I ♥ Beaufort West Because ...

I ♥ Beaufort West

Hi, I’m Elsolique from Old House Guesthouse in Beaufort West.

Beaufort West IS BEST KNOWN FOR its unique Karoo hospitality.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT the Chris Barnard Museum; Chris Barnard was the fam­ous heart sur­geon who per­formed the worlds first heart transplant.

THE BEST Karoo PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT the Karoo National Park.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT our beau­ti­ful pear trees on the Main Road.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S GOOD, I LIKE TO be out­side in the fresh Karoo air.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S BAD, I LIKE TO visit friends.

I THINK THE BEST TIME OF YEAR TO VISIT IS in the winter, BECAUSE our sum­mers have extreme heat. Continued

Weekly Events Round Up (30 Jan to 5 Feb 2012)

Up The Creek

If you haven’t thought about what you’re going to do next week, we’ve come up with a list of some of the most excit­ing events that will be tak­ing place. We will now be giv­ing you a weekly round up of the upcom­ing events and fest­ivals through­out South Africa.

We will keep you up to date with the hip and hap­pen­ing events that you can attend. Think sports, enter­tain­ment, cul­ture and more. Break out your diar­ies and start phoning your friends to make sure you don't miss out.

There are a host of fun events that take place every week and we really don't want you to be the last per­son to hear about them at the cof­fee sta­tion on Monday morn­ing. So check back with us on Fridays to find out what's going on ...

Continued

Graaff Reinet's Obesa Nursery – Walk the Cacti Labyrinth

Obesa Cacti Nursery

You either get it, or you don't. With the Obesa Cactus Nursery. Although describ­ing it as a 'nurs­ery' hardly does the exper­i­ence justice. For a visit here, if you allow it, is far more of an exper­i­ence than it is a simple trip to the nurs­ery to pick up a cac­tus or two for your win­dow sill.

First of all the 'nurs­ery' takes up the bet­ter part of a block. For those of you who want to find it, hunt down the street dom­in­ated by a myriad psy­che­del­ic­ally painted houses. They're a series of guest houses that go by the same name as the nurs­ery (run by Johan's ex-wife, who remains a fan des­pite that). The nurs­ery is dir­ectly across the road, and all over the pave­ment, and, if you look around you, on just about every avail­able piece of ground.

That this is the work of a man with a pas­sion is obvi­ous. Having lived with a garden­ing nut who has trans­formed the bet­ter part of our city garden into a wild veget­able man­dala, I think I can handle it. Continued

I ♥ Chartwell Because ...

I ♥ Chartwell

Hi, I’m Alan from Hoopoe Haven Guest House in Chartwell, in Sandton.

Chartwell IS BEST KNOWN FOR its coun­try atmo­sphere and liv­ing. All plots are from 2.5 to 10 acres in size, so it is very peace­ful. The Lion Park is on the bor­der of Chartwell West 1 km away as the crow flies and just 5 km south is the busy met­ro­polis of four­ways with lots of malls and shops, MonteCasino and plenty of activ­ity like live theatre, ice rink, extra­vag­an­zas, bird park etc. Chartwell is a place where you can relax and just enjoy yourself.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Lion park where you are allowed to touch and play with the lion cubs.
THE BEST hol­i­day PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT bird­park in MonteCasino.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT any of the rid­ing stables in Chartwell or even going for a horse ride at the Rhino and Lion park. Continued

5 great things to do when in Graaff-Reinet

Reinet House

Stop your car on the out­skirts of town on the Camdeboo Mountain Drive and below you will lie the cir­cu­lar shape of Graaff-Reinet, held within a gen­er­ous bend of the Sundays River closest to you, and the moun­tains of the Sneeuberg in the back­ground. It's a glor­i­ous set­ting, to say the least.

Depending upon the time of year that you go, it will either be mer­ci­lessly hot (at least 40 degrees in the shade if the last couple of sum­mers are any­thing to go by) or really cold (dur­ing winter).

