18 Jan 2012

More South African Trip ....

On the way to Warmbaths in Limpopo, just outside of Pretoria, we found a Rose Farm .... 
Ludwig's Rose Farm. 
We had to stop...
As we got out of the car the smell of roses nearly bowled us over.
I suppose it was more potent in the midday sun and 35 degrees  Celsius (96 degrees Fahrenheit) heat  and with the sprinklers on them the smell was everywhere, so beautiful. 
Wow it was amazing there were hundreds and thousands of rose species. 
The roses were all in their specific categories - Hybrid Tea Roses,
Colourscape Roses,
Climbers
 Ramblers,
Miniature Roses
  Fairy Tale Roses with names like Pooh Bear and Princess Rose Blossom
 and of course some more famous names such as
Madiba ( Nelson Mandela),

Madiba's Rose

Very fitting for Madiba!
Super Bowl and Pride of England! 
There was a tea room ....
Serving cream scones and cakes.
  Also on sale were Rose Jams (delicious wish I could have brought some home!)
Rose Turkish delight and rose bushes and cut roses ....
 Ahh it was soooo beautiful!
 Only  when we drove out on the highway did we realise how large the farm is!

  It was such a great  day!

Back on the Great North road to Warmbaths to spend a couple of days near Warmsbath's at a  hotel called the Carousel. 
The Great North Road to Warmbaths
Open bushveld all the way to the Carousel
 It was really a treat my Sister-in-Love had arranged for a bit of a break and a bit of Luxury. The Carousel is a large hotel complex
The  Carousel Hotel
  with a  very large casino attached
Gates to the Hotel
The sign at at the gates of the casino promise all sorts
The sign at the entrance of the casino
 We were given a complimentary R200 each to gamble. 
I am not a gambler at all - I just can't get my head around putting,  good money, that could buy some beads or such stuff into a machine to have it swallowed up in an instantly .

I did however find a machine that had lots of lights and free games and cost a whole 20c to play. 
I  won until I had R1 900 then  lost, then won and then lost, but still came away with my R200 in tact so it was fun. 


BUT the Rose Farm was the highlight of my weekend!

Hugs
Cxxx

5 comments:

Rebecca Nelson said...

Oh C....I love the roses. How gorgeous! More than beautiful. I so hope to plant some roses (Ramblers) someday. Everything so far I just kill. It's the Oklahoma heat and red clay. That's my story and I'm STICKIN' to it!

I hoped to put your button on my blog...can't snag the right one. Can you send it to me?

xoRebecca

Red Rose Alley said...

How I would love to visit the Rose Farm. This is such a beautiful place with an assortment of roses. The Madiba rose is exquisite. I know my heart would sing if I saw the red roses. The rose jam looks delightful. By the way, I'm not a gambler either. I'd rather use the money for things we need. Happy week to you,
~Sheri at Red Rose Alley

marie said...

What a wondeful trip! The roses are amazing...I could have looked at them all day. And that cake...oh my goodness! Yum!

Bluebell said...

Hi Cheryl, Thank you for the kind comment on my blog, I am a newby to crazy quilting but I love it. Your photo's of the Roses are beautiful and make me long for summer, I will call again.
Jill

Kit said...

I can smell the roses from here! Oh how it makes me yearn for my own roses (now very dormant and very covered up with a foot of snow.) Kit