City parks of Jo'burg

Being alone here, the easiest "distraction" on a nice sunny day is a visit to one of the city parks. Johannesburg hosts many parks - I've visited only 1 of them, in 2 times. When you enter a park, you just forget that you are in a city of several millions inhabitants, and you just enjoy the nature. I think most parks are very artificial though, and they look more like golf fields. But still, a walk in one of the parks is very relaxing.

Johannesburg botanic gardens : the Emmarentia Dam
This is the first part I visited, back in January (summer !). It is close to the University and has an artificial lake where people go "sailing", and one can also enjoy the botanical gardens.

The Emmarentia Dam.

Emmarentia lake.

Ducks on the lake.

Duck. They are actually not at all scared of people and come very close.

These birds with a long beak are extremely noisy and almost aggressive !

Park.

Park.

End of the lake.

Johannesburg botanic gardens : some other side of the park ;-)

I went to this part on a nice winter sunday, it was about 20 degrees at 10am ... I like such winter !

Dry grass and trees.

Dry grass and trees.

A small lake.

Lake side.

Lake side, dogs playing in the lake.

Lake side and some dogs. The water is probably very cold and the two little black dogs never made it to the lake ;-)

Another lake.

An artificial "river".

This park is very quiet, and many people go there with kids or to walk the dogs. From a "social" point of view, however, it seems that mostly White people go there : walking in a park on Sundays with kids and dogs is something not everyone can afford here unfortunately.
Another popular destination on Sundays are the shopping centers - I'll come back to that.