Neither of which should act as a deterrent, for the town is not only beau­ti­ful, it is also pretty large as far as Karoo towns go, full of a rich his­tory (it's the fourth old­est town in the coun­try after Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Swellendam) and it has count­less places to visit and things to do. Continued

I ♥ Kamberg Because ...

I ♥ Kamberg

Hi, I’m Gerhard from Qambathi Mountain Lodge in Kamberg.

Kamberg IS BEST KNOWN FOR its Bushman Rock Art, fly-fishing and breath­tak­ing moun­tain scenery.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Highmoor or on one of our game drives with Giant’s Castle in the back­ground. The views are really some­thing spe­cial with Mount Eskirne and Mount Cleopatra very dom­in­ant every­where you look.

THE BEST nature PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN by just driv­ing around Kamberg. There are so many treed lanes, wild flowers, cloud shapes and Berg views for that per­fect picture.

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT the trout dams or at the Bushman Rock art which is the best pre­served in the coun­try. Continued

I ♥ Mkuze Because ...

I ♥ Mkuze

Hi, I’m Nicky Kinnell from Leopard Mountain Game Lodge in Mkuze.

Mkuze IS BEST KNOWN FOR Game Reserves and Conservation. The vil­lage of Mkuze is a mere 18km’s from the entrance gate to the Mkuze Reserve, in the shadow of the Ubombo Mountains.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT the reserve — the bird and animal life is spec­tac­u­lar. There are also over 700 plant spe­cies Continued

Escape to the West Coast and the Berg River Region

West Coast Beach

Think West Coast, think sand, heat, sea and little fresh water. And you wouldn't be far off the mark. The West Coast is arid, wild and windswept, but it does have water.

And one of the major sources of water avail­able that makes farm­ing pos­sible, in the arid Sandveld and undu­lat­ing hills of the Swartland, is the Berg River — its source in the Drakenstein Mountains just south of Franschhoek and its mouth at Laaiplek on the Atlantic Ocean.

In the pres­ence of the Berg River (more com­monly known amongst loc­als as the Bergrivier – one word) the towns of the West Coast between Velddrif and Elands Bay and their inland coun­ter­parts – Aurora, Redelingshuys, Goedverwacht, Eendekuil, Piketberg, Porterville and Wittewater — are awash with beau­ti­ful moun­tains, lush vine­yards, wheat fields and pic­tur­esque vil­lages; a com­plete con­trast to the pic­ture one holds of the West Coast and its accom­pa­ny­ing sand­scapes. Continued

I ♥ Tzaneen Because ...

I ♥ Tzaneen

Hi, I’m Natalie from Tzaneen Country Lodge in Tzaneen.

Tzaneen IS BEST KNOWN as the fruit bas­ket of South Africa and fam­ous for its trop­ical fruits and extraordin­ary scenic beauty.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Debegeni Waterfall – mean­ing the place of the Big Pot. (It’s a stun­ning water­fall with lush bush and vegetation).

THE BEST adven­ture PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT Magoebaskloof Canopy Tours while slid­ing through the indi­gen­ous forest on a 2½-hour Tarzan and Jane style adven­ture.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS AT the dam wall of the Tzaneen Dam — the pop­u­lar after-dinner walk­ing spot of loc­als. Continued

A Long Lunch and Celebration in Fairtrade at the Bosman Family Vineyard

Harvest Festival

If you are look­ing for a fant­astic exper­i­ence on the week­end of 17 and 18 March 2012 why not take a drive to Wellington for their annual Wellington Harvest Festival. Purchase your access pass at your first port of call or at the Wellington Tourism Office. Your pass allows you free wine tast­ing at par­ti­cip­at­ing cel­lars oth­er­wise it is a pay-as-you-go system.

Wondering where your first stop should be, why not stop at the Bosman Family Vinerard as they have joined together with Fairtrade Label South Africa and hope to show vis­it­ors to the fest­ival the true mean­ing of Fairtrade. Lunch will be a deli­ciously long affair and you will find out all of the details below ...

