Willow Feather Farm

Thursday, August 13, 2015

You may have seen this place if your frequent the R21 between Joburg and Pretoria, but you might not have realised what you are looking at. All you can see from the road is a whole line of trees, just after/before the St George hotel bridge. Blink and you'll miss it.

What started as an indigenous tree nursery, the Willow Feather Farm had now grown into a little kid's paradise, with big gardens and a petting zoo and very well protected koifish dams. The little kid in me was awoken by all the critters, including llamas, hilarious gerbils!, baby goats, potbelly pigs and a couple of donkeys.

If you are looking for something to do this weekend that feels like you have gone out to the countryside, then you should consider visiting Willow Feather Farm. For adults, there is a restaurant that serves hearty breakfasts as well as a little curio shop filled with ceramics and candles.

Can I just tell you how obsessed I am with llamas? They are the weirdest creatures, but so cute! On the day that we visited, there was a little baby llama and she jumped around in her pen. It was the cutest thing ever. They had a little list up so that people could write suggestions for the baby's name, and a majority of it was Charlotte - not surprisingly, as it was just after Princess Kate had Charlotte Diana Elizabeth.

The daddy llama, which was simultaneously also the big brother of the baby llama - or perhaps I misread it - was kept in a seperate pen. We couldn't quite figure out if he was antsy because he wanted to be with the baby or if he wanted to kill it. Either way, trying to touch an antsy llama is near impossible and quite scary.

Besides the free petting zoo, you can also stroll their vast gardens and buy a lavender or two. The nursery had the most interesting French Lavender that I have never seen before. I was obsessed. Still going back to buy more. I know the below flowers are violas.