Die Eiland

"Die Eiland" or "The Island" is a holiday resort in Mpumalanga, near Tzaneen and Letsitele. This resort boasts a natural hot water therapeutic indoor pool, a large hot and smaller cold outdoor swimming pool, children's pool, tennis courts, supertube, miniature golf, trampolines, horseriding and fourwheel motorcycle rides (charged at an hourly rate).

We arrived from Johannesburg after a 5 hour drive - thinking that we would be in our chalet in a few minutes and off to the pool to relax. We soon discovered that this was not to be the case...

At reception they could not locate our payment made. After having sorted this out, we were given our key - unfortunately it was the wrong chalet's (booked by friends of ours) . Then they didn't give us a pass to get through the gate - and I had to get back in a queue to get this. It took me 45 minutes from time of arrival to stepping into a chalet and being able to start relaxing - to me, that is unacceptable.

This resort has been operational for more than 2 decades and is a favourite amongst local patrons. Unfortunately, the resort needs a major upgrade to get back to its original condition - or to how it was just 10 years ago.

• The most urgent upgrades need to be done to the staircase railings leading to the top of the supertube as rust has almost completely destroyed the iron thus making it dangerous for patrons to use this facility.
• The administrative system, as obviously the administrative personnel cannot keep track of bookings/payments etc effectively.
• The children's park has seen better days. Most of the playground equipment are broken and therefore unusable.

New facilities like the bar next to the pool really is a great addition. This bar sports a tv for those days just you just can't miss a sporting event. For the really hot days, a cool mist will make it a little more bearable form the misting sprinkler system.

Existing facilities that are still on standard:

• The tennis courts

• and outdoor swimming pools (could use extra cleaning)

• the events hall

• shop and restaurant
• trampolines
• mini golf or putt-putt

I doubt that I will go back for another weekend away, but I would never tell people it wasn't worth the drive to get out of the city for a few days.