The New Look Rissington Rag - Winter 2026

Welcome to our Winter 2026 Rissington Rag!

We are excited to introduce a somewhat new look and a fresh way forward as we change our layout and broaden our view. 

Join us on the journey ...

 

                                          Let's get started ...

Whilst I totally sympathise with everyone who has written to bemoan the loss of their quarterly Rissington Rag, the reality is that, like all 'print' media, we had been somewhat overtaken by social media so we have had to take action.

I realise that many of our readers are not active on social media (and neither am I, in a personal capacity) but the overwhelming majority of our SM followers are getting Rissington 'fixes' there several times a week and the risk was therefore that the Rag would become somewhat repetitive and uninteresting for them and that it would not engage as it should.

Instead of calling it a day, though, as promised, we are reinventing our now-biannual Rag format with a new stash of edifying, fun, relevant and cash-saving content for everyone. Even for those who already follow us on our Instagram and Facebook pages. This edition, following shortly on from the March Rag, is just a quick taste of things to come.

The Rissington Rag will remain entirely separate from our social media content and will contain to feature plenty of ‘old favourite’ hang-ups, rants and whinges that almost-certainly would not be suitable for the sensitive and delicate viewers of the more Snowflakey generations. We shall resolutely push on with the regular airing of dirty (and clean) guest linen that everyone loves so much. In fact, the New Rag gets more outspoken the further down you get, so keep scrolling. Let's hope we can convert the Gen Zs to our mellowed-by-the years ways, by means of some subtle and wise commentary on international and local hospitality issues.

The Rag remains relevant, informative, joyful and maybe a bit irreverent, with all the stuff we didn’t dare to show or say online for fear of falling foul of 'cancel culture'. Heaven forbid!

Talking of dirty linen, look left (not too carefully ...) for a photograph taken outside one of Rissington's garden suites a few weeks ago and you will see what we have to put up with. The lengths people will go to in order to avoid paying for our very affordable laundry service... Let's hope there's not too much more where that came from.

The future two editions per year will be in well-timed months for updates on Rissington.

The mid-May Winter edition will tee us up nicely for the cooler months with a huge annual prize and great discounts as we head into the most glorious time to visit the Lowveld, particularly for our domestic market.

The end-of-year December edition will then be packed with prize-earning holiday challenges, as well as rounding up the stories and achievements of the year.

The format will otherwise generally be retained but there will be more space than ever for comic guest stories, competitions, photos, staff and general tourism news. None of these appear in our social media and they are exactly what makes the Rag so popular and so unique, so you should still be signed up (at the bottom of any page of the www.rissington.co.za website) to our mailing list and be sure to receive an email tipping you off when a new edition of the Rag is out. And of course follow @RissingtonInn on Facebook and/or Instagram if you are that way inclined and want to see regular great photography reminding you what we look like and what we are up to. Links to both are also available on the website.

So here we go. And as you go along, check out our new Section Headings, as they are all here to stay.

 

January’s endless rain and road antics

January 2026 brought rain and big floods, as is becoming the norm. February then perversely brought drought. It rained again in March and carried on right into April. We even had another massive late deluge on 5th May, which knocked down trees and meant no power for 12 hours.

La Niña has seemingly prepared us well for the coming dry months which we shall spend in the company of her brother El Niño. The damage to Kruger is sadly not insignificant, although good planning and sensible scheduling meant that the inconvenience was kept to a minimum. Letaba Camp will take some time to recover though.

In the south, near where we are, most of the roads are open again and the game-viewing has been phenomenal even with the high grass and dense greenery. Interestingly, rhino sightings seem to have picked up again. We saw three on a recent visit.

The Rissington gardens are also looking very spruced-up as Pieter, Lucky and Thabiso get stuck in daily, with weekly inspiration from Coco.

Our access road gave us a fair bit of jip during the January deluge but the team – and careful positioning of our single faithful traffic cone – kept everyone out of the mud and the trenches, allowing the road to stay open right up to the lodge. Every now and then, someone complains about our road but I still think it is one of our greatest assets, distracting the mind from the problems caused by high-speed traffic and keeping the riff-raff out. And the Lamborghini drivers.