Bosman Family Vineyards prom­ises a Celebration in Fairtrade at their Long Lunch dur­ing the annual Wellington Harvest Festival on 17 & 18 March 2012.  Kick off your work­ing shoes and enjoy a leis­urely, fest­ive sum­mer lunch set against the back­drop of eleg­ant Cape Dutch build­ings, spread­ing oaks and soar­ing moun­tains. Continued

The Cape Leopard Trust — small cats with big problems

Dr Quinton Martins, the man behind The Cape Leopard Trust, has seen only seven ad hoc sight­ings of wild leo­pards in the Cederberg where his research takes place in eight years. Even with col­lars, he sees but a few each year. The Cape Leopard is a vul­ner­able, isol­ated pop­u­la­tion that occurs at low dens­ity in the moun­tains of the Northern, Eastern and Western Cape. Due to the influ­ence of European set­tlers over the past 350 years, it has already been made extinct in many areas where it used to roam. As the trust head­lines in its adverts to raise aware­ness: Leopards of the Cape are small cats with BIG prob­lems ... Continued

I did it Five Bays!

Five Bay Trail

It is just as well that when first read­ing the email invit­ing us to join one of the Cape West Coast Biosphere Trails that the rather obvi­ous fact that I was going to have to actu­ally walk the 28 km didn't register. Or I prob­ably would have chickened out and sent my other half without me.

My eye, instead, homes into the word 'gentle' (used to describe the hik­ing trail) and the fact that we will not have to carry heavy packs, will have our food laid on for us, and be put up in a B&B in Paternoster. I need no fur­ther persuasion.

The Five Bay Trail is described as a walk­ing trail. And for those who are seasoned hikers, it is pos­sibly a walk in the park, although you'll more than get your exer­cise in. For those of you, like me, who walk occa­sion­ally and do not count yourselves as fit, you will man­age, only just... Continued

The Karkloof Canopy Tour – An adrenaline fuelled rush through the tree tops

Karkloof Canopy Tour

The Karkloof Canopy Tour is prob­ably the most well-known out­door activ­ity in the Natal Midlands, attract­ing people from all walks of life in search of the adven­ture of a life­time. Situated amidst the beauty and green­ery of the majestic Karkloof Valley, the tour involves tra­vers­ing from one wooden plat­form to another along a pair of steel cables (with a two ton break­ing strain) sus­pen­ded high above the forest floor.

Those in the industry refer to this tra­vers­ing as ‘zip lin­ing’ because this is exactly what takes place as par­ti­cipants ‘zip’ along the cables at speeds of up to 80km/h. The Karkloof Canopy Tour has its roots in the balmy rain­forests of Costa Rica where adven­tur­ous bio­lo­gists, eager to record the diversity of animal life found at the can­opy level of the forests, devised a sys­tem of cables and plat­forms that enabled them to explore this pre­vi­ously inac­cess­ible eco­sys­tem. Continued

Being a tourist in your own town — 10 unusual things to do in Cape Town

The Cape in a side car

There are a lot of things I've not done in Cape Town that the aver­age tour­ist has. Exploring Cape Town through the eyes of a tour­ist can be as good as going on hol­i­day else­where, a lot cheaper, and will earn you greenie points for sav­ing on car­bon emis­sions and for con­trib­ut­ing to the local economy.

So this year over the Festive Season, why not try to explore the city as a tour­ist. Here is my choice list of things we'd like to do – not all of them fall in the Top 10 Things to do in Cape Town, but then they've also got to appeal to those who have lived here a while ... Continued

Rawdon’s Restaurant – Good old fashioned service and hospitality in the Midlands

Rawdons Estate

Situated in the heart of the Midlands Meander and only a five minute drive from the N3 high­way is Rawdon’s Estate, prob­ably one of the old­est hos­pit­al­ity estab­lish­ments on the Midlands. The first thing that struck me about Rawdon’s was its unique, old world charm.

Closely resem­bling an English coun­try estate of a bygone era the estab­lish­ment is fur­nished with a vari­ety of prize antiques that cre­ate an atmo­sphere of class and soph­ist­ic­a­tion. Walking through its numer­ous hall­ways and invest­ig­at­ing its many nooks and cran­nies was an abso­lute delight and I espe­cially enjoyed the count­less, anim­ated framed sketches that adorned the walls. Continued