South Africa 2019

We have been in the western cape area for the last month staying in Hermanus and Erinvale and have very much enjoyed visiting the area - particularly the wineries. We have played a few rounds of golf at Erinvale - it’s a great course (pity about the atrocious golf!).

This is our fourth visit to South Africa and must admit we came back with some reservations on how we would find the country now. It is such a beautiful country and hoped it wouldn’t have gone the way other African countries have gone. Since being here, you can feel there is a real sense of pride in the South Africans as a nation and feel very hopeful for its future. We have certainly felt extremely comfortable moving around the country and have met some lovely people. It’s a real foodie country with some wonderful restaurants as our expanding waistlines will attest!

We are now ready to move onto the second part of our holiday - we are flying to Durban and then travelling to four different lodges in the Drakensberg Mountain range before ending our trip in Mozambique ....... so this is where our blog will begin.Read more

We had an excellent flight from Cape Town to Durban and were met by our driver to be driven to Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse - our first stop in the Drakensberg area. The roads for the first two hours were terrific, but then we turned off the main highway and spent the next hour going over teeth rattling, pot-holed (sometimes) dirt roads! Rain was threatening for the whole journey but waited until the car parked at the farmhouse and then the heavens opened! The farmhouse is very old - goes back to the 1800’s, but the family of the present owners bought it in 1936. The hotel consists of a couple of bungalows and cottages but the standard rooms that we are in, are what Anne refers to as the old slave quarters! There are six individual suites in a single building. To say they are shabby chic would be too grand, they are more rustic. Even the corrugated roof is left as is on the inside so no false ceiling and the light switches are big rings on chains that you pull to put any lights on - pictures to follow. The suite has a seating area, a wood burning fireplace, raised bedroom area and the oldest claw foot bath in the bathroom, it also have a separate shower. All in all, we think it is quite charming in a quirky kind of way. The service level is amazing* and to our surprise, there is a turn down service in the evening. All the meals are in the main house. The guests gather for pre dinner drinks and sit around lovely wood burning fires while mine host and chef regales us with stories of the history of the area and tells us what we will be having for dinner - all seven courses! Fortunately there are lots of trails for us to hike, which is just as well as we will be rolling out of here anyway! The dining room and lounge overlook a pond and there are plenty of birds to be seen. Weaver birds in particular have a number of nests right outside the windows.

Today we did a walk on the property about an hour up a fairly steep track and back around, some nice views over the countryside.Read more