In case you missed it two weeks ago, with May Day just past, please also remember in future that the first Saturday in May is always World Naked Gardening Day. Here are the details:

World Naked Gardening Day

So why not get your kit off, pull some weeds and run around in the sunshine. If it’s all to much for you, just close your eyes and think of Rissington where 2nd May was a lovely sunny 30-degrees day, right after a full moon. Nothing mad about that!

 

A Canine Dynasty 

This is a pencil drawing of Sport and umQombothi, sent to me about 20 years ago by a former guest just after the death of umQombothi. Sport - who was a Corg-ish, as you can see - must have been around 16 and becoming somewhat portly by then.

The Rissington dogs have always been something of a phenomenon – as has their longevity, to the point where a continuous 30-year generational (if not genetic) line can be drawn from Sport who moved here with me from KZN in 1995 (along with his short-lived mate Fitz) and the gluttonous umQombothi through an overlap with Bull to Rusty, who is now 13, almost now completely white and somewhat deaf.

Here are a couple of pictures of Bruno’s arrival in August 2019, showing Rusty as he was then. He’s still strong and healthy, although we have yet to see whether he will match the amazing Sport, who lived well into his 20s. He's already somewhat deaf and gets a bit lost on walks.

I love the fact that guests so enjoy our dogs and my hour on the walking trail every afternoon is a constant source of joy to me. They generally leave the birds alone, although Bruno really hates the hadedas and can be very baffled by the fact that the wooly-necked stork is not scared of him.

We see plenty of game when we walk. Red and grey duikers and various mongoose. You will see a story and a wonderful video about this further down.

 

 

 

 

 

The Excellent Team Rissington

No-one on the team smiles quite as well as Rusty, of course, but we do have a particularly jolly and hospitable Front-of-House team at the moment, led by those great mentors Shirley, Natasha and Nonhlanhla and looking very dashing in their different new daytime and evening ® uniforms.

Team Rissington has always been at the very heart of what we do here. They are the heroes of our hospitality. I know I am very biased – of course I am totally biased – but I have never seen a team like them anywhere in the world.

This section will always bring you some staff news and some joyful photos. South African hospitality ranks with the best countries in the world, of course, and we dare to remind you that we, at Rissington, are right at the forefront of this.

 

 

Travel is Always Trending

Monitoring travel trends has been a hobby of mine for many decades and I have occupied many roles in the industry since I started out, way back in 1983. Here's a quick summary for our many new readers.

Much of my work has been in hotels – the Jeffries’ Cybele Forest Lodge, the Rattrays’ Fugitives’ Drift Lodge and our own Rissington Inn – but I have also been a tour operator, charged with putting together tailor-made holidays all over southern and central Africa in the days before the Internet. I have done a fair bit of consultancy work for other hoteliers and mentoring as well. In the early 1990s, I was instrumental in setting up the first helicopter flights around the escarpment as well as a wheels operator in the former Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga). More recently, I have been a travel writer for various publications as well as an active member of any number of tourism marketing and advisory bodies over my career.

This has all given me a peculiarly varied view of tourism and hospitality from a variety of different angles and it means I receive some very diverse recommended reading from my cellphone. Some of the links I have been posting in recent Rags have really caught the imagination of Rag Readers so we are turning all of that into a regular section in the new Rag.

Firstly though, talking of Fugitives' Drift Lodge, I know many readers have stayed at that magnificent Rorke's Drift establishment and that a large number of those even met the late great David Rattray himself, so here's an opportunity for you if you are in the UK. On 29th October this year, David's and Nicky's son, Douglas Rattray (pictured, left, at Isandlwana), will be giving a talk on that battle at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington, London.

