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Lake Bandula
Looking for a place to get away from city stress? Somewhere to totally relax that doesn’t take you forever to get there from Johannesburg or Pretoria?
Lake Bandula Riverside Retreat is the answer. Situated near Hartbeespoort Dam in the North West Province, it is an easy-reach weekend escape.
The charming old farmhouse, built in 1852 has sash windows, wooden shutters. courtyards and lofty ceilings. The house has been meticulously restored and you can get lost just wandering around the many rooms, enjoying the furniture, light fittings and objets d’art that grab your gaze.
We were greeted on arrival by two very large great danes - both with impeccable manners – and shown to our stable accommodation. 
Our large room had its own walk-in dressing room with hanging space and shelves, an open fireplace (with temperatures in the 30’s it was doubtful that we would need it but I would imaging during winter months it would be extremely cosy… fire… bottle of red wine…) I digress!
A well stocked bar fridge, comfortable couch and easy chairs, books to read, tea and coffee facilities, as well as emergency candles were all provided. No television and no radio… remember you are here to relax!
We also had a large black and white floor tiled bathroom complete with claw-footed bath and thick fluffy towels.
We unpacked and decided to go for a walk. The first thing that you feel when looking out at the wonderful views of the nearby mountains is peaceful. The Witwatersberge literally begin in the front garden and through the valley you look onto the Magaliesberg mountains, some of the oldest in the world. You take a deep breath and let out all that city stress. Great place to meditate.
We checked out the waterway running alongside the main path. Several ducks were swimming around and we spotted tiny babies rushing around after one of the mummy ducks. Perhaps she was the designated baby sitter for the day?
A family of tiny black and white chickens, complete with adorable babies, scuttled among the day lilies and agapanthus that make up part of the flowing gardens. One of the owners, Graham, is a keen indigenous gardener and is steadily improving the already lush gardens with plants from his own nursery.
Our stable also had its own shaded verandah, complete with table, chairs and two loungers. We shared the verandah with two families of birds… a pair of starlings and a pair of swallows, both of whom had built nests in the roof area.
Bird life is amazing… if you are a serious bird watcher you can easily spend your entire weekend checking out birds. There have been over 300 bird species identified here!
We also had our own private garden area, situated inside an old kraal. Myriad places to sit and relax.
Graham recommended places to eat for dinner – and booked us into the Silver Orange Bistro for dinner that night. Great recommendation by the way. The Silver Orange deserves a write up of its own!
After a truly amazing dinner, we returned to our home for the weekend and fell into our king size bed with plenty of fluffy blankets and throws for a good night sleep.
Lake Bandula is a bed and breakfast establishment. We were encouraged to have a lie in and take breakfast around 9am. Sounded good to us! Wonderful fresh fruit served with home-made crème fraîche was the first course, followed with muesli and yoghurt and honey. Then a cooked breakfast with different toasts and marmalade and our choice of tea or coffee – we chose rooibos.
Graham is a wonderful host and regaled us with stores from the surrounding area. We could have sat and listened all day!
There’s a lot you can do – many places of interest in the area if you want to keep busy. For example we visited the Elephant Sanctuary on Saturday afternoon. You could also visit the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust – an amazing place (we have adopted our ‘own’ cheetah on a previous visit there) or you can visit Chameleon Village for many stalls of African curios and crafts.
Or you can do nothing much at all and just enjoy that fantastic scenery and chill out. We will be back soon!
Directions to get there: from Johannesburg, take the R512N past N14 and Lanseria airport. Turn left at the T junction, through Broederstroom. Turn left at the Hartbeeshoek sign and Lake Bandula is 8.2 kms on the right hand side.
Contact info: contact Graham on +27 (0)79 662 7751
Lake Bandula Farm, Hh 30, Skeerpoort, Magaliesberg. PO Box 229, Broederstroom, 0240
E-Mail: lake.bandula (at) gmail.com
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