with lots of solar panels, a terrace with beautiful sunsets and views, a restaurant, and a spa
A parking and charging area for electric cars and you can hire the bikes and electric scooters to explore the area
Fossil cars use a parking area across the road
Even more solar panels on the roof
The pathway to the rooms
and very modern rooms, each with its own patio and good views; ours even has its own plunge pool outside. There is something else quite special: Each room is equipped with ‘Echo’ an interactive female-voiced computer, whom you can command with your voice. So you say “Echo” and she turns on; you can ask her to answer questions and perform tasks. We asked her to turn on the room lights, to make them brighter, what the weather will be like in Robertson the next day and how to “close the blinds” in our room; down they came! We know that this is the future in all our homes, but it is the first time we have experienced it. You do have to be quite precise in speech. There are many different things she will answer: numerical calculations, give you the news, play music, operate the coffee machine and even tell you Ryan Gosling’s birthday (!) “Who he?”, said John
White and bright inside with a large comfortable bed
Strangely, there is a pod coffee making machine in the left hand bedside table
More about that later
Compact toilet area behind the bed
and a large two person shower
A desk to sit at, with a kettle and the remote control for the TV and other facilities
The room has full length white blinds on all the windows, controlled by Echo or the remote
We had the end cottage and it came with a large outdoor area
Marvellous views across the Robertson valley
Near the main building is the pool deck
Lovely rose garden near the Spa
and beautiful sunsets
Inside the restaurant
It was time for supper and the menu has some good choices
and a wine and cocktail list
A reminder of Addo on the wall where the wine is kept
We had a lovely, if slightly rowdy, dinner that night. Only one other party in for dinner, here on a staff conference, who were really enjoying themselves. They were quite a noisy crowd, enjoying themselves with lots of cocktails and wine and food and we could see some of them becoming a bit 'overdone'
Can’t resist: days of wine and roses
We had brought a bottle of NitÃda Pinot Noir with us, which we enjoyed with dinner
We did not order starters as we’d had such a good lunch at De Wetshof
John chose the Fillet Steak with a red wine jus, fondant potato, green beans and red cabbage which he enjoyed
Lynne opted for the creamy Seafood linguine with prawns, mussels and calamari,
and a dusting of lemon zest, thinking it might be small
It was jam packed with seafood and an enormous portion
Sorry, Buddy, we don't feed dogs at the table. The owner’s dog is very cute
A guest on the deck with the bar
They light the place up at night
Even the trees and the pool area are gently floodlit
Time to walk back to the room
Lynne was looking forward to getting into bed to read and then saying “turn off the lights” and not having to get up to do it
We both did some work, John on photos, Lynne writing,
before getting into bed and commanding Echo to turn everything off
Echo did misbehave in the night; lights kept going on one by one, till they were all on. She wouldn’t obey Lynne’s verbal instructions to turn them off, so she had to get up do it manually, twice. And she made us coffee at about 4 am, the room was filled with great aromas of roasted beans. John slept through it all, even Lynne’s loud and getting angry commands! In the morning, our blinds suddenly closed as John came out of the shower. Echo has fine sensibilities as well? It was quite funny if you kept your sense of humour ….. IF
Time for breakfast, where we learned that the inebriated conference party had been playing with Echo
into the small hours and had blown the computer; Echo was so confused with all the contradictory commands
On the table was a fresh fruit and yogurt filled glass, fresh orange juice and two rolls
We think that Buddy had been awake all night too!
Lynne’s green tea and a selection of butter and jams
Fried eggs, bacon, sausage and mushrooms for Lynne
Scrambled egg, sausage, bacon and tomato for John
We really enjoyed (most of!) our stay at theLAB and were very thankful to be hosted by the owners
We do understand that what happened was completely out of their control
We were fascinated by Echo and did have a good laugh at the happenings in the night
And as we left, a view across the valley to some beautiful horses in a paddock
We had been told that Paul de Wet, the previous owner of Zandvliet, now lives in the area
He and his wife are great lovers of horses. These could be theirs
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