Kohandè - Luxury Tents

Hello Journeyers!
So there are a full 15 Mondays left for the year! 15!!! That's it! Then the year has kissed us all goodbye!
Cedric organised us a getaway weekend so we could go and absorb the serenity of the bush. We have tight budgets and that's why we always look for very affordable, self catering places.
We went to Kohandè, which is situated in the Leeuwkloof Valley Conservancy in Gauteng.

"Three luxury tents with on suite bathrooms provide accommodation for 2 adults each (sorry, no children allowed). A fully equipped kitchenette with fridge/freezer makes self catering a pleasure. Each tent is private with its own lovely panoramic view over the bushveld."

We hit the road after work and we were lucky enough to not hit too much traffic for that time on a Friday! We were welcomed by the friendly owner Dirk and his son. They showed us around our tent and of they went to leave us to enjoy a relaxed weekend. The weather was warm and springy and we even had our first rain Friday night.
There we were, sitting on the little stoep of our Tent enjoying the rain with a glass of wine, playing Monopoly and listening to the sounds of the bush. You can even hear the lions at night. Took us back to our holiday in Marloth Park! Bliss!

The next morning we slept in and when we woke up we got dressed and walked up to the pool. After we saw the pool and the view we were too excited about the great weather that we went straight down to the tent to pack a little picnic basket and went to go soak up some sun!

We had such a great time and were super relaxed when Sunday came rolling by! I just want to say thank you to Dirk and his son for their great hospitality! Hope to see this place again soon!

Have a blessed day everyone!

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Disclaimer: All expenses were paid for by us for our trip to Kohande Luxury Tents. 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. 

Jackalberry Ridge

Hello Journeyers!
Halfway through the week, I know, it makes me so angry to think I'm wishing my week away like that. But it's only because I miss Mr. F = FRIDAY!!!! :)
As promised here is the first Part of my 2 Part July Holiday Blog Posts. Why 2 Parts you may ask? Well duh, we went to 2 places for holiday so each deserves their own post!

We took on the long road the Friday night and decided to sleep over in Witbank at the Protea Hotel Witbank. I must say we were very impressed with how charming it was. The decor was modern and the staff was friendly. We were rather tired and decided to have the buffet dinner at the Hotel. WOW - the food was so good. From beef strips and boiled eggs with mayo filling for starters, roast and veggies to chicken curry for mains and malva pudding with custard (ok here I was sold) and mini tarts for desert.
We hit the road rather early again the Saturday morning. We arrived at Jackalberry Ridge around late lunch time. It was so nice going from freezing cold Gauteng to warm and sunny Mpumalanga! We did not pack the right clothing at all! haha. We came prepared for proper winter weather. Well Surprise! haha
Anyway, we got our Tent keys and went to unpack. We were really impressed with how neat and put together everything was. Someone came to clean the braai area, kitchen and tent every single day. Bonus! No dishes for meeee!

The one Tent with the Bathroom and Kitchen underneath it.

The Second Tent with a En-Suite Bathroom.

My Boo in front of our home for the next 6 days.

Each Tent Area has it's own splash pool, lapa and boma area.

This is the inside of the Bigger Tent. (One on top of the Kitchen and bathroom)

We spent most of our days driving around. We went to Komatipoort for a round of Golf and admired the wonderful views over the crocodile river from the Clubhouse. It truly is peaceful the bush.

We also watched the sunset 95% of the time. The other 5% we were either too late or was sleeping. haha. Nap time!!!

I ate myself to death, goodbye 4kg's that I lost before the holiday! Oops! But hey it was holiday and I enjoyed it! We went to some of the restaurants / lodges around the area for lunches/dinners. There are some really great places in Marloth Park and surrounding. We ate at Jabula Lodge where we had great service and was entertained by Dawn who is the owner (this day I also chowed down 2 Magnums and 3 Ice Creams and Chocolate Sauce - GASP), we also had dinner at Phumula Lodge, and again great food and service, people in this area really do not have a care in the world, no wonder you always see them with smiles on their faces.

Because Marloth Park borders the Crocodile River and Kruger Park, we could use that to our advantage and go sit next to the river and admire the beauty of nature and the wildlife. We saw loads of Elephants (One of my FAVORITE Top 5 animals), Buffalo, Crocodiles (Crocodile River so makes sense) and Hippos. And inside of Marloth lots of Zebra, Giraffes, Monkeys, Birdlife and Warthogs and don't forget Impala. Seeing as there is a fence between Marloth and Kruger (I would hope so, wild animals roaming freely in the Kruger = not safe when roaming between houses) I had to use Mo-Landy as my stepping ladder. haha.

Cedric really wanted to make a Potjie one night so we literally drove Komatipoort to shreds to find one. And we did!

Just look at how cute these cold drink bottles are!!! They are mini ones!

But most important of all. We loved spending some great time together without the hustle and bustle of the City. Then before we knew it we were hit with a 10 ton hammer and we were already packing our bags (sob) and ready for the last part of our holiday! You could say we were rather emotional. But we sucked it up and Friday morning at exactly 06:15 we were packed and ready to go. We decided to drive through the Kruger Park as not one of us have been there before. Shocker I know, especially for me! So we entered at the Crocodile Bridge gate and had to exit from the Orpen gate. That = 175km's. It took us 5 hours to drive that! Why you may ask? Well the speed limit is 50 in the Park, and the people pile up if they see a animal. My honest opinion. I can now say "I've been there, done that, and got the t-shirt"! Never again. Unless we stay in a secluded camp. All those people around the animals just drives me insane!

But anyway, I think that was also just the irritation levels talking because our holiday was nearing an end.

So yes, that is a round up of our first 7 nights holiday.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!

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Disclaimer: All expenses were paid for by us for our trip to Jackalberry Ridge. 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.