…by the Naked Barista… 20 May 2016
Part 2…
Our awesome friends, Camel and Aneta stays in Rooihuiskraal and the first chance we got, we headed over for some quality time. As I am still recovering from an illness, their home was the perfect place for us to be. (more about the illness in my article ‘Get into the flow and know how superblessed you are’).
Aneta knows alot about nutrition and she is a “feeder”. She knew exactly what I needed to get better. We spend an amazing weekend together and I felt totally superblessed.
Rooihuiskraal: is a residential suburb Southwest of Pretoria. I have visited Rooihuiskraal in the early nineties when it was a fairly new development and I was amazed at how it has grown. In 2011 the population exceeded 17000.
I felt truly in the ‘flow’ as B had to work on Saturday and Aneta took me to a Health shop. More about this in my article “Get into the flow and know how superblessed you are”. We had a braai later that afternoon when B came back and I daresay it was a feast of note. Every meal with Camel and Aneta is a feast. Camel is a good hand at braai and making us delightful deserts.
Camel also blessed us with an epic show of the stars as he has all the right equipment for stargazing.
On Sunday, we went for a hike at “Rustig” Resort.
But first, I have to tell you about our mode of transport to get there…
As B drove with our vehicle to take our workmen to the worksite, I was an esteemed passenger in Camel’s brand new, totally red Subaru.
I sat at the back and was forced to put on my safety belt as soon as we hit the tar as I started sliding around wildly on the pristine shiny leather seat. Camel is a very good driver and I was really grateful about this as we drove lickity split down the highway for about 40 minutes. What a supersonic adrenalin pumping ride? Luckily, I love speed…
I knew it was definitely a very good reason for us being stopped by a traffic officer.
I was totally amazed at how well these two handled the authority as we were again speeding off in no time after only a little hand slap…
I think the traffic cop was a car enthusiast, as he had an appreciative smile playing around his lips and it helped a lot that the roads were pretty much traffic free with it being Sunday.
We arrived simultaneously with B who came from the other direction. I felt super exhilarated and energetically ready for a long overdue hike in the beautiful eye-pleasing surroundings.
Rustig is a well-established family farm since 1930.
A historical farm with three beautiful hiking trails.
Rustig even has a saltwater pool for an after hike swim. Being this time of year though, we did not have swimming in mind.
The hike into the mountains and the views of the farm were breathtakingly beautiful and we spend a delightful three hours walking.
Afterwards, B had to go back to work, so I had another awesome drive in the Subaru. When we got home, we had a refreshing shower and started a fire again for another braai. B joined us and again we sat down to an awesome feast.
We were invited to stay another night and I decided to gift both our hosts with a foot massage. I have not done this in a while and I felt superblessed to share this love with them…they are truly amazing beings and we are superblessed to have them as our friends.
Early next morning we went to pick up the workmen and took them to the work site. I always have something to do in the car, while I wait to be taken back to our accommodations.
It was a beautiful weekend with all of the very best received for some accelerated healing.
We did not realise how many friends we have in the area of Gauteng as we are inundated with invites everywhere. It is a bit difficult for us to accept all these invites, as we get up early in the morning and therefore go to sleep early at night. As Juan (son) says…’work hard and play hard’…
This is a photo we received
recently of Juan
working hard in Palma…
I was truly superblessed when Maryna (daughter) and Alexia (granddaughter) came to visit us for a few days and Juan (son) also came a day or two later.
We have fitted in a few braai evenings and reconnected with a few friends. It is satisfying to see how stylish our friends live that we spend so much time with at Afrika Burn recently. Skillie (Sydney) and Alda has a lovely space they call home and our family had a braai with them while Maryna, Juan and Alexia were still visiting.
Juan, Maryna, Alexia and I could do a roadtrip together to Potgietersrus where they were both born. B responsibly had to stay for work.
We were invited last Sunday to lunch with family that we have not seen for three years.
It was on Sunday morning, after B left to take the workmen to the worksite, that the kids and I went to Menlyn shopping mall as Maryna wanted to do some shopping before our lunch date with the family.
As I walked into this huge shopping mall, I realised that this ‘sensory overload’ was not what I needed and so Alexia and I went to Panarottis, where there were a wonderful play area.
Alexia saw an adorable little ‘play house’ and I was obviously invited in to be her guest.
I have so much gratitude for my returned energy to be able to play with her. We watched a cartoon together and soon other kids came in to play with Alexia.
I ordered us a delicious desert and a milkshake which we still had as this was a bit much of a muchness. Maryna and Juan came to share it when they arrived.
We met up with B at our family’s beautiful home in Parktown North. It was marvellous to see them as we have not seen them for a long while. Pascale is french and loves making delicious meals and even better deserts, so we had an exceptional lunch.
