Seeing Joburg with new eyes
How many students spend a long time at university only to finish their course and find that their chosen career is not for them?
To try and avoid this problem Wits University’s geology department has been bringing its first-year students to Melville Koppies, in the first month of their studies, for a long, hot slog through the scratchy grass, often off the paths.
Here they scramble over rocks to look at the landscape with new geological eyes. They identify the tilted quartzite ridges, the shale valleys and the ripple marks made by the inland sea that once covered Joburg three billion years ago.
You can come too and go back in geological time. Visit on your own or in a group. Open Sunday mornings between 08:00 and 11:30.
Join a guided tour from 08:00 to learn about Joburg’s lengthy geological history or do the self-guided heritage trail. Or if it just exercises you want, you can do the challenging 5km trail (twice if you’re up to it). Or just meander at your own pace along the many paths.
Safe parking is available (opposite the Melville Koppies entrance) at Marks Park Sports Club on Judith Road, Emmarentia. Security on the Koppies is provided.
Entrance is R90 per person, R50 for U18s and season tickets for a year per adult are available at R500.
These are not transferable. All income is used for the maintenance of the Koppies.
For more information email wendavid@mweb.co.za, contact 079 532 0083 or visit www.mk.org.za; or visit Facebook.