Douglas, like his father, has become an internationally-renowned expert on the Anglo-Zulu War and the invitation to speak at the RGS is a recognition of this. In his talk, Doug will explain the Battle of Isandlwana from both sides - English and Zulu - highlighting both the courage of desperate soldiers and the gallantry of the proud warriors. The talk begins at 7pm and costs £36 per person. For tickets, email [email protected]. It's going to be a great occasion for everyone and, if you have not yet been to Fugitives' Drift, this storytelling event, as it movingly brings the events of 22nd January 1879 to life, will have you booking your visit straight away! Do contact Nicky for tickets. You won't regret it, I promise.

Anyway, back to the point. To kick off, here’s a selection of news and talking points from the past few months - click on the button links to read each one, beginning with a local success story.

Our flight connectivity with the rest of the country and across the region continues to improve. You can now fly direct to/from nearby Nelspruit KMIA to Cape Town every day on budget-friendly FlySafair as well as Airlink and there are also direct flights to Johannesburg, throughout the day, and to Durban, Livingstone and Victoria Falls.  As of this week you can now also fly to Hoedspruit (about 80 minutes away from Rissington) straight to/from George in the heart of the Garden Route. Skukuza, an hour away from us, has daily flights to/from Johannesburg and Cape Town.

All of these airports are in lovely locations, giving immediate access to crucial tourism centres and to Rissington Inn. Skukuza was even recently named the Most Beautiful Airport in the World: 

SKUKUZA AIRPORT

In another trend which we have discussed before, one of the spin-off effects of the pandemic five years ago is that travel habits have changed and people are now less frenetic on their holidays, with a tendency to book longer stays in fewer place.

South Africa was thus named Top Destination for Slow, Immersive Travel with record international arrivals last year. Click here for the story:

IMMERSIVE AWARD FOR SOUTH AFRICA

There are some dodgy operators out there as well, though, so don’t believe everything you are told. How’s this? We live in a world of overtourism and it seems that even Everest is not safe from scams. Read about it here.

EVEREST SCAM 

We also know that no-one is exempt from overpricing, to the point where even the wealthiest are demurring.

HOW MUCH?! ERm, NO THANKS ...

Here's another interesting local story from our area. It seems that the gold mines of Pilgrims Rest might be opening up again. Take a look at this. 

PILGRIMS REST MINES TO REOPEN 

It would be great if it were to turn out to be true. That once-iconic little Gold Rush town really needs the employment opportunities if it is to stablise and be investable and visitable again any time soon.

 

What’s New at Rissington?

Of course, we can’t top last year’s innovation when we added a Spa to Rissington. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe it might be so popular, but we regularly have days when the exceptional Charlotte gives treatments to anything up to ten people.

Here’s our latest list of improvements.

Safes in all rooms:

I have finally given in to demand and put a safe in every room, but you don’t need to worry. These are not those annoying electrical safes with squishy buttons, forgettable codes and batteries which fail and lock away your belongings forever or mean that you need to know the previous occupant’s birthday (or, in the more cunning cases, their dog’s birthday) to be able to get in. These are sensible simple purpose-built safes with keys and they have no shelves, which makes them easily big enough to house your laptop (without dinging it on the way in and out) and all manner of other items.

So now: Cue new problem – people leaving their valuables in the safe. Don’t be that person!

WiFi Upgrades all round::

We have more than doubled the speed of the guest WiFi and reconfigured the entire network with the newest and most up-to-date technology. So if you’re looking for somewhere to work or to research your next novel, Rissington is that place. Digital nomads are always welcome – and always such interesting people too.

Planters with herbs:

We have sourced some lovely new half-barrel planters from the Cape Wine Region and we are planting them with herbs and putting them around the Rissington terrace, to celebrate five years since its completion. Watch this place, while the gardening team establishes this new venture – and then watch your plate for delicious fresh herbs and garnishes.

 

It’s all about the Game

The dogs do their bit at pointing out Rissington game and particularly the mongoose and the duiker. Many an evening we have watched the white-tailed mongoose cavorting on the lawns outside my house and ‘dancing’ in the donga. A month or so ago, the dogs returned from their morning patrols, both completely orange with wet mud.

We watched them to see where they might head the next day and found that they had been excavating a large mongoose hole behind the staff accommodation. For more clarification, we set up the bush camera and look what we captured...