Our road trip began after we said our goodbyes to Pascale, Alain and Jeremy…
On the road trip, I realised once again with so much gratitude what an amazing family I have. I am superblessed with the most beautiful children who turned out to be splendid adults, even though we went through many a tough time while they were growing up. We have an added delightful bonus with our granddaughter, Alexia.
In Potgietersrus, we visited their grandma and it was her first time seeing Alexia. We 
stayed there for two nights and had so much fun. We went to play golf on Monday morning at the Potgietersrus Golf Club. Maryna drove the golf car with her grandma and Alexia and I hung on behind the car and we had so much fun. It was a gorgeous sunny winters day…
We were invited to have a potjie with family in Pietersburg. Food was once again a delightful feast as you cook your own potjie. We had live music to boot in the form of karaoke… until the wee morning hours and then only went to sleep…or…to chat with Ouma Dollie as we slept in the same bed.
Next morning, we went for a Wimpy breakfast before we left on our road trip back to Pretoria. It was amazing to spend time with both kids and Alexia, before Juan had to take his prebooked flight back to Palma to work away again for a five month contract.
So after a month of working on weekends, the workmen needed a well deserved weekend off and we made full use of this opportunity to have ourselves a weekend away to the Magaliesberg.
Friday afternoon, we could not wait to get our bags in the car and head out of the city…
We bought food for the weekend and as we were super excited, we went overboard and we had food for the rest of the week also.
It was a beautiful day as we set out excitedly.
It was after lunchtime and we had not eaten yet. We are definitely eating more healthy after my health scare, but cannot seem to find healthy take aways. – Suggestions for the future would be awesome.
We bought buns, salami and Kiri cream cheese…and added baby spinach leaves. We devoured this while driving and the views surrounding us were transforming and becoming increasingly appealing.
We saw some majestic horses grazing in a paddock and this created a peaceful feeling of knowing that we were leaving city life behind for a few glorious days.
We opened the windows and the country smells streaming in were calm inducing.
We had prebooked and rented a cute thatch roof cottage, The Farmhouse .
As we drove in through the gate, we were greeted with rich farm smells and a peaceful feeling settled in us.
It was really awesome to be out of the bustling city and hear only the sound of silence…
Isaac opened the gate for us and gave us our keys. Then the welcoming committee did their bit…some cackling geese and our nameless black Labrador. Said Labrador felt a bit like a ‘rent a dog’, as he stayed with us at our cottage the entire weekend making us feel right at home.
B was worried that the little thatch roof cabin would be too primitive, but as I looked around, there was everything that we could possibly need. I was especially pleased with the corner bath, balancing out the simplicity of everything else.
We also – immediately upon seeing it – switched on the necessary wall heating panel.
As wood were already supplied, we did the South African thing and immediately started a fire in the fireplace outside under the vast variety of exquisite trees.
The moon slowly started showing her beautiful face and she were two evenings away from full. Without any visible city lights around, the magical starry skies were a stunning sight to behold.
We enjoyed grilling a small portion of lazy aged steak as we were both a little bit over meat. (Our vegetarian friends would love to hear this.)
Most of our vegetarian friends cannot resist a little piece of grilled steak though. We also grilled some mushrooms with garlic and cheese. An added bonus were the most awesome spinach that we have seen in a long time as we purchased it from a proper country cart on our way to the farm. We were superblessed as a bunch of spinach cost only R5. We could not believe it and to make this deal even sweeter, the size of a bunch equalled four bunches at any regular store.
After a delicious meal, we
chilled for a bit enjoying the beautiful starry skies with a lovely Boplaas Vintage port in hand.
A candle light bath were well overdue as we only have a shower where we were staying and it definitely is the little things in life that makes us happy…
…I had a few finished bottles of my essential oils that I used to produce my perfume Alexia . The fragrance of the bottle wash with these bottles lasted for every bath we had throughout the entire weekend.
We were also superblessed to use our new candle, handcrafted in Bali, which were gifted by our friend Steve, just about a week ago on his return visit from Indonesia.
How superblessed I felt with this ‘first in a long time’ bath and the warm water and alluring smells were stimulating all my senses.
As I was taking off my earings, one of them fell on the floor next to the bed. I was very grateful when I kneeled down to pick it up and saw that we were superblessed to have an electric blanket on our bed. I immediately proceeded to switch it on, so we would be even cosier after our bath.
I cannot remember when last we played board (or as I use to refer to them as bored) games. As we are both competitive, “Scrabble” became our chosen battle for the weekend. After a long game of scrabble, we decided to watch a movie and only went to sleep just before two in the morning.
Saturday morning B woke up at the same time that the alarm usually wakes us up. He went to make us tea and brought the rusks. We opened the sliding door and our senses were pleasured by a scenic splendour, musical birdsong and fresh farm smells.
