14 - Around Africa With Brenda …

THE MOUNT NELSON and THE VICTORIA FALLS HOTELS

Killer view,  the Delaire Estate in nearby Stellenboch

  

 

       I have made my life with Brenda for seven years now,  though I actually fell in love with her forty years ago.   That is another story.

Brenda, Kalk Bay Pier

Me, Echo Road, Fishhoek

Brenda has a little house not far from  Capetown where we spend a part of the South African summer (i.e. a couple of months somewhere between December and March).

We always make it to the wonderful old Mount Nelson Hotel in Capetown, usually for their buffet lunch.  There are finer restaurants in the world, but the Mount Nelson’s Oasis Restaurant still is unbeatable value for money with delicious fish and crustaceans cooked to order.   

Poolside at the Mount Nelson

Opened in 1899, the Nellie (as Winston Churchill called it) is set in over nine acres of impeccably manicured gardens, and it occupies a prime Capetown site on the lower slopes of Table Mountain.  It is arguably Africa's premier surviving hotel from the golden age of hostelry.

The Mount Nelson's iconic pink facade

Margaret is a special friend at the Oasis, and she has many, many other client friends.  The doyenne of the hotel’s wait staff, she has been at the Mount Nelson for well over 35 years, and has seen colossal changes in South African society since her arrival there as a young girl at the height of apartheid.

Margaret outside the Oasis Restaurant

 

She is something of a hotel celebrity just by virtue of her longevity and special personality.  I don’t think I have ever been there when at least one returning guest hasn’t asked if Margaret were around and available for a chat.  She always gives a big hug, and seems to remember each client, no matter how long ago their last visit.

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Front lawn, Victoria Falls Hotel

      We traveled north this year into Zimbabwe and Zambia, spending time at the magnificent Victoria Falls, one of the scenic wonders of the world, and we stayed for three days at the Victoria Falls Hotel, historically another one of Africa’s finest.

If I particularly mention Brenda, it is because this trip was her idea and a voyage down memory lane for her.  She had last stayed at this mythic African resort as a little girl during a stopover on a long train and boat journey from Nairobi to the southernmost cape of South Africa.

Bontebok antelope near the South Cape

She recently discovered some old family snapshots taken on the hotel grounds admiring a troupe of visiting monkeys.  To our surprise and delight, while enjoying the view from Stanley's Terrace our first afternoon, we observed a similar troupe of about a dozen monkeys from the neighboring rain forest, paying their teatime visit.

Brenda and friend on Vic Falls Hotel grounds (family archives)

It was a moving moment for Brenda and undoubtedly rekindled many of her African memories from a lifetime ago growing up in Kenya.

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Victoria Falls Hotel, room 212

Our room, with a distant, partial view of the Falls, was a pretty tired old lady, but there were still vestiges of the grandeur that once was hers.  There were details one might quibble with, but the hotel, itself, and its stunning grounds (not to mention the Victoria Falls setting) nevertheless lent itself to a fine vacation. 

Doorman

The personnel was beautifully trained.  From the wait staff to the doormen to the gardeners, all have had serious training in connecting, communicating and generally making the hotel guest comfortable.

I was a bit touched when I realized that some of the room maids had limited English, but had been taught, when in doubt, to reply “Thank you.”  It seems a funny little detail, but given the general decline in basic good manners –both in and out of hotels—it is reassuring to see just how effective and appreciable a smile and a thank-you can be. 

Main lobby

A photo album of the Victoria Falls trip

For more about this year's trek into Zimbabwe and Zambia, click below:

  

Your input is welcomed:  hotel-musings@hotmail.fr

Next Friday:  "Summer holidays in Hanoi"

 [Photos are mine, unless otherwise credited]