We checked into the Protea Hotel Balalaika in Sandton. I never did find the reason why the hotel has the same name as a Russian stringed musical instrument so if anyone can tell me, I’d like to know. Having been without access to shoe shops for much of the week, the girls in our group were straight off to the nearest shopping mall while I took the time to catch up with emails and news via the hotels WiFi connection.
As it was the final night of the Familiarisation trip, we all ate together in a restaurant next door. The food was excellent (as it had been all week) and the drink flowed pretty freely. After the meal ended, we moved back to the hotel bar and I enjoyed a few bottles of Castle at incredibly cheap prices. Eventually, we called it a night as we had one last activity in Johannesburg before heading back to the airport where the rest of my group would fly home and where I would collect my hire car to head down to KwaZulu Natal.
The activity was a cook off hosted by Samp & Souflee (http://www.sampsouffle.com/). We met up with 2 other groups who had also been to South Africa for the past week and from there were split up into 3 groups. The idea was that each group would be responsible for preparing a course for a 3 course meal under the guidance of a chef. Our group was responsible for the main course and making the bread for the soup. The main course was venison (Impala) with an assortment of vegetables and paleta (basically, mashed up sweet corn). Our group worked pretty well together and for what looked to be a very nice meal, it was surprising how little time and effort it actually took to make. Things like this make you realise just how lazy we are when it comes to convenience food. Proper cooking doesn’t actually take too much longer and it was good fun.
All courses of the meal were wonderful and at the end of it, we had time to chat and relax which was a nice way to end an excellent week. We were also presented with a few momentos of the day; an apron, oven gloves, a jar of sauce, a BBQ tool set as well as some brochures. With time pressing, we loaded up and headed back to the airport. From here, my new found friends would fly back to the UK and I would continue my adventure in South Africa for another week.
If you would like to contact us for more information about seeing the Big Five in South Africa, please visit our website here (http://www.big5.explorertravel.co.uk/)
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