The Great Mystery Bus Tour with Rain-Africa, to The Mosaic Lodge in Stanford…

A week or two back I received an invitation for a great and mysterious day out with Rain-Africa. I was beyond excited. I have blogged about their products before and to be sure I will be blogging about them again. I popped RAIN on the calendar and left it there… everyone was intrigued, how could I know that it would rain in two weeks time… I didn’t of course. Rain-Africa is the name of a beauty company that sells beautiful, crisp, clean, fresh products.

Let’s Talk About Rain-Africa

Rain-Africa creates handmade cleansing products, bath and body products, using naturally harvested, locally grown ingredients. The over riding beauty of the products is that they are part of an ongoing job creation project, training and equipping local folk, particularly woman, with the skills they need to produce these beautiful beauty products for the world market. Otherwise their products tick so many boxes, pure ingredients, for example parabens free, they are Fair Trade accredited and Cruelty Free. You can take a look at their product promises here. There are stores all across South Africa and in the United States, with many more stores opening in the UK and the USA on the plans.

And the Mystery Bus Trip

So on Saturday morning, I met up with a load of Cape Town bloggers and we headed out on a bus charter into the far blue yonder…

Well coffee first, it was early and cold, and it was the perfect welcome.

Then onto the bus…

And a couple of clues…

And a trip through the countryside…

Down highways…

And byways…

Let’s Talk About Mosaic Lodge

And then we were there… would you look at these darling welcome drinks. We found ourselves at the beautiful Mosaic Sanctuary on the Stanford Lagoon. Always a rough and ready, outdoorsy kind of gal, I have never received five star treatment before and my goodness I could sure get used to this. The attention to detail on every level, the beautiful surroundings and the really friendly staff… turned our day into something wonderful, way beyond dreaming.

Gorgeous little places to go ambling and exploring, and lots of activities to try. This is definitely the place to go for a lazy weekend lounging on the deck over looking the lagoon, or mountain biking and kayaking for the more energetic. Picnic breakfast served on the beach, or hot chocolate while stargazing and almost everything else in between. We settled for an everything else in-between kind of day…


They had me at the cute vehicles… and so many little picnic spots. All tucked away and even though this was a quick drive from town they have managed to capture the feel of a million miles from anywhere.

Let’s Talk About the Passion of Perfume

Rain-Africa recently launched their perfume range, these beautiful gals were there to share with us. It was only fitting that our first activity of the day was to listen to a talk on fragrances, how they are made and where they source the magic that becomes a bottle of perfume.

Meet the dynamic energy behind all the rain products. You could literally feel the passion for her work as she told us how she travels far and wide to source ingredients… to create perfume and other natural products.

There is a lot more to making perfume than meets the eye, the dedication and commitment that goes into each and every bottle was way beyond anything I had ever imagined… it was simply fascinating.

She told us about her trip into Northern Namibia, to meet the enigmatic Himba women. These women have an ancient tradition of perfumery passed down through the ages from mother to daughter, from generation to generation. You can watch a short video of her journey with the Himba people here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

She was happy to share with us the wide variety of ingredients that are used to create the perfumes we wear… from dassie urine to whale vomit, I am not kidding… this was so interesting I found myself jotting down notes to share with my kids.

Then how do they get from these rare ingredients to the perfume that we spray… I tell you there is a lot more to those little bottles of perfume than I ever imagined…

Let’s Talk About Lunch

The Lodge does their very best to source locally grown, locally created food and I think the photographs speak for themselves… beautifully created food… freshly baked breads and pastries, carefully selected cured meats, served with delicious preserves and cheeses from the Overberg area. The food was incredible, beautifully presented and well worth lingering over…

A Tour of the Lodge

After lunch we were treated to a tour of the accommodation and spa area… the views were out of this world…

Our tour guide, obviously loves his job, and could keep on showing us behind the scenes loveliness for days.

Here again the thoughtful attention to detail just showed how they have raised the level of their game, again and again and again… For example we were welcomed to our rooms with a touch of hot chocolate… Just what we needed as they day had turned decidedly cold.

The bed looked so inviting, I did wonder if anyone would notice if I vanished for an afternoon nap…

But I was quickly distracted by the bathroom packed with Rain-Africa products…

And the outdoor shower… how glorious is that!!!

And then at the end of the bed their is a private balcony to enjoy the view and more little details, a basket filled with birding books and binoculars, because you are in bird heaven.

And then out onto the deck again to admire the view and I imagine many lazy afternoons have been spent swimming and bird watching and reading… honestly I would have a hard time giving this up for all the other dozens of activities available…

And then nestled under the Milkwood trees was an open communal area…


And then the spa area, where every type of massage treatment under the sun could be had… in these beautiful peaceful surroundings…

A Marvelous Massage

After our tour of the Lodge we were all treated to massages. I have to be honest I didn’t think massages were my thing, but I have totally changed my mind!!!

A Fynbos Veld Safari

Our next treat of the day was a wildlife drive through the fynbos… and let me mention just another small detail to make the guests comfortable… blankets on the truck… brilliant idea, turning a cold and shiverous drive into a cosy one.

Here our guide was so happy to engage with us and show us little tricks of nature and explain the uses of any number of plants in the area. Eco tourism is a big deal in this part of the world and they are clearly making full use of their surroundings to share and teach their guests about all that is local.

Spring flowers were so pretty and full of information to share with us…

Of course this is a birders paradise… from waterbirds in the vlei,

To these long distance sojourners… they even have a printable bird list to download.

This was an absolute highlight for me… I loved driving around in the countryside learning new things…

Beautiful Gifting

Our final treat of the day was some serious gifting from Mosaic Lodge and Rain-Africa… Beautiful packages, carefully selected and wrapped up for us… And these two gals who kept us happy and entertained all day. They worked so hard to show us all that Rain-Africa has to offer in the beautiful surroundings of the Mosaic Private Sanctuary… they did an exceptional job.

I cannot thank Rain-Africa enough for the wonderful day out, and the royal treatment. Not to mention thanking Mosaic Private Sanctuary for their incredible hospitality and their attention to little details that made us feel special again and again. This was not a sponsored post, I was neither asked to write it or paid to write it. The opinions expressed were entirely my own.