson Red Rosebank rooftop.
For the #jacarandainyourpocket experiences, Johannesburg In Your Pocket collaborated with blogger @2Summers, Photowalkers Mark Straw and Bertrand van de Berg, Micro Adventure Tours Kennedy Tembo and Honest Experience Travel led by Franck Leya.
Here’s a look at what we got up to:
2Summers photo walk
Kicking off our #jacarandainyourpocket experiences, Joburg-based writer and photographer Heather Mason of the popular 2Summers blog led a photo walk through Rosebank, sharing her expertise on how to best capture the jacarandas in bloom. You can read Heather’s blog about the experience here.
MicroAdventures Jacaranda cycling tour
Kennedy Tembo of MicroAdventure Tours led two late afternoon guided cycle rides through the prettiest jacaranda streets in Rosebank and neighbouring Parkwood.
Joburg Photowalkers jacaranda walks
Photographers Mark Straw and Bertrand Van Der Berg from the Joburg Photowalkers group led us on two afternoon photo walks through Rosebank’s jacarandas sharing tips on getting great shots of the jacarandas, ending with sunset drinks on the Radisson Red Rosebank rooftop.
Honest Travel Experiences e-scooter tour
Honest Travel Experiences are launching an e-scooter rental service in Rosebank in November (find them at The Zone@Rosebank next to the City Sightseeing bus office) and ahead of the launch they led us on a fun e-scooter tour through Rosebank and Parkwood’s jacarandas.
How to enter our jacaranda photo competition
Photos must be taken during the 2021 jacaranda season in Gauteng only, and shared on an Instagram public account with the hashtags: #jacarandainyourpocket #visitgauteng #gautrainjourneys #radissonredrosebank
The photo competition is open for entries until Monday November 15. From the finalists a winner and two runners-up will be chosen by public vote and announced on Instagram on Thursday November 25.