Roadtrip to TenAhead

We left Joburg around 09:30 on Wednesday. The drive felt relatively quick. I spent a lot of the time finishing up my chess game with paans while Carol did the driving. It was the first game that we drew and I didn’t lose outright.

We stopped for lunch at a road-side Maxis close to Ventersdorp I think. The waitress was sincerely friendly. She reminded us of the gardener Mholi. Good natured.  The drive was great. Hardly felt the 5.5 hour drive. The Volvo xc60 is so comfy. Love it!

We arrived in Smithfield in good time. Our bad luck we got pulled over by a traffic officer just as we entered the town for doing 91 in a 60 zone. R900 fine.

IMG_5424-2 Nick's Place, Smithfield, South Africa

The host Fabrice is a pretty amazing guy. He and his partner Ian run two guest houses in Smithfield. Fabrice bakes, makes jams and knits. The house is lovely with fairly great rooms. I enjoyed our stay and would highly recommend stopping over in Smithfield.
We ended up going to bed early and I was asleep by 20:30. Had a phat breakfast and departed around 09:30.
The scenery was so pretty. Beautiful part of the country. My first time road tripping in these parts. The landscape looked very dry due to low rainfall. The dams and rivers also looked quite low.  From Barkley East its a gravel road all the way to the lodge. About 90 odd km. Took us just over 2 hrs. Quite a hectic journey. Make sure you are driving a car with a high clearance. The VTenAhead Chef - Shaunolvo XC60 handled itself really well!

Tenahead lodge, named after Tina Head, on its own little nature reserve, is stunning. Beautiful location nestled between the mountains next to the Bell river. Our room is facing South East. It’s very chilly but we had a fire going quickly. There is a mountain view, naturally!
Every day At 3pm tea is served. The chef Shaun baked a separate batch of muffins for Carol and dairy free chocolate brownies.  At around 4pm we went on a short hike – about 90minutes. I did well considering my recovering ankle.
Dinner is a four course meal.