Durban’s not just about sun and surf – it’s also less than a two-hour drive from an agricultural hinterland that bristles with dozens of more-or-less-chi-chi farm stalls, handicrafts and cottage industries, craft breweries, hostelries, spas, cafés and restaurants. This bucolic wonderland is called the Midlands Meander, and what better destination for a couple of nights’ R&R with my sister Dale from London and our mutual BFF Julie?

Day One – of pork crackling, dental disasters and craft ales

Luggage piled into the back of Julie’s Ford Everest, we headed straight up the N3, past Pietermaritzburg and to Piggly Wiggly on the R103. This retail complex is an unmissable stop, if only for a mixed case of wine from the Meander Fine Wine shop. Other favourites here are Huddy’s second-hand books, the Zulu-Lulu Art Gallery and the Lavender Company’s essential oils and bath-salts (the bergamot and grapefruit is to kill for).

Warning! Only bad things can come from breakfasting on super-hard pork crackling, as I discovered to my cost at Piggly Wiggly’s Three Fat Pigs Cheese and Deli when one of my molar crowns snapped expensively in two. I resolved never to touch the stuff again, and to stick to wine and soggy rusks (traditional South African biscuits that you dunk into coffee) until I could get back to civilisation and my dentist.

The KZN Midlands gets unbelievably cold – even in late November, the daytime temperature was around nine or 10 degrees Centigrade. But mist, chill and drizzle only add to the experience, especially when hotels and restaurants such as Rawdon’s Hotel in Balgowan welcome you with crackling fires. That’s where we headed, straight from Piggly Wiggly, to sample a flight of craft beers from its Nottingham Road Brewery, plus a generous Greek salad, a steak and ale pie and a butter chicken curry. (Of the ales, the new cappuccino porter was probably the winner.)

After checking into Waterford Manor’s two-bedroomed, self-catering and very comfortable Rose Cottage (R4,250 for two nights; about US$300), we retraced our path about 7km in the direction of Rawdon’s to Austrian specialty restaurant Bierfassl – quiet on this chilly Sunday evening, and the décor truly nasty; but it had the virtue of being open. And guess what? I tucked into the enormous and delicious eisbein, crackling and all.

Day Two – of biltong, antiques and roast marrow bones

Straight to Mooi River to stock up on biltong at the Mooi 1-Stop Butchery, some of the best around. Then back down south again to explore Route 4 of the Midlands Meander, starting with morning coffee, scones and muffins at Terbodore Coffee Roasters at Curry’s Post.

Next stop, Lions River Trading Post to browse its antiques. I did some early Christmas shopping, but to say more would be to spill Santa’s secret beans.

It’s great to go meandering on a Monday, thereby avoiding the weekend crowds. We were the only (late) lunchers at Caversham Mill: Greek salad, tomato and coriander soup and roasted bone marrow with toast, washed down with the excellent Boplaas Pinot Noir Brut (R170, by the way; about US$12!).

Day Three – and a personal note of disappointment

Back to Durban, but not before blueberry muffins and coffee at Blueberry Hill. Surprising, isn’t it, how very loud a hen party can be at 10am? – but not so astonishing when you consider the number of empty champagne bottles on their breakfast table.

After getting home to my beloved, I happened to mention how bossy my sister had become, whereupon he burst into whoops of raucous and unkind laughter. “Bossier than you? – is that even possible?” Later I called my mother (hoping for a bit of sympathy), and just happened to mention her younger daughter’s tendency to order others around. Again the jibing laughter, the rude “Worse than you? Surely not!”

That’s family for you.

 

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