THE OAKS. Cheaper than Chips.

Cheap and nasty. No just cheap and a good getaway. There are not many places like this left these days to go for a relaxing break.

It is about an hour and a bits drive from Durban and is at the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains. It is not going to be on any toursists radar, but is should. Where else can you have a break for 50 euro a day with everything all included. Three meals a day plus tea time with traditional scones and cake. The meal times are legendary starting with an old bell ringing letting the slaves know it is feeding time.The menu is a set menu but has 3 or 4 different choices on each course. You are not limited so I used to just start at the top and work my way through it.

All the facilities are included such as crazy golf, horse riding, swimming , a golf driving range and tennis. There is obviously huge hiking trails at the foot of the mountains. If you are old there is lawn bowls which I skip as I am not that old. It brings me onto my story of horse riding which I had done whilst growing up but hadn't ridden one for years.

When I lived in Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe I had lessons every Saturday until the horses were claimed by the Army for use in sniffing out land mines. A horse knows where to go apparently and won't step on a land mine. They can smell and sense danger out where we can't.

When I was at the Oaks I thought i would use the skills that I once learnt. It is not like riding a bike apparently as I had forgotten so much. It started with the mounting of my horse which I totally botched. There was a puddle just on the side of the horse so athletic me took a little run and jumped going right over the top and into a bigger puddle the other side. What a tosser as that went horribly wrong. I eventually got on all wet and muddy and after about an hour it started coming back to me until we had to canter. I chickened out as I was nearly thrown twice in the attempt. See @janton no cowboy here if you want me to catch a cow I will just shoot it and the jobs done.

It has taught me to keep quiet about previous skills and would rather say I have never done something and be called a natural to someone looking at me and thinking where did you find him?It's a good break and if you ever travel out this way it is a place to remember for a budget stay. There is a wonderful old bar with all the old games such as snooker billiard skittles.

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