I must say that being June, the air was quite a crispy fresh and we stayed in bed for a long while drinking tea and eating rusks.
The brightening sun beckoned us out to do some exploring and soon we were heading towards the Cradle of Humankind.
B was reminded of his childhood
memories and he chatted excitedly telling me all the stories about his road trips with his parents when driving to his grandparents. Both his grandmas lived in Swartruggens and they would visit them on many weekends. They would drive from home on a Friday afternoon, half way there, they would buy Russian and chips at a particular take-away vendor. He also remembered being dropped off sometimes with his cousin, Jaco on their farm and told me about all the weekend fun they had.
Surrounding us were beautiful countryside and majestic mountains. We went passed a turnoff with a sign of Bekker School. At the same turnoff I also saw a sign that piqued my interest for ‘Melon Rouge’, but B drove past and I decided to leave it be.
Being ‘in the flow’, we came to a circular road that brought us right back again to the entrance of ‘Melon Rouge”. I was very happy about this as it was a splendid venue to purchase some treasures…books, crafts and antiques that teleported us back in time. We spend some time there before we headed on to the road towards the Cradle of Humankind.
We drove on and I saw a signboard suggesting that we were 26 km from Krugersdorp and the surrounding nature were breathtakingly beautiful. We drove over the Magalies river again which is the same river that runs where we have our accommodation on the Farm.
After driving awhile on the Magalies meander, we saw a turnoff for the Cradle of Humankind onto a dirt road and this did not inspire us with any high expectations…
Wow… wow… wow
…were we pleasantly surprised? Everything from the parking space to the buildings, were clean and very well taken care of. The staff were super competent and helpful. We were just in time for the 12h00 guided tour and were amazed at the information our tour guide shared with us firstly outside the building and then taking us inside and ushering us in the right direction towards even more captivating surprises.
At one point we thought we had seen it all, but were super surprised as we entered into a room with low and behold…a river. We were guided onto an inflated dinghy. As we swirled around on this river stream, the surrounds depicted the ice and fire age. It was absolutely amazing…
We came to a halt where a gentleman ushered us out. Just as we thought the tour had ended on this high note, it surpassed any expectation when we entered into a spinning ‘Vortex’ which really confused our equilibrium.
Still, this was not the end…
Next we entered into the actual museum and saw skeleton foundings and interesting articles about these excavations. We read informative articles about DNA strands. We heard more about Mrs Ples . There is also a huge science area with many interesting gadgets and info.
We had such an amazing time so well spend that we forgot about food. We did not have breakfast yet and it was well after lunchtime…
Luckily for us, we were ushered toward the restaurant which served us too well. We also had a lovely view from the glass walls of this amazing architectured building. We were amazed at how well priced it was as the service and food were excellent. They even had a Peroni for me.
We felt superblessed with our trip to The Cradle of Humankind and would definitely recommend it.
Afterwards we phoned a friend of a friend who we have met and were invited to visit should we ever be close by. We have heard so much about Eugene’s hard work and moringa growing abilities. Since I have been in the hospital, I have added moringa to my diet.
We were cordially invited and spend a lovely afternoon in the company of Eugene and Yvette. We explored their farm and saw the plants. They are both very talented. Works by their hands can be seen everywhere. Yvette was busy with a beautiful commissioned painting and Eugene creates enchanting metalwork statues.
Our new friends were very hospitable and giving. We were gifted geniune treasures in the form of home grown mint, moringa, tumeric, ginger, pickled pepperdews and even sugar cane. We were super blessed with spending time and did not want to leave. We left much later than we wanted as the sun was already setting.
Sunday morning was ‘Fathers Day’. I was back on top form being ‘The Naked Barista’ and made B a well deserved breakfast as he is an awesome father.
Again we opened the door and it was rather cold out. We were lazy after Saturday and decided to stay in bed as long as possible as it was so warm and cozy. After I phoned my Dad, we proceeded to watch a long movie.
Luckily the sun was warming gradually as we were invited to meet our friends, Skillie, Alda, Ruan and Nadia around lunch time at the Ale House .
The Ale House is owned by ‘Oom Dirk’. We were in time to see his daughter ‘Jackie’ giving him some love in full abundance with flowers and a huge stuffed blue elephant toy to add some pinkish tones to his face colour.
We had some pizza and craft beers surrounded by beautiful trees and a lively vibe.
Nadia proceeded to complete my hair wrap
that she renewed for me starting at a braai awhile back.
This was a good advert for her, as Jackie, the owners daughter, asked for her number as she would also like to have a hair wrap done.
While we are on the subject of Nadia’s talents…orders are very welcome. (Cellno 072 7047252)
We are all so very connected and I strongly believe we need to nurture this as it is preeminent to fabricate our life as…
…superblessed…