by JacquesB » Sun Apr 30, 2017 11:25 am
I recently visited Gold Reef City theme park in Johannesburg South Africa. The park is located in the southern parts of Johannesburg close to some old mine dumps that can be seen from some of the higher rides. The theme of the park celebrates the gold rush of the early 1900's.
The park does not have many major rides, but it is a lot by any South African standards. South Africa does not really have a theme park culture so Gold Reef City is the biggest and longest running theme park. Cape Town also has a theme park called Ratanga Junction, but it is open seasonally during school holidays and it is rumored to close soon. I am not sure why.
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- Anaconda first loop
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- Anaconda
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- Anaconda layout
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- Golden Loop is a bit difficult to photograph from the ground as it is surrounded by trees and restricted areas
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- Jozi Express
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- Another Jozi Express
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- Jozi Express from another angle
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- Tower of Terror, built into an old mine shaft and diving through a mine house, going underground and coming up on the other side of the Giant Wheel
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- Tower of Terror, taken from the Big Wheel next door to it
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- Tower of Terror
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- Raging River Rapids runs its course under the tracks of Anaconda
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- Raging River Rapids
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- Raging River Rapids
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- Raging River Rapids
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- Runaway Train. Sorry, could not get a better picture, but it is a standard mine train in case you're wondering... :)
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- Log ride
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- Log ride. Last drop of three. The other drops are in areas you cannot reach.
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- Log ride
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- Tornado
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- Mermaid
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- Wave Swing
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- UFO
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- Miner's Revenge
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- Miner's Revenge. This one tends to make you more dizzy than wet.
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- Dream Boat
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- New to the park. Jump City with trampolines
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- Farmyard for the young ones
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- Farmyard is educational as well
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- Learn about the animals
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- In case you did not know...
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- Kiddies ride area
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- More kiddies rides
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- Kiddies area with the Tower of Terror, Giant Wheel and the mine tour shaft in the background
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- This is an actual mine shaft. They do underground mine tours that take you into an actual gold mine. You get to wear all the head gear and battery belt and lights that the miners used to wear and go down in an actual mine cage.
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- Would you like to get married here? You can! The park has its own chapel.
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- You can even stay in the onsite hotel inside the park!
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- These are some of the hotel rooms. The rooms walk out right into the park. Some of these buildings house the conference rooms as well.
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- Train station for the Fun train
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- Fun train taking you around the whole park.
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- Part of the old steam train museum
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- An old steam train
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- Panning for some gold. Fun for the whole family.
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- Fitting in with the theme of the park you can take some vintage photos. They dress you up in Victorian clothes or going on safari and other themes and then take this old looking photo. An inexpensive souvenir.
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- One of the old houses you can view. You can go inside and see how the mining folk lived at the turn of the century.
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- Old museum area with some of the old houses
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- Fancy a chocolate fountain? Get your melted chocolate here. Served in a cone or dip some nougat, fruits or marshmallows in the chocolate. Finger licking good!
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- Giant Wheel with the Tower of Terror to the side
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- An aerial view of Anaconda to the left in green and Golden Loop to the right in yellow
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- An aerial view of the mine shaft with the Johannesburg skyline in the back. To the right is one of the remaining mine dumps.
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- Jozi Express taken from the Giant Wheel
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- 4D theatre
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- 4D theatre with some restaurants to the side
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- 4D theatre
