One of my most favourite and almost spiritual views of all is the vista of the urban forest that is Johannesburg as experienced from the terrace of the Westcliff Hotel.

The best time for a visit to the Westcliff Hotel for me is during the jacaranda season in late October.

My first excursion to the Westcliff as newcomer to Johannesburg was for a colleague’s birthday breakfast during winter.

Although the expanse of the view was still liberating, it was after all, a Highveld winter landscape and I hankered after a visit in the late spring.

After a few years of procrastination and busy-ness , eventually my determination got the better of me.

Last year, I phoned the hotel to find out when the Jacarandas would be at their exotic best and secured a booking for an afternoon high tea.  It is always such a gracious and dignified outing to go to the Westcliff.

For me the highlight is to drink in the  lush view of the trees and to savour the elevated Highveld panorama over the city of Johannesburg drenched in the late afternoon sun.

The hotel as we know it has been sold and has been closed since June this year for renovations and rebranding, only due to re-open in mid-2014.

I wonder if it will have that same gracious ambience and olde world charm post the face-lift?

The jacarandas are in full and magnificent bloom once again and I have a yearning to look out over the terrace of the Westcliff hotel and just enjoy ‘that view…’.