Johannesburg - While the feeling of “getting away from it all” tends to increase proportionately with the physical distance to your holiday destination, it’s not always practical to travel far, especially for a short trip of a day or two.
Forum Homini Hotel is a getaway that, for Gauteng residents, is right on the doorstep but still feels “remote” enough to feel disconnected from nearby suburbia’s broken traffic lights and kamikaze minibus-taxi drivers.
Located in the Cradle of Humankind in Muldersdrift, the small luxury hotel is just an hour’s drive from Joburg or Pretoria, yet offers the serenity of any far-flung bush lodge.
Set within a private game estate, this 5-star getaway offers luxury accommodation and fine dining at its award-winning Roots restaurant.
Forum Homini makes for an intimate wedding venue and is also equipped for conferences, and a large variety of game inhabits the Letamo Game Estate where the hotel is situated.
The hotel was designed to blend into the environment, with suites that are partially buried in the ground and have grass-covered roofs. Beneath the earthy camouflage is plush and spacious 5-star accommodation, decorated with stalagtite-shaped lights to give the rooms a “cave-chic” theme to suit the Cradle area, with the Sterkfontein caves being just a stone’s throw away.
Forum Homini’s also a short drive from Maropeng, where the fossils of our ancient human relative Homo naledi, one of the most exciting scientific finds in recent history, was unveiled to the world on September 10.
With views overlooking the bushveld, the 12 standard luxury suites are roomy and include a fireplace, a bath for two, a double indoor-outdoor shower, luxury king-size beds and satellite TV.
The honeymoon suite adds a spa bath and private dining area for two, while there’s also a presidential suite with an eight-seater dining room and a private garden with splash pool.
As befits the 5-star rating, the well-trained staff are attentive but discreet. The Roots Restaurant, which was chosen in 2008 as a Top-Ten South African restaurant by Eat Out, offers a high-class dining experience and is credited for establishing the practice of degustation – which means there’s no à la carte or buffet menu; you’re in the hands of an executive chef who lays on a 5-star meal of delicately assembled gastronomic artworks. These consist of several courses of small portions, each one paired with a different wine poured by a sommelier who describes the flavour nuances that are coursing over your taste buds. Roots boasts an unusually large selection of local estate wines. I’m not generally a fan of pretentious nouvelle cuisine where presentation trumps taste, and some of the dishes of executive chef Chris Tustian felt like they were a little over-adventurous in mixing discordant flavours. But I must admit I did enjoy much of the meal, and despite expectations the salt and vinegar chocolate really did go well with the anise ice cream.
Also, unlike many bite-sized nouvelle cuisine experiences I’ve had, which necessitated buying takeaways on the way home to quell the hunger pangs, the Roots 6-course dinner was a very filling one.
So too the 4-course breakfast the next day which again had that executive chef touch, and I enjoyed the way the ham hock and poached egg were jazzed-up with walnut, cauliflower and beetroot.
IF YOU GO
Accommodation and Roots rates: 2015
Rates start at R3 000 a person, sharing (R4 000 single), for a standard luxury suite, R3 500 (R4 500) for a deluxe suite, and R5 500 (sharing only) for the presidential and honeymoon suites. This includes dinner, bed and breakfast.
Lower rates are available on Sunday nights, with the luxury suites starting at R2 000 a person.
The restaurant, which is open to the public, offers set menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner, special Sunday lunches and wine tastings.
See www.forumhomini.com
Bookings: contact Corinna Howard at Outlook Africa on 083 228 7182.
Denis Droppa, Saturday Star