Another year, another work annual review meeting.
I was surprised when they chose the Ongegund Lodge as I’d never heard of it before. I knew the accommodation would be decent after having previous reviews at Zewenwacht, Lagoon Beach Hotel and Hotel Verde.
Getting to Ongegund
When my colleague phoned me and I was in Strand, I said I was 2 minutes away. Turns out it was a “Cape Town 2 minutes” as, in fact, it took another 15 minutes or so of an already long drive to get to Ongegund. Google maps lead me there without an issue.
Conferencing
The conference venue was medium sized, with high ceilings and good facilities. The WIFI was decent but failed me during a presentation (ouch!). As Murphy’s law would have it, the WIFI behaved after my bumpy presentation.
I try to stay away from the treats at tea time but I just could not resist the freshly baked muffins! Delicious!
The room & venue
The rooms were a close walk from the conference centre. It had all that I needed for a one night stay (no fridge though and no insect spray). I was surprised there weren’t more signs up about the drought in the Cape. Although it was clear by the amount of water in their little dam that there’s definitely a drought.
The WIFI in my room was good and I managed to fall asleep to some Netflix documentary. Later, I was woken up by a buzzing mosquito but somehow it decided to spare my soul and didn’t bother me the entire night after that.
We took a walk through the vineyard which turned out to be rather steep! It had beautiful, sweeping views though so it was worth it. The property itself didn’t seem that large.
Food
Knowing that there were some people who requested halaal food, they catered everything halaal for the group. I heard some grumblings from my colleagues about the sweet veggies but I mostly enjoyed it (it’s not something I haven’t eaten before). I wasn’t that impressed with the braai in the evening but hey, you can’t please everyone.
We ate in the venue that is probably be used for weddings. It looked like a pretty place to have a wedding reception.
In Conclusion,
I’m not sure if I’ll be back to Ongegund in a personal capacity but there was something nice about waking up without the sound of cars zooming by.
I know that some of my colleagues were not that impressed with the venue/ trip but I found no issues with the place.
-Rif