Forellenhof Guest Farm sits at the foot of the Versamel Mountains, six kilometres outside the birding village of Wakkerstroom on the Mpumalanga Highveld, between the mountains and the wetlands. Wakkerstroom is one of South Africa’s top birding destinations, and the farm is an easy under-four-hour drive from Johannesburg, Pretoria and Nelspruit.

The 4-star graded farm offers four lodgings — the Old Farmhouse Guesthouse and three self-catering cottages — sleeping up to eighteen guests in total. Guests come for world-class birding, the farm’s own Induku Hiking Trail, cycling, fly fishing at nearby dams and quiet evenings around the outdoor fireplace.

Breakfast at the guesthouse — continental, full English, vegetarian or gluten-free — is open to self-catering guests too, and every cottage has a wood fire, an honesty basket of goodies and load-shedding-ready lighting. An ideal en-route stopover for the Drakensberg, Kruger and the KwaZulu-Natal parks and coast.