James Tutty Safaris & Tours

22/12/2024

21/12/2024

20/12/2024

BREAKING NEWS.... We can now officially conduct cultural tours now. This will complement our already safari tour offerings.

20/12/2024

18/12/2024

Johannesburg was proclaimed in 1886 on a triangular piece of land called Randjeslaagte, covering nine square kilometers. This area was "uitvalgrond," leftover land from surrounding farms, unsuitable for farming. The apex of the triangle is marked by the Randjeslaagte Beacon, with its base running along Commissioner Street, from End Street in the east to Ntembi Pilisio Street in the west.

Randjeslaagte remained Johannesburg's municipal area until 1901. The original surveyor's beacon, a white pole in a rock and concrete cairn, was declared a national monument in 1965, and the cairn was later smoothed with cement.

Randjeslaagte's boundaries are defined by Diagonal Street to the west, End Street to the east, and the junction of Diagonal and Commissioner Streets to the southwest. Initially, farmers grazed their cattle on this unused land. However, the discovery of gold in 1886 turned Randjeslaagte into the center of Johannesburg.

On August 3, 1886, the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek commissioned Christiaan Johannes Joubert and Johann Friedrich Bernhard Rissik to select a site for a town on the Witwatersrand goldfields. They chose Randjeslaagte. Rissik drew up the general plan, and Jos. E. de Villiers was contracted to survey 600 plots. The town, named Johannesburg after Joubert and Rissik, was officially proclaimed on October 4, 1886.

Over time, Randjeslaagte's grasslands transformed into the urban core of Johannesburg, which grew far beyond its original triangle. The Randjeslaagte Beacon, located on Boundary Road in Parktown, near Louis Botha Avenue, remains as a reminder of the city's beginnings.

15/12/2024

Some more photos of our recent trip to Kruger National Park in September 2024

15/12/2024

As promised a few weeks ago, some more photos of our trip to the Kruger National Park in September 2024

02/10/2024

Ever wondered how snakes sense their prey?
Check out the basics in the attached graphic.

21/09/2024

Some sights around the Skukuza area on a wet and nippy day. James Tutty

20/09/2024

Some sight taken around skukuza with James Tutty