Gorgeous A Bubbly Bar by Graham Beck Opens at Steenberg estate

Gorgeous at Steenberg

Who doesn't love the first sip of a glass of bub­bly, or the whole glass for that mat­ter. If you like me are a huge fan of bub­bly (the fond term used to describe Méthode Cap Classique — South Africa’s own ver­sion of cham­pagne pro­duced in the tra­di­tional French method) you will be jump­ing around when you hear this news. A brand new (and exclus­ive) bub­bly bar is open­ing it's doors in Cape Town at the Steenberg Estate in Constantia.

I know I'll be vis­it­ing this excit­ing new thing to do in Cape Town and I hope I'll be see­ing lots of you there as well. Not only can you enjoy splen­did Méthode Cap Classique, but you will also be filling your bel­lies with delect­able eats pre­pared by the exectutive chef at Catharina's. I'm excited .... are you? Continued

10 Fabulous Things To Do When Next in Franschhoek

Fabulous Franschhoek

The gor­geous French corner of the Cape, Franschhoek, lies in one of the most beau­ti­ful wine val­leys not only in South Africa, but also the world. You may know of Franschhoek as the culin­ary cap­ital of South Africa with so many award win­ning res­taur­ants we are slightly spoiled for choice. However food and wine is not all that Franschhoek has to offer.

You may already have vis­ited this lovely town for on of the many fest­ivals that take place. If you're here in March make a plan to visit the Franschhoek  Oesfees, the Franschhoek Literary Festival in May, the Franschhoek Bastille Day in July or one of my favour­ites the Cap Classique & Champagne Festival in November. If you're not vis­it­ing for a fest­ival and would like some other ideas of what to do we've come up with a few sug­ges­tions of things to do when you're next in Franschhoek ... Continued

Bloemfontein's Botanical Garden – Perfect for Photo Moments and Lazy Afternoons

Bloem's Botanical Gardens

Bloemfontein gets a rather raw deal. Mention that you're spend­ing Christmas there and you're imme­di­ately the recip­i­ent of sym­path­etic looks. Some people will even groan out loud, assum­ing this will auto­mat­ic­ally make you feel better.

Fortunately I have no attach­ment to the city one way or the other. I won't go as far as to say that I'm fond of it, but every city has its pos­it­ive side. It is, how­ever, where my in laws live, and last year we had to make a couple of con­ces­sions; sis­ters out all the way from London did not have Cape Town on their itin­er­ar­ies – more's the pity.

With the whole fam­ily together – a rare and moment­ous enough occa­sion at the best of times – a photo shoot was in order, and the Botanical Gardens topped the list as a venue. It's free (well, for those of us with a National Botanical Gardens mem­ber­ship), pretty and wouldn't be too busy. Continued

You'll Need More Than a Couple of Days to Explore Ladismith

Explore Ladismith

Ladismith is in the Klein Karoo on Route 62 between Barrydale and Calitzdorp at the base of the Klein Swartberg moun­tain range.

'Oh, you should be here dur­ing February / March', the tour­ism inform­a­tion lady, whose name we never do get to know, remarks at my obvi­ous hot and bothered state and nods emphat­ic­ally whilst the elec­tric fan, in front of which I've sta­tioned myself, lazily con­tin­ues on its cycle in the large church interior.

We're stand­ing in one of the old­est build­ings in Ladismith, hav­ing only just arrived in the vil­lage. We've lost the details of our B&B and know little more than its name at this stage. The gor­geous Neo-Gothic Otto Hager Church built in 1874 is unique in the sense that it no longer func­tions as a church — the con­greg­a­tion hav­ing long left its sup­posed instabil­ity for a new church in Queen Street. Continued

10 Splendid Things To Do When Next in Plett

Plettenberg Bay

What comes to mind when you hear the words Plettenberg Bay, or Plett as it is fondly known? For me I think of gor­geous beaches, won­der­ful res­taur­ants and oppor­tun­it­ies for cock­tails with friends. However, this is not all Plett has to offer.

This pop­u­lar sea­side town, just after Knysna on the Garden Route, lies almost on the bor­der of the Eastern and Western Cape. Its his­tory is vast as many Portuguese explorers vis­ited the area in both the 15^th and 16^th cen­tury. With three nature reserves, Keurbooms River Nature Reserve, Goukamma Nature Reserve and the Robberg Nature Reserve, both within very close prox­im­ity you can be assured of Pletts beauty. Golfers can test their skills on the mag­ni­fi­cent 18-hole course at the Plettenberg Bay Country Club or the Goose Valley Golf Club.

Relax and spend a few days or if you have more time a few weeks, as many of the December hol­i­day makers do ... Continued

10 Great Things To Do When Next in Knysna

The Town of Knysna

When was the last time you were in Knysna? This ever pop­u­lar Garden Route town has plenty to offer. The middle of the year is when thou­sands of people des­cend on this town for the Knsyna Oyster Festival and those who've been train­ing take part in either the Knysna Forest Marathon and Knysna Cycle Tour.

But when the buzz of the Oyster Festival calms down and the tour­ists leave this town doesn't go to sleep ... it does the oppos­ite of that. Reason being because there is so much to do in and around the town of Knysna. There are plenty of fest­ivals that hap­pen each year, the Pink Loerie Mardi Gras is another favourite.

Not only is the town filled with fest­ivals but your will find a host of Things to Do in Knysna. I've taken a slice out of all the excit­ing places to visit and things to see and have round up 10 great things to do when you're next in town ... Continued

The Best of Local Fayre on Saturdays at the Jozi Food Market

Jozi Food Market

If you live in the Greenside area of Johannesburg and are look­ing for some­where a bit more novel than the local super­mar­ket for your weekly gro­cer­ies why not give the Jozi Food Market a try?  Open every Saturday from 08h30 to 13h30 and con­veni­ently loc­ated at the Pirates Sports Club you can expect to be greeted by artis­ans and stall hold­ers happy to share their love and know­ledge of food.

The mar­ket offers a wide selec­tion of food; take your pick from the 50 deli­cious recipes that Soup ‘n Stuff has per­fec­ted (who doesn’t love soup on a chilly day) while Sue’s Karoo Lemon Cordial (and ginger beer) is just the tonic on a sum­mers day.  Also avail­able is tasty muesli from All About Muesli, yummy, dec­ad­ent pies from The Granary Pies and don’t for­get La Bonne Cuisine’s chicken liver pate. Continued

Where to Lunch in De Rust, and Why it's Worth a Visit

Lunch in De Rust

We don't mean to stop in De Rust. We're on the N12 that heads off the N1 close to the Karoo National Park en route to Ladismith, our inten­ded des­tin­a­tion, and have just come through the incred­ible Meiringspoort, when De Rust appears out of nowhere.

The main road through town is littered with col­our­ful res­taur­ants, cof­fee shops and the odd boutique. The place is hot and hum­ming. And a big board informs us that De Rust has won 'dorp van die jaar' and claims to be the best town in the Karoo.

Besides, we're hot and hungry. And with all the jolly jost­ling for atten­tion that each of the estab­lish­ments makes in a bid to get you to stop at their res­taur­ant (they're rather col­our­ful), the town deserves exploration.

The towns we've passed through, the heat of the Karoo and the incred­ible tower­ing sand­stone cliffs of Meiringspoort have all reminded me of author Ettienne van Heerden's The Long Silence of Mario Salviati (if there's one book that to me epi­tom­ises the Karoo, then it's this one, although the ori­ginal, is of course, Die Swye van Mario Salviati). 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

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

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