"Lovely bushveld weekend."

Beautifully isolated venue away from the hustle and bustle of Mabalingwe, but close enough to the shop and other entertainment. Good amenities and plenty of little creatures came to visit. Fire pit and plunge pool were the cherry on top for us.

"Incredible view of the woodland!"

We had a wonderful stay at Rock Cottage. The view is incredible and especially from the small pool over the woodland! The cottage was nice and clean and all facilities were there, as well as an air fryer, dishwasher and even a pod coffee machine. Rock Cottage is at the back of Mabalingwe, and entrance is mainly from the Elandsfontein gate. However, one is able to drive through Mabalingwe itself as well, the largest part of which is tarmac, with the last 2 km roughly dirt road. As recommended a higher motor will definitely work better on the last bit - it's definitely worth it. Lynette was a wonderful hostess and we hope to stay there again in the future.

"Different."

Beautiful place it however needs a lot maintenance.

"Pleasant and peaceful place to relax."

In general, this is a quiet, peaceful location and a good place to relax. We were well received and received great hospitality from the owners who were always available for any problems. The cottage needs a lot of maintenance; door handles come off easily, sliding doors are difficult to open, and when it rains, there are a lot of leaks in the lounge area. Also, no hot water in the kitchen.

"Disappointed."

Extremely disappointed. Cottage had not been cleaned from previous guests. Bedding was provided promptly and the place was cleaned the next day. Spoilt the weekend for me.

"Ideal for a few days of peace of mind in the forest."

If you like absolute seclusion and silence, this is the ideal place. You are literally in the woods with nothing and no one around you. We really enjoyed it. Many go hiking and visit Mabalingwe Reserve. We will definitely go again, but the place needs some attention. The rooms and bathrooms are extremely small and cramped with no cupboards or hanging space. The place is perfect for 4 adults, definitely not 6. The kitchen also only has the basic appliances, but is comfortable. In the living room is a small bench with extra camping chairs under the stairs. Since the rooms are so small, the furniture or seating in the living area could definitely be upgraded. The linen was beautifully neat and clean. With the understanding that it is indeed in the woods, the place just needs a thorough cleaning, especially the porch/braai area. Lynette was always available and arranged for our water problem to be sorted within minutes. Thank you very much!

"Ideal for those looking for peace and quiet."

Linen, bedding and mattresses fairly new and very clean. Fully equipped with coffee maker, microwave oven, dishwasher, cleaning products etc. Beautiful swimming pool with nice barbecue area and pizza oven. Lynette also had wood (R15/bag) delivered to us for the fireplace. Goats and warthogs come to visit in the evening. Small things that scratch: Although the cottage is very private, the bathrooms lack curtains or blinds. Very little/no hanging space in rooms for clothes. There is definitely some maintenance to be done on the cupboard drawers, doors and shower door that don't open well (nothing a competent "handyman" won't be able to fix in a day). Refrigerator will be much colder and economical if it is refilled with gas. Not seating for 6 people, but beds - I would say comfortable for 4 adults and 2 children. Mabilingwe's restaurants and leisure facilities are 9 km (+-30 min) from the cottage. It is a quiet tarmac with lots of wildlife and pretty ponds. NB: There is about 1.5 km of dirt road down to the cottage which you can definitely only drive with a vehicle with a high ground clearance. Would stay there again anytime!

"The cottage was overall very disappointing and there were very little redeeming qualities except for the pool."

The only reason I am bothering to even write this review in the first place is to help people understand exactly what they are getting themselves into. My family and I feel as though the owners of this cottage do not care about the wellbeing, the safety or the comfort of their guests and this is why: The road to the cottage from the point where one exits Mabalingwe is probably the worst road that I have ever had the displeasure to drive on, to call it “bumpy” would be an understatement. The road is far from suitable to drive on unless you have a 4x4 and even then it would be advisable to go slow on it. There was no warning that the road would be unsuitable for normal cars, otherwise I would not have booked the cottage in the first place. The location itself has a great view and is very secluded but the seclusion could be more of a problem than a good thing because in the booklet that is in the cottage, it states that there are frequent opportunistic robberies (which is also not stated on their website) which does not make one feel safe as there is no burglar bars or alarms or any safety measures except for: “hide your stuff”. There were many problems with the house including: A distasteful zebra skin carpet, dirty bedsheets and pillows on three of the beds, a hole in the ceiling upstairs, a sliding door/window that leaked during a thunderstorm, inadequate ceiling fans, extremely small bathrooms with doors that don’t cover the door frames properly, neither were the bathrooms properly cleaned, a lack of kitchen equipment, such as pot holders or oven mitts, a wipe up cloth, measuring equipment, side plates, a fridge, that could hardly be called cold even when turned up to capacity, air conditioning not properly installed, and only in one bedroom and lastly the cottage does not really cater for 6 people in spite of sleeping 6, as those sleeping upstairs had to use one of the en-suite bathrooms, the indoor dinner table has only 4 chairs and the couch only sits 3 people. The last thing I will mention is that there are no bug screens on the doors and windows which means windows and doors can’t be opened at night for air otherwise you’d be inundated with insect life and mosquitoes, and the fans really were inadequate to cool the cottage properly. The only really good feature in this cottage is the pool, it was excellent, only it was a shame that it’s “infinity” feature was not on because the pool was not filled enough. The cottage was definitely not worth the money I paid. We were so looking forward to this getaway but it was overall a disappointing and stressful experience.

"Quiet family time."

Beautiful cottage, lots of silence and kilometers of woodland around you. A must if you want to get away from the busy city and noise. The cottage is fully equipped with top quality towels, bed linen and kitchenware. It was a very hot weekend and an air cooler would definitely have been a bonus. Will definitely visit again, preferably in the winter months with a next opportunity!