Hiking Spots

South Africa is a truly stunning country, with a wide array of landscapes and its natural beauty is something to make the most of while you're here.

I really enjoy hiking, so I've made a few day trips to go for hikes within a 2hr radius of Johannesburg and I've never been disappointed by the views yet. All of these trails are easy in terms of difficulty. I wouldn't consider myself particularly fit and I did just fine at all.

• Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve, Johannesburg - hiking trails right in the city, clearly marked trails, from the top of the ridge you get a nice view over the Southside of Jozi, you'll see loads of Dassies everywhere (cute fat little animals, kind of like groundhogs), downside is that there is a sewage pipe in the middle of the reserve so we did encounter a particularly stinky part of the trail at the end of our hike.

• Wonderboom Nature Reserve, Pretoria - Another well parked trail, in the heart of Pretoria, gives you nice views over the city. There is a waterfall you can go see, but it must not be anything too impressive because when I went in the winter it was dried up. There is a small fee to get into the park.

• Cradle of Humankind - Really picturesque landscape with tall grasses, rolling hills and lots of open space to explore. If you're out here anyways for the fresh air and a nice walk, you may as well start with walking through the caves to see where the oldest humanoid fossils in the world were found. Unfortunately, all the actual artifacts are in a museum in Pretoria and the actual dig site is barricaded, but any time you can walk through caves is always pretty cool.

• Magaliesburg Mountain Sanctuary, Rustenberg - You'll feel straight out of the movie 124 Hours, when you're here. It's all dry red rock and absolutely no markings to help you find your way. You will be provided with a crude map when you enter where there is a small fee to get into the park, but the guidance offered is weak at best. I personally was very frustrated by this and wouldn't go back to the park for that reason, we got lost and just stumbled our way around most of the day. If we didn't have a good sense of direction someone could really get turned around out there. I have to give the place credit though, the scenery is cool and we ended our hike at these natural swimming pools where we went for a cool dip and that was really nice, but seriously, finding these pools was a mission.
 

Finding safe places to walk outside and explore can be tricky sometimes, especially if you're on your own. One, unfortunately fairly boring, way to get your exercise is to suck it up and get a gym membership.

It feels like a waste of money, but when you can't safely go for a run at night or can't do hiking trails alone and you spend so much more time driving around than you're used to - you'll want to have someone to go and keep healthy and active. I've actually started enjoying hitting the gym a couple days a week - who would have imagined?!