Maropeng

Just sent a group of ladies to Maropeng. I wish I could get away to go there too. Why? Because of the hominoid fossils they have on display there for a few days. Apparently they were found in August 2008 but are only now being made available for public viewing. We are on the periphery of the Cradle of Humankind, which means we are about 10 minutes away from where these 1,6 million year old fossils were found. They probably walked over this very property! For years we have been telling people about the fossilised roots on the rocks in the garden and showing them holes in rocks that were probably used to make fire with sticks. A guest identified them for us and before that we had just throught they were part of our garden. Everytime I walk past them now, I feel a sense of history and of privilege that these rocks are on our property. From Magaliesburg accommodation day spa and guest house

Living at a Magaliesburg spa and guesthouse

Hi. I'm Dorothy. Many people would love to be in my place and live at a spa - and I'm not just including women in this. I own and live at the Rose Well Spa and Guesthouse in Magaliesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. It's on an old historic farm about an hour's drive from Johannesburg and Pretoria. Not an African Farm in the sense of the karoo farm of South African literature, but a farm in an area where the British soldiers and Boers engaged in nasty skirmishes during the Anglo Boer War of 1902-1904. In fact it was impossible to grow anything on this part of the farm because the soil is granite and clay. Instead, the farmer (Henry Hartley) used this section of the farm to dry tobacco. When we moved here in December 1985 the place was covered with ramshackle outbuildings that South Africans call 'Pondokkies'. We farmed small scale while I was teaching and my husband, Frank was busy with various entrepreneurial activities. The pondokkies were adapted into a dairy, calf pens, pig sties, poultry sheds, feedlot, duckrun, slaughter pen etc. Why? because our 3 boys attended the local agricultural high school - Hoerskool Bekker. But times and interests changed and our boys left school and needed other outlets for their activites. Over the past 15 years they have been completely revamped and sanitised into a neat and beautiful 7-room guesthouse with a wellness spa. Only our youngest son, Ryan is still working with us and it was he who said I should start a blog about living here. Why not? thought I. And so here we are starting up a blog about living at The Rose Well Spa and Guesthouse. I'm not going to advertise the Guesthouse and Spa because we have a webpage for that http://www.rosewellspa.co.za/. Check it out. But come back and read what it's like to live here.