This is a white-tailed mongoose and, as you can see she is evacuating the burrow. In her mouth, she is carrying one of her young. What a lovely thing to see – and what a privilege. Don’t worry though. She found a new home very quickly and this one has two exits, so she can quickly evacuate at the first sign of approaching Rissingtonian canines.

The camera also took this glorious little 7-second video of her in the rain, a little later that night, once the evacuation was over and when she came back to check that no-one was left behind. It's beautiful and somehow moving. Click the button to watch:

MONGOOSE EVACUATION

 

 

Intriguing and Outrageous Guests – Time to Rant

Everyone loves a Rissington Guest Story ...

Common currency:

“Can we pay in Euros?” is a frequent request, bound to get my goat. Why would we take Euros? Do you know any European hotels that take payment in Rands?

But yes, of course we do, actually – it’s a great way to top up our travel funds, especially as the Turkish hotels we are visiting next month would almost certainly prefer Euros to Rands. We take Dollars too, for our Zimbabwean ventures while their third attempt at launching their own currency – the ZiG – stubbornly fails to gain traction.

I do draw the line, though, at the chap who gave a Two Singapore Dollar note to one of our ace Rissington car washers. I will leave Two Rand as tip for my next Singapore Sling …

Goulash by any other name::

We had a Hungarian and his wife arrive mysteriously out of the blue in early March. No booking, not enough vowels in the surname and looking a bit dishevelled, the team told me. On check-out he asked to speak to me in person.

And what a great chap! He owned three restaurants in Budapest and showed me numerous photos of these exotic-looking establishments, dripping with radical chandeliers and with tongue-lolling bear-heads hanging from the walls. A very refreshing change from guests showing me their leopard photos and even finer were the food photos. What is that? Goulash. And that? Goulash. And this? Also Goulash. And do you have other dishes? Yes, we have plenty of other types of Goulash.

He offered me a Goulash recipe but I turned it down politely.

He then went on to tell me that he and his wordless wife had completely failed to find the hotel that they had been booked into for the previous night in the mountains on the way to Sabie and that they had eventually slept in their hire car outside the Hazyview Police Station. They were even more pleased to find Rissington than most of our guests. Even if we don’t have Goulash. Yet. And we are a lot less eccentric than the Grand Budapest Hotel, although it wouldn’t have surprised me at all if this moustachioed, diminutive and friendly Magyar had turned out to have been the manager of that establishment as well, as depicted by the brilliant Ralph Fiennes.

Nationalities - looks and sounds that say I am from ….

Just as the Welsh always feel ‘at home’ in the newly-refurbished Rissington loo with all its sheep and daffodil pictures, our Hungarian Goulash enthusiast got me thinking about the weird and wonderful items that countries identify with and which eventually get to define them. I mean, it’s easy to understand why a Welshman might wave a flag with a dragon on it, but it takes a particularly odd form of national pride to dress up as a leek for a rugby match.

South African rugby fans (and literally millions of non-rugby fans who wouldn’t know a try from a ruck) dress proudly in Springbok colours and face-paint flags, but our soccer supporters go a lot further with some of their team gear. A particular high point is always the Soweto Derby between Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. Here are a few pictures that put the European football supporters to shame in their woolly hats and anoraks. Of course, we are also famed for Krugerrands, Braais and Biltong, but we don’t dress up as those.

People often bring us lovely presents from their countries. Our only other Hungarian guests, for example, brought me a fridge magnet with – you guessed it – a goulash recipe.

Clients from The Netherlands bring stroopwafels (what?! You don’t know stroopwafels?) or those little blue and white china Amsterdam houses with booze in them. Sometimes (less popular, generally) they bring those awful Zoute Drop salt-liquorice things that no-one really likes. I am fairly sure that the Dutch don’t really like them, but they just like to laugh at the faces we all pull when we eat them.

Favourite French clients (Bon rétablissement, Fabienne!) once brought us a most delicious saucisse from Brittany. Australians bring Vegemite and Canadians bring Maple Syrup. The Swiss bring chocolate, but so do the French and Belgians. That is another debate, so let's not go there.

