Situated on 90 hectares of beautiful Swaziland highlands in the heart of the Kingdom, [highlight] Foresters Arms [/highlight] is a country hotel with great character and some seriously good food. It’s a [highlight] WildWeb [/highlight] favourite.
Clare Fleming, our WildWeb owner Paul’s sister-in-law, spent some time enjoying Swaziland with the family and stayed at this charming hotel. She arrived a visitor and left a friend, just like every guest at [highlight] Foresters Arms [/highlight] does!
“The first destination on our ‘Awfully Big African Adventure’ was to be the [highlight] Foresters Arms Hotel [/highlight] or Ruth’s as we now know it (Ruth Buck being the marvellous chatelaine of Foresters.) It’s just outside Mbabane, capital of the Kingdom of Swaziland. Ruth’s is just half a day’s drive from Durban so we set off early from Umdloti in eager anticipation of arriving in time for lunch which included the astounding promise of twenty two home-made puddings. My nieces, Amelia and Polly, could barely contain their excitement at the prospect of seeing Ruth and the puddings, having been lucky enough to stay at the hotel on a previous trip.
The mountainous landscape is so different from the flat plains of South Africa that you instantly know you are in another country. The lack of litter was remarkable; not so much as a bottle top blotted the beautiful landscape. The drive through steep and winding river valleys was like a beautiful roller-coaster ride. It was astounding to be in Africa yet surrounded by an Alpine-like landscape, the hills dotted with neat, small-holdings, goats and cattle. The miles of regimented lines of rubber trees were mesmerising. As we drew closer to Mbabane, the forestry increased, clearly a thriving industry judging by the corps of logs along the road, stacked as neatly as when growing in acres of regimented lines along the way. The road to Foresters cuts a swathe through the tree plantations and the excitement was a fever pitch when we turned into the driveway. We were greeted and welcomed by a beaming security guard who ushered us in through the gates surrounded by flowering shrubbery.
Once inside, we were greeted just as warmly by one of Ruth’s team of beautiful ladies, each of who whom wear traditional Swazi dresses which are not dissimilar from Austrian dirndls. The decor of warm reds and greens reflected the red earth and forest all around us and everything was ‘just so’. We were shown to our rooms, via the elegant dining room.
The rooms are arranged around neat lawns which tumble down to the swimming pool. Words cannot express the intense joy of opening the door to reveal a perfectly-made bed with crisp white sheets, finding a bathroom with warm towels at the ready, a deep bath and turning back to admire the view from a picture window framed by heavy silk curtains. After hours of hot, dusty roads, this was heaven. The only ‘traffic’ in view was the fluttering of Weaver birds as they attended their amazing little nest in the nearby tree and the sound of horses whickering from their corral in the lower valley.
Despite having missed the puddings fiesta at lunchtime, dinner easily matched and then surpassed our expectations. Sparkling and refreshed following swims, showers and baths, we gathered under the boughs of trees and shrubs outside the bar for aperitifs. We then moved inside to eat. The dining room glowed with soft golden light and each table was set simply and elegantly with crisp white cotton, a little candle and a small vase of flowers from the grounds. We were greeted by a beaming lady in a sunny Swazi dress, the traditional type a young girl would wear when visiting her mother, who introduced herself and passed around copies of the single-sheet menu. The quality of the food is outstanding and our initial hesitation in not wanting to appear greedy was soon banished as each of us raved about the utter deliciousness of our choice and urged each other order it next. I think we all had a taste of everything on the menu. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
There are so many places to be explored in close proximity to Foresters and Ruth recommended those we could achieve in the limited time we had before continuing on to Mozambique. All in all I fell in love with Swaziland and cannot wait to return. I’ll use Ruth’s as a base, knowing that I’ll be welcomed warmly – the Foresters experience is akin to staying with a favourite relative and being treated to the best of everything one could wish for by a dedicated team, each member of which clearly takes pride in their work and their glorious little kingdom, following the lead of Ruth, the Mary Poppins of the mountains, practically perfect in every way, with the added bonus of a wicked sense of humour. Floreat Foresters.”
For more information about Foresters, visit their website: www.forestersarms.co.sz