We have had the most fantastic few weeks in beautiful South Africa. Starting with a night in Johannesburg and then onto Madikwe Game Reserve near the Botswana Border. Our trip completed with a week in Cape Town. Throughout the food and cuisine were out of this world matched only by the friendly people and breathtaking vistas. I couldn’t possibly do SA enough justice in just one blog post so I’ll cover Jo’berg in this post and follow up with Madikwe (where the animals were truly the stars of the show!) and last but not least wonderful Cape Town. So watch this space!
Jo’berg was an eye opener and a real education for us all. We were lucky enough to stay at the Residence in Houghton which is a really lovely boutique hotel in an upmarket suburb of Jo’berg. It was in Houghton where Nelson Mandela had his mansion and spent his last days. The hotel was excellent and the staff couldn’t do enough to help. We arrived to a gorgeous breakfast of truffled scrambled eggs with panfried mushrooms for me, full English for the hubbie and enough croissants, cold meats, cheeses and fruit to keep the little man happy. Oysters and bubbly were also offered – well it would have been rude not to accept!
After brekkie we decided to explore and had a guided tour of Soweto visiting Nelson & Winnie Mandela’s home (Mandela House), The Hector Pieterson Monument, we stopped outside Bishop Desmond Tutu’s home and Winnie Mandela’s house. Fascinating, awe inspiring stuff and a far cry from the Soweto i had seen in the media growing up in the UK. We were humbled when we found out just a couple of days later that Winnie Mandela had sadly passed away.
Our evening in Jo’berg was finished with a very lovely dinner in the restaurant at The Residence the highlight was the roasted pork belly with a chorizo crumb and a green apple jelly. The pork was cooked to perfection, melt in the mouth with crispy crackling, the chorizo crumb gave it a lovely salty savouriness and the apple gel provided a tart contrast to the salty chorizo and sweet richness of the pork.
After a night cap of Amarula on ice we retired to our room, bellies full and excitedly anticipating our safari adventure which would begin the next day………..