Badges are interesting too. The little national flag, the small kiwi brooch, the tiny flying springbok, the shamrock, the thistle, the maple leaf. Just to say ‘this is who I am’. Not tribal, not threatening. Always, though, these are small, powerful but unusual sources of national pride.

We have had quite a few Americans wearing maple leaf badges, recently, but that is another story!

 

The Stupidity of (Very) Artificial Intelligence

It’s a strange feature of the news media these days that AI has clearly been employed to generate a composite picture of people, places and items mentioned in the piece. Sometimes they make a bit of sense, but more often they appear to show political arch-enemies grinning at each other and reversed out images of well-known locations. This one (left), however, had me totally baffled.

What on earth is going on here? And one of the strangest things about AI is that it can’t read at all, or this would surely not have been published?!

 

We recently used AI to redesign the Rissington Walk Map and it came up with any number of mad ideas. Of course, it is all about what you tell it and I eventually asked it to copy the style of Google maps, but it still kept adding in non-existent buildings and its own idea of where the path ought to be.

The more we told it what we wanted it to do, the more mistakes it made.

If you're not sure where you stand on Artificial Intelligence, think about a comment from a SANRAL toll call centre employee when I called to update my card details only to be told that the old system had been removed and there were two new systems but neither was working.

I thanked the employee profusely, as one does naturally, for not being able to help me at all and she thanked me in return:

"I want to thank you too, Mr Chris, for being so kind. Sometimes people get very angry with us on the phone and they don't understant that the system doesn’t work for us; we work for the system. If the system is not working there is nothing we can do." 

So there you have it.

 

Looking for your own spot?

You might remember in an earlier Rag, we offered you the chance to have your own bench at Rissington, with your name – or the name of someone important to you – on a plaque in perpetuity.

They are all made of everlasting recycled materials We have a range available.

It's only R1650 for a 2-seater; R1950 for 3-seater; R2350 for a 4-seater. With a R7350 delivery fee, shared between 5 of us, delivery is an additional R1470 per bench.

If we can get an order together for five of them, we can therefore cut the cost of transport dramatically. I am definitely buying one, as is one of our favourite American guests.

My bench will bear the name of a dear friend and one of Rissington's loveliest and most devoted fans and an ardent reader of the Rag, Pat Newton. I have mentioned Pat before. She was brought up in Hwange in (then) Rhodesia before moving back to Caerphilly in Wales. Cheerful and positive to the end, Pat left us this week - after hanging in just long enough to see the spark of a revival in her beloved Welsh rugby - and this Rag is also dedicated to her. In the words of her sister Sharon, who wrote to me as Pat was lying in hospital:

Pat adored her stays at Rissington and advertised it all over Wales! Your Rissington Rag was sent to the world! She had hoped that our entire family would get together at the Inn one day - and I hope we will still do that.

I hope so too, Sharon. Very much.

Any other readers, please tell me if you would like a bench dedicated to someone as wonderful as Pat Newton.

 

Where in the World?

 

Win a week at Rissington...

In the recent March Rag, you were asked to give us the location in which this photograph was taken. I am happy to say that no-one fell for the rookie error of assuming that it was in Val d’Isère or Whispers. It was in fact JJ sandboarding on a wind-swept dune an hour out of Cape Town at Atlantis, on his 21st birthday last year. And what a great day we had too. The first correct answer out of the hat was Neli Maduna. Nice one Neli. You have won three nights B&B at Rissington. Looking forward to seeing you.

I have to say, that I had no idea that there were so many snowboarding venues in SA  … The Wild Coast, Mossel Bay, Coega and even a mine dump outside Benoni, among others … so thanks to those who guessed at those and opened my eyes to the prevalence of this great activity. It was a lot of fun. Strongly recommended. Contact Dylan by WhatsApp for the Atlantis venue on +27846651314.

For this month’s competition, no prizes for guessing that the photo below was taken at Rissington this month, but the question is: what was the time of day when I took it? The first person to send the exact time by email to [email protected] will win a WEEK at Rissington any time in May or June. It can be taken this year or next year. Your room and breakfast are free for two people. Best room available on the day.

