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Yesterday was a gruelling day of racial tension and being lost for hours in the dark on rainy, potholed country roads. And after the gruelling day we had had a rough night. Decompressing, you understand? We needed to make sense of the day’s events, and it involved klapping bottles of various beverages and having very little sleep.

Today we arrived, exhausted, at De Oude Kraal Country Estate & Spa. Just under an hour’s drive south from Bloemfontein, the family farm is renowned for its cooking, which is fantastic. We were keenly interested in its spa facility, however. In fact, we had been fantasising about it since the day before.

So, manager Melanie Moolman took us there as soon as we put down our bags. Therapist Irna Strydom was assigned to Lerato Tshabalala and Anna-Mart Botha to me. In keeping with the fact that it is also a working sheep farm, the spa has a sheep theme. Dressing rooms have names like “Tender Wool” and “Fine Wool”, photographs of sheep decorate the interior and the key to your clothes locker is decorated with a beaded sheep trinket. 

After donning our white robes we had a complimentary foot massage in a stone rondavel with large windows and 360 degrees view. Sitting in a comfortable chair with my feet in a bowl of hot water with rose-petals floating in it, admiring the view of the stone-rimmed swimming pool and giant bluegums and the sound of water trickling in my ears, I immediately feel a lot better.

We repaired to the Merino Room for a Woolgathering Daydream full-body aromatherapy massages (R400 for an hour). You are given a menu with oils to choose from according to whichever ailment you want to treat. I chose orange, tea tree and frankincense and asked Anna-Mart to pummel me. You know how it is with these demure-looking masseuses: they smooth you over with silky, sweet-smelling oils and next thing you know you want to beg for mercy.

My calves, especially, had some serious tension in them that required some teeth gritting. But the neck and back part of the massage was so blissful that I was convinced I was going to start groaning like an old dog in front of the fire on a cold winter’s day. I felt like weeping when the hour was over.

Tea and cake in the lounge eased the pain of getting back to harsh reality, though. It is a beautiful space, decorated in shades of white and cream with natural accents: woven grass, white pebbles, wooden floors, reed ceilings and stone walls.

Sitting on the upholstered sofas wrapped in fleecy blankets, Lerato and I decided that the trauma of the previous day had been erased. “Oh, I’m sooo happy!” she exclaimed and popped another mini milk tart in her mouth. Annica Marincowitz

DETAILS: De Oude Kraal Country Estate & Spa, tel: 051  564 0636/733