Off the grid in Magaliesberg: Dream Lodge

We left the office at three on Friday and I had no idea where we were headed. All it takes is "Let's have a surprise weekend adventure" and I'm there. 

It's been exactly a year since the last visit to Dream Lodge and our second stay in one of the lodge's secluded, simple stone cottages was even better. Agama Cottage is a truly idyllic escape for two.  

 Agama cottage can only be reached by high clearance vehicle as a rocky road leads to the peak of a hill where it's perfectly perched overlooking the Magaliesberg mountains and where the lights of Rustenburg start to twinkle come sunset. 

If you don't have a big car, steal one like we did. Otherwise you can park at the main house and the owner Sam can transport you up to your private weekend home. 

Agama Cottage is a rustic retreat with nothing but solar power to warm up the bath water, tea-light candles lining the walls, a fireplace to drink wine in front of and old-school paraffin lamps to light up the dinner table. Sam brings a basket with hot water, salad, dinner and desert in the evening and trades it with a healthy brekkie basket in the morning that's best enjoyed on the picnic bench outside. 

Inside the open-plan spacious cottage you'll  find wooden floors and a huge bath beside the fireplace with a view out the window. Being solar-powered, there's usually only enough water for one bath or you can invite nature to the party in the outdoor shower. Either way, romance wins. 

Pack sundowners in a coolbox to enjoy on the outdoor sofa-bed, surrounded by twilight bird calls in the acacia veld. You could even do this naked, no one is going to care. The lodge comprises three cottages, all politely spaced and hidden from one another, but Agama Cottage is the most remote. 

Dream Lodge is 17km from the town of Magaliesberg and it's quiet. We had a great lunch at the Colonial Restaurant in town, but apparently the experience can be touch and go here - luckily, the steak and lamb chops were top notch and we sat in the sun nursing local craft beer from Black Horse Brewery down the drag. 

At this candle-lit love shack in the open bush with sunsets dripping in colour and picnic basket-meals the heart can rest easy.