 

The Specials

Here’s a good deal. Maybe come up in May or June for the winter special and a Kruger fix? A beautiful hike or mountain bike ride in the hills around Sabie or Graskop? A cockle-warming dinner in the Rissington dining room followed by a coffee or a brandy by the firepit in the garden, under the stars? Or just lie in the warm harmless sunshine and gently toast with a good book?

Winter truly is the loveliest time of the year in the Lowveld, and we’re a great escape from the Cape rains and the frost on the Reef. Come on down. We are offering four nights for the price of two, right through May and June. Email Simphiwe and Hazel on [email protected] or WhatsApp (+27) 82 327 6842 to secure your dates.

 

Recommended Reading

There’s been a regular tradition of having a Books section in the Rag, so we are now making this a permanent feature in our new format.

Whilst I continue my collaboration with a friend on her life’s oeuvre, here’s just a quick reminder that my earliest work Do Not Take this Road to El-Karama is now 20 years old and, while it has been out of print for a long time, you can still get an e-book version on Amazon HERE

Travel books are making a comeback too (as we slowly realise how unhelpful the Internet and AI can be) and they make for a great distraction from the discomfort on aeroplanes.

Flying on the new daily FlySafair Cape Town route (see above) I was also reminded, recently, of the early days of comfortable travel before mass tourism and obsessive cramming of passengers into planes. It used to be such a thrill for us kids to collect my father from one of his overseas business trips and to see what he had legitimately pilfered from the cabin.

I still have a small canvas folder emblazoned with the Concorde logo from a trip he took to the US and I also fondly remember that he was also given a little Concorde handbook with helpful words and phrases, my favourite of which was “Est-il possible d’acheter du dentifrice dans ce train.”  I am not sure why Concorde passengers would have been deemed particularly likely to be in need of the opportunity to buy toothpaste on a train, but I have never forgotten it, any more than most people from that era will ever forget how to ask in French where their aunt’s quill might be.

 

 

Time for a Tune

 

For our music section, here’s an absolutely terrific demonstration of the marimbas from a bunch of South African schoolchildren who enthusiastically take on a piece of Vivaldi. Go on. Do it. You know you want to. Click here:

MARIMBA TIME

 

 

Why come now?

There’s always a good reason to come to South Africa – and to Rissington specifically – but none more compelling than this. I know that World War III is seemingly not really on the cards any more but South Africa was nevertheless recently listed as one of the safest places in the world in which to shelter from it when it comes.

It’s an interesting selection – and we are arguably one of the more accessible of these options too.  Sometimes our unusual way of going about things does count in our favour. One of the most important of these is our government’s neutral stance on world politics. There’s always a good reason to stay out of a fight, I feel. And Greenland must be delighted to have appeared on the list and to be seen to be safe from US predations after what has been a rather alarming year for them...

Come and see us this May and June ...

We love a good catch-up with our regulars and their friends. And remember the deal: Four nights for the price of two. Or make it eight nights for the price of four. May is a little busier but you're almost guaranteed an upgrade in June. Contact us to choose dates and we'll upgrade you straight away to the best room available.

We look forward to hearing from you. All the best from all of us.

Sizophinda sibonane masinyane ...

Team Rissington:  Chris, Shirley, Nonhlanhla, Natasha, Nkateko, Anita, Lindokuhle and Thandiwe; Gertrude, Dudu, Yvonne, Angel, Conny and Delinah; Futhi, Betty, Noggs, Patience, Bonisile, Rosa, Lilian, Maureen, Fisokuhle and Tumi; Sipho, Aubrey, Selby, Lucky, Pieter, Thabiso and Coco; and Simphiwe and Hazel in the office, whom you may email on [email protected] for all your booking requirements. Or simply book online on www.rissington.co.za and tell us all about yourself in the ‘Special Requests’ box. Also all the best from JJ and Lungi – if you need photos taken, or help with your social media or online marketing, let them know - and Rusty and Bruno, the mongoose monitors!