May 5th
was our wedding anniversary. As it was our first we thought we should
set the bar high and do something special to celebrate. Plus we
really needed to escape from the stresses and annoyances of
flat-hunting for a little bit.
I
trawled the internet for a nice retreat within a reasonable drive
from Johannesburg and came up with the Carryblaire River Retreat, 90mins from Joburg. They boast that the most hectic activities
available are reading and fishing. Complete relaxation.
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| Carryblaire River Retreat |
About
15kms outside of the town of Parys, we turned off onto a bright red
dirt track which led us round to the banks of the river
Vaal and this lovely former farm. I was over-the-moon to find they
had checked us into a hut called 'African Skies' and even more
insanely excited to be greeted with a full milky way starry, starry
sky. Bliss.
After a
very good, made-to-order breakfast we asked about some nearby hiking
opportunities and were directed 3kms down the road to some hiking
trails up a hill from a farm called 'The Dell'. A mere 20minutes into our 'hike' we came to this bucolic view point before deciding to
continue on up some of the other trails.
Along the way we came
face-to-face with a family of antelope (ok, we thought that might
happen) which was cool. And then we rounded a corner and were
standing about 10 metres away from...two giraffes - very cool!
John
keeps repeating this story to everyone he can, but that giraffe did
seriously freak me out - in completely legitimate fashion - nobody had told us there would be big animals and game on this trail. John has it that the giraffe scared me. But I swear to God I
saw that giraffe run off just as some other golden coloured cat-like
creatures rustled the bushes after it (lions?! No, they were wild
cats I know now, but still...there were a lot of lion-coloured rocks
on that hill). Slightly scared initial reaction aside - walking alone with two giraffes, a thrilling and magical experience.
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| Giraffe (sorry not a great picture, I was startled) |
Back at
the retreat we enjoyed a fantastic home-cooked 3 course dinner
(180Rand a head – really excellent food and worth the price) and
some wine. John just had to tell the owners the giraffe story, which
they were considerably less wide-eyed about, 'Yes giraffes, we see
them all the time. They even have a rhino there now'.
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| African Skies hut |
Sunday
was spent with heads in books, snoozing by the river and playing with
the owner's adorable Jack Russell/dachshund cross. Before driving
back we attempted to grab a meal in Parys but to no avail. Most
places closed at 4pm (seriously) so we skipped out on this small town
experience (I wouldn't personally head to Parys simply to see the
town anyway, it's not especially amazing) and drove back to the big
city for dinner.
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| Sundowner |
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| Misty river sunrise |
This was
rent-a-wreck's (Mr Ford Laser) first experience driving outside the
city. Sure we couldn't get up to the 120km speed limit on the
motorways, but so many other cars on the road can't do that either.
The only casualty was the front number plate, which is lost somewhere
out in the Free State outback. Ooops.
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| Rent-a-wreck - Ford Laser |
Verdict: Carryblaire gets 5 out of 5. We'd go back every month if we could
afford it.
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