Arriving in Sheffield, we knew all about the murals and were keen to get a closer look. We met Des Brown, a local resident and owner of the Eagles Nest Retreat, in the main street ready for our whirlwind tour around the province.

Just looking down main street to those incredible, lush green rolling hills is a truly remarkable sight, and one I don’t think I could ever get bored of seeing. First stop, the World of Marbles.  This amazing little shop on main street was full of beautiful glasswork from jewellery to plates and yes, marbles – the girls favourite. The colours and designs were truly remarkable. After a few souvenirs and a birthday gift for my Mum we headed to the next stop – the murals Sheffield is well known for.

Although the sides of the buildings along the main street are painted with wonderful murals, every year in the town park they host a competition and showcase for fresh new murals. The work is absolutely remarkable, and all has its own local flavour.

Our last stop for the afternoon was Hurlfield Farm Cottage, a beautiful farm stay nestled in the lush green foothills of Mount Roland. Of course, it was Wilbur the pig that the kids loved, even after feeding the horses, pony, sheep and alpacas, it was Wilbur they loved. The owners Sharon and Chris showed us around the farm and through the great little cottage their guests stay in.  It was such a cosy cottage, and the animals right at your door makes such a lovely way to spend a holiday.  I think we’ll have to come back and stay on our next visit to Sheffield.

I loved to see how differently all three children approached the animals. Jasmine was confident and not worried in the least.  Teddy was so cute, he didn’t like the horses because they were so much bigger than he was, he loved the pony and the alpacas though and fed them no worries.  Jemma was much more apprehensive with the animals and too scared to feed them.  With a little coaxing she got a little more confident and would hold hands with one of us to feed the pony. She got into the car and wanted to go back tomorrow so she could feed them all again!  It was a lovely afternoon, I love seeing the kids interact with animals, I know it is right outside their comfort zone, but as with Jemma they always come round and their confidence grows each time we do things like this.

After a long but awesome day it was time to head to Eagles Nest Retreat, our accommodation for the next couple of nights. Des Brown the owner led the way.  We arrived and piled out of the car, the kids eager to be inside were first in the door. As Greg and I entered, we walked around the stunning entrance wall and were greeted by a sight that truly took our breath away.

The two storey, floor to ceiling windows look out over a big pond, past those lush green rolling Sheffield hills, and up to the rocky Mount Roland. Greg and I were both speechless.

Des showed us around the amazing retreat, there is the Africa wing (we stayed in this room) complete with big spa, African colours and decor.  We had the full length windows that look out to Mount Roland from our bed and it was just remarkable. My words just don’t do this house justice!

The Asia wing was just as fantastic as Africa, also full of Asian inspired design right down to the spa and shower through the bamboo spout. Again, the massive windows allow you to soak in the amazing view to Mount Roland.

Upstairs we found the day room, complete with floors cushions and draped material around the daybed. It too looked out to the amazing view of Mount Roland over the water below.

We didn’t have too much time to soak it in though, we were heading out to a wonderful dinner with all the local tourism operators. After a quick shower and freshen up it was into Sheffield to the Highlander Restaurant.

Owner and Chef Naomi prepared a wonderful dinner of local produce. It was so wonderful to ‘taste’ the region in such a way. Complete with Barringwood Park wines and wonderful company it was a great dinner. We learnt lots about the operators in the area who are so passionate, not just about what they do, but for the whole Kentish Province.  It was really inspiring and we are visiting many of them tomorrow with our whirlwind Tour put together by Des Brown.

Full of great food and head swimming with excitement over what we will see tomorrow, we headed back to Eagles Nest. It was dark so the kids went straight to bed, as did Greg and I for that matter. We dropped into bed and I lay there thinking “oh it would be lovely to see the mountain at night,” as I couldn’t see anything in the dark. As Greg came to bed, he flicked the bedside light off and Oh My GOODNESS.

There was the silhouette of Mt Roland surrounded by millions of stars twinkling in the dark. Both Greg and I gave out a “whoa” we were so surprised. Now if there is ever a way to sleep under the stars, this is it! The only problem was, it was such a divine sight, we didn’t want to sleep. With a big day planned for tomorrow though, we knew we had better.