Our trip to Entabeni Conservatory

We arrived Entabeni’s entrance and wow – What a view! Everything was mountainous yet the sand was a deep red. We saw little pumbas running around the entrance. I felt like I was living in an African dream.

 

We booked a package at the Ravineside located in Entabeni game reserve for 3. Our package  included the following:

• Welcome Drinks
• Breakfast
• Dinner
• Evening Game Drive
• Morning Game Drive
• Lunch
• Twin/Queen Bedroom
• Picnic includes one beverage and shared snack platter
• Wifi
• Light refreshments and tea/coffee prepared for you at the communal area

All this came to a total of R600  per person per night. (We got a great deal on Trivago)

I would highly recommend this place. The beds were comfortable, the food was beyond scrumptious and the scenery and there were some breathtaking sightings of the game reserve’s animals.

I was lucky enough to find my journal entry that I wrote during the trip:

ENJOY 🙂

Evening Game Drive 

We saw giraffes, impalas, kudus, rhinosarus, elephants, a monkey, wildebeest, horn bill birds and lions  The only animals i didn’t see was the crocodile.  It was a pretty exciting trip.

There’s something so beautiful about seeing animals in their own habitat, uninterrupted. My highlight from this Game drive was seeing the elephants. We saw them in the distance playing together. There was a whole family. The way they teased and wrestled with their trunks was something I remember thinking “wow, us as humans when we flirt with the opposite gender, we push each other around, laugh and play. Animals are no different in their courtships with each other and it was so amazing to see the parallels” It made me feel as though animals and humans aren’t so different after all.

After it became too dark to see any other animals we  stopped for a 30 minute break and enjoyed a glass of wine and some snacks.

We arrived back at our accomodation and the staff were waiting for us with some hot chocolate. It was bitterly cold that evening and let’s face it it – hot chocolate always tastes better when one is freezing their backsides off.

3rd July 2017:

We were up early ready for our next adventure. It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be. Although I was wearing 3 pants, 5 layers of tops, jerseys and jackets and one scarf. Not to mention in the game reserve vehicles, they do provide blankets, as they are open air trucks. We got the full safari experience with the crisp African winter air against your skin.

Today was one of those days where I felt like I was living in my safari dream. We drove through a different part of the Game Reserve and there was an abundance of lakes. I could see nature reflecting like a mirror onto the lake.Every mountain and tree  was exactly as I saw it, reflecting against the still water. It was so tranquil. It was beauty written in Africa. This type of reflection reminded me of all the movies set in our beautiful continent and I felt like I was sitting in a cinema. Some places I had traveled to I was overwhelmed, some places I felt underwhelmed. Today I just felt whelmed. I felt exactly how I thought I would feel. It fulfilled that dream I had inside me and I felt content, peaceful and serene. It was a peaceful, meditative drive. We didn’t see many more animals than what we had seen the day before, but there was something about that crisp winter  air that entered into my lungs and made its way to my heart. Ah, exactly how I thought I would feel. It was perfect.

 I have two highlights from this mornings Game Drive.

 my heart leaped a little bit harder than usual when we came across these cheetah cubs.

The game reserve had 2 male cheetahs. The two male cheetahs are brothers. From birth, they were inseparable! So when this beautiful girl was drinking her water this morning the two boys approached her mated with her. Once she fell pregnant and had her cubs these two brother cheetahs left her with her cubs so they could be together again.
These two cheetahs were loyal.. They do not leave each other’s side. Whoever said bromance was dead?

“Animals taught me that Love and Loyalty are not limited to humans.”

After we admired these beautiful animals, I was finished! My life felt like it was complete.

We bumped into Mr Leo the lion again today but this time he was feeding on a wildebeest he had caught. While Nala laid in the middle of our track having a post feed nap. It was the most interesting part of the entire Safari.

We were so close to the action. As he sat there feeding on the wildebeest tucked in between the bushes we could hear every bite of his breakfast. It was incredible to see. I wish I could have seen the attack! That would have been amazing.

My all-time favourite cheese scone recipe

Scones are the best type of fast food. You just mix them together and put into the oven. And as the weather gets colder, the more I pondered on the thought  of a  hot, buttery scone. This is the best, and the easiest cheese scone recipe I know.

The recipe comes from a recipe book published here in South Africa called ‘Ouma’s cookbook’

Even though this is a quick and easy recipe there is a trick to making great scones. So here are my tips, collected from my late dad and aunts over the years.

Tips for scones

1 Heat the oven – it must be hot
2. Preheat the tray.
3. Add all the milk at once.
4. Mix quickly – Don’t over mix
5. Touch the dough as infrequently as possible and get it into the oven asap after forming the dough

Recipe

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups grated tasty cheese
• 1 cup milk
• 100 g butter
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 220º C.

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne pepper into a bowl.

Melt butter and then rub the melted butter into the flour mixture with fingers

Mix in cheese.

Make a well in the centre.

Add the milk, mix quickly with hands ( Note: this is a great time to involve your kids).. Turn out onto a floured bread board and roll dough into a ball. using a rolling pin, roll out your dough until its about 3 cm thick. Use a glass or cookie cutter to cut out your scones.

Places scones on to a greased tray and cook for about 15-20 minutes

Serve warm with grated cheese and tomato

ENJOY! 🙂

 

Review: Walnut Grove

We dined at Walnut Grove this past weekend
The food sure was a winner, great portion sizes and real tasty too. From the wraps to sharing salads, everything was on par with any good cafe. (No coincidence) The chicken salad and cocktails were especially good, we would walk back to Walnut Grove for another one of those bad boys.

We were disappointed by the service. We would ask our waiter about signature dishes, and all he could say was that everything on the menu is good. That is not the end of the world, but what annoyed us was, when we asked him to make sure about the sizes of the cocktails, he gave us wrong information and he couldn’t be bothered about it, very unprofessional.
So the atmosphere had us on a 50/50. On the one side, it is a very elegant and posh setting, perfect for a relaxing and delicious meal. On the other side, it is right above the Sandton City food court, so you have hundreds of people on the move, smells from different fast food restaurants, and so many noisy people.