Marataba Safari Lodge Birthday Weekend

Hello Journeyers!
I turned 26 yesterday, and then I realised that I'm 4 years away from turning 30. It's not that bad as they say life starts at 30, right?!

Cedric took me to Marataba Safari Lodge for the weekend, and we made a long weekend of it. I absolutely LOVE this place.

The scenery is something that doesn't get old no matter what the weather is doing. Those mountains are hypnotic and the animals. Well waking up to lions roaring is enough to excite anyone. Then you meet the staff, and they make you feel like you are the most important person in the whole world. The small attention to detail is enough to make anyone not want to leave.

Then the food...oh the food. To put it into proper terms for you, I picked up just over 1kg in 2 days. Kiss your diet goodbye, because you have most delicious snacks on your morning game drive, get back and then it's time for breakfast, lunch, high tea, afternoon game drive snacks and then you end it off with dinner while listening to all the beautiful sounds of the bush.

The staff almost had me in tears when they came to sing happy birthday to me with a cake after dinner around the fire. It was a emotional birthday, but the first is always the hardest they say.

As Sunday came rolling by (much faster than expected) I was even more sad as I didn't want to leave. As everything else all good things must come to an end eventually.

We want to say thank you very much to the excellent staff of Marataba Safari Lodge, we cannot wait to come back!

Do you prefer gifts or birthday getaways?

My year hasn't been the greatest, but things have to get better. It just has no choice, and I have been extremely blessed with my amazing family and friends. May the next year only bring happiness and lots of travels.

Disclaimer: All expenses were paid for by us for our stay at Marataba Safari Lodge. As always all comments and opinions are my own. All of the content and images posted are my own unless otherwise specified / linked to the original source. Please feel free to share photographs and material from this site but please link back to the original image or post.

Kream Restaurant

Hello Journeyers!
I have to tell you about the amazing food experience I had on Saturday at my beautiful friend's birthday. We went to Kream Restaurant in Brooklyn. WOW. The restaurant is beautiful. I think one can have lots of wine drinking while chatting the night away evenings here. She booked a nice room in the restaurant for all the girls to get together. We were separate from the other customers so we could laugh and be jolly and wouldn't disturb anyone. Our waitress Simone welcomed us and I was very impressed with her. Always on top of everything. And to handle a group of 10 ladies, well we can be a handful. We also had the friendly Ramon who made us feel relaxed and happy to be there! She added little finishing touches to each persons seat by giving them a little Lindt chocolate with their name on it.

My beautiful friend - Amelia

As we were a rather big group she decided on a mouthwatering set menu for us to feast from. With a big variety of the most delicious dishes to choose from, it was quite hard to decide what to take as everything sounded divine!

She made the Menu

A roundup of what starters everyone had: I had the prawns. (Pic 2) No words to describe how good this was!

We spent the evening reminiscing about Amelia when she was younger, it was so nice to hear all the old family fun stories. Her sister Elsje took the photos for the evening and made a heartwarming speech. I had tears in my eyes and Amelia sat sobbing next to me, smudging the white serviettes with her mascara.

Then we were ready for our mains to be served. Delicious. I went with the Catch of the day which was Kingklip, my favourite! :)

I'm so hungry now from looking at these photos and thinking back on how good the food was. Then any girls best part of any meal....desert!!! I had the Ice Cream and Bar One sauce, but after seeing the Malva Pudding I was a bit disappointed for not taking that instead.

To my beautiful Am, thank you for being such an amazing friend to me and for seeing me as one of your Special girls. You are such a blessing in my life and I am very proud to have you as a friend. I hope you had an amazing night and may you find love and be blessed to the ends of the earth! Always stay this amazing and beautiful! I love you Am! xxx

And to Kream! I hope I will be seeing you guys again shortly. Your food and service was magnificent and I have been raving about it since Saturday. Keep up the fantastic work!

Have a blessed day everyone!

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Disclaimer: All of the content and images posted are my own unless otherwise specified / linked to the original source. Please feel free to share photographs and material from this site but please link back to the original image or post. As always all comments and opinions are my own.

Elephant Sanctuary Harties

Hello Journeyers,
Well the long weekend is officially over, for those of you who did take the extra long option, I hope you had a great weekend! I was not that fortunate and had to work Monday. But I did have an amazing Heritage Day!
Cedric spoiled me yesterday as an early birthday gift. And it was definitely the 3rd best day of my life! What is the first 2 you may ask? Well the 1st is the day that Cedric asked me to be his girlfriend. *swoon* and the 2nd happened recently, at our July Holiday where the Elephant literally moved past us only a few cm's.

My birthday gift was a trip to the Elephant Sanctuary in Hartbeespoortdam. As all of you know I love Elephants! So this was high on my To Do List. :) And it finally happened!
We were booked for the 10am Interaction, but I think excitement levels were a bit high as we arrived an hour early. But I was too happy to just be there so we sat and admired the other groups do their thing.
10am came and we were all gathered for 2 hours of fun. We had a educational session with our guide Sam. These animals are truly amazing! The only thing I did not like though is that the groups are very big. Our group had 15 - 20 people. Then we were entertained by Temba and Pumba.

This Sanctuary has 5 Elephants, I only saw 4. They are busy going through their adolescent stage (teenager years) and therefore there was no Elephant Back rides.
We could touch them, from their trunks to their tails. We walked hand in trunk with them and I even got a big smooch from Temba. I was impressed with how their skins felt. Hard to the touch with thick hairs on them. The only soft part on their bodies are the sole of their feet and the back of their ears.

The scary part is that these Elephants were only between 10 - 13 Years old and are not fully grown yet. It is extremely intimidating if you stand next to one of these remarkable creatures. You never know when it will turn on you and turn you into scrambled eggs. But still what an experience! For such a big animal they are so gentle. 

South Africans are extremely blessed to live in a country with so many beautiful things to enjoy, from our views to the animals to the cultures and the people! 

So yes I can say this Heritage Day was one of my favorites! 

Thank you baby for one of the best birthday gifts ever! You are truly a blessing to me and I can just thank the Lord for bringing you into my life! I love you!

P.S. - After seeing these photos of me it's time to get into the healthy eating and exercise routine NOW! Goodbye flab hello fab! hehe

How did you spend your Heritage Day?

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Disclaimer: All of the content and images posted are my own unless otherwise specified / linked to the original source. Please feel free to share photographs and material from this site but please link back to the original image or post. As always all comments and opinions are my own.