June saw Chantelle, the girls and I enjoy a bit of a long weekend away break, booking in at the Far Hills Country Hotel just outside of George, on your way to Wilderness. Once again, Chantelle had spotted a fantastic Daddy’s Deals promo that give us a big discount on the normal going rate (similar to how we scored for our earlier weekend away at the Blue Gum Country Estate), with a deal that was literally too good to pass up on.
As it turned out, this deal was so good that in the end we were joined by both Monty and Cheryl, as well as (completely coincidental mind you) Evan, Natasha and their little ones for this particular weekend away!
After a pleasant drive up on Friday, we arrived at the Far Hills Country Hotel, just in time to get settled in and bask in the magnificent views afforded from the hotel’s deck before the sun set for the night.
The hotel has been around for years now (in fact, Chantelle and her family were actually put up in the very same hotel years ago when her father was first relocated to George whilst working for Eskom), and although some of this age does creep through in terms of some of the its looks and fittings, this is more than balanced out by the splendid Garden Route setting the hotel finds itself in the middle of.
True, there were some complaints from everyone else over the course of our stay there, for instance, grumbles over the old and tired mattresses on the beds, some desperately in need of maintenance room fittings, a not particularly great breakfast spread (or supper for that matter) on offer, not to mention the serious lack of kitchen staff seemingly on duty in the busy/chaotic mornings.
However, despite these few mutterings, I thought that the staff with which I did have contact with were all wonderful, and most important of all, I found our room relatively comfortable. True, the TV didn’t work at all (a loss as far as the kids were concerned), but I thought the fact that I was able to sit on my private balcony, drinking a cup of morning coffee whilst watching a flock of thousands of egrets fly through the valley below easily made up for all the shortcomings pointed out by the rest of our party!
Although Chantelle didn’t sleep particularly well (and yes, the weird teenage-attended charity dance party on the Friday night didn’t help), both the girls and I slept very well, meaning that the three of us definitely enjoyed the weekend away the most!
(We also did a bit of exploring around the grounds when we got the chance, with the girls loving all the overgrown vegetation that results in loads of cool paths between the housing blocks to wander about on.)
With Far Hills as our main base, we enjoyed a proper weekend of out and about, spending the first day by doing a full day road trip that saw us drive all the way through to The Crags (just past Plettenberg Bay) to visit Birds of Eden, Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary as well as the Plett Puzzle Park, followed by a day of hopping from one beach to the next (Victoria Bay and Herolds Bay) before rounding off with a walk along the Pied Kingfisher Trail boardwalk in Wilderness!
As luck would have it, the weather remained beautiful for pretty much the entire weekend, with the rain only finally descending upon us come Monday – which really didn’t matter that much considering the fact that we were leaving for home on the day anyway!
It was as far as what I’m concerned, a great weekend away with a great group of people. Jessica in particular loved the fact that Evalynne was there for her to play with, whilst I on the other hand left with strong reminder of just how much I actually love the beautiful Garden Route area – even if it seems that we almost never go out that way!
Naturally, I took loads of photos over the course of the weekend, so plenty of photo sets still to come, but for now, here are a couple that I took at Far Hills Country Lodge itself:
Related Link: Far Hills Country Hotel