Zinkwazi Photographs

Zinkwazi is prob­ably one of my most favour­ite places in South Africa.  A small sea­side vil­lage on the Dolphin Coast of KwaZulu Natal, it hasn’t changed much since we star­ted vis­it­ing it thirty odd years ago.  In fact the only growth is Prouds Pizza on the beach and the Magohany Reef beach bar – and this is just the way I like it!  I’m lucky enough to have fam­ily that now resides per­man­ently at Zinkwazi so the vis­its continue.

Zinkwazi has beau­ti­ful beaches with the main beach equipped with shark nets and life­guards mak­ing safe swim­ming pos­sible.  One of the focal points of the vil­lage is the 7 kilo­metre long lagoon that meanders its way through sugar cane fields and offers spec­tac­u­lar bird­ing.  Some 600 spe­cies have been recor­ded put­ting Zinkwazi firmly on the Zululand Birding Route.

Although hot and humid dur­ing the sum­mer months, Zinkwazi in the winter is a pleas­ure.  The days are nor­mally warm and sunny and although slightly chil­lier than nor­mal, a swim in the sea can be achieved!  Continued

Gorgeous Greyton — Photographs

The gor­geous vil­lage of Greyton, loc­ated in the Cape Overberg and sur­roun­ded by farm­lands and the Riviersondered Mountains is a very man­age­able 90 minute drive from Cape Town and is just per­fect for a week­end get­away.  The vil­lage has a num­ber of super res­taur­ants and delis so a decent cof­fee and a loaf of artisan bread is easy to find … if that is what you are look­ing for.  The Greyton Market takes place every Saturday from 10am to mid­day; thing to try would be the lemon curd pan­cakes, the homemade lem­on­ade, the heavy with meat pies, the pes­tos – actu­ally the list is endless.

The oak lined streets, beau­ti­fully restored cot­tages and pretty gar­dens make Greyton pic­ture per­fect. There is loads to do; from walk­ing or cyc­ling in the moun­tains, ambling the streets, eat­ing at the many eat­er­ies, hik­ing to McGregor, vis­it­ing his­tor­ical build­ings or hunt­ing for antiques – the list is end­less.  Or of course you can just relax in the sun­shine and enjoy the views! Continued

Franschhoek in mid-winter — photographs

Even in the middle of winter the gor­geous town of Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands enchants. If you are look­ing for a romantic break­away, Franschhoek in winter is a gem with lots of charm­ing places to stay and lots to do in and around the town. Franshhoek’s vil­lage has a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of art and antique shops and gal­ler­ies and the main streets are lined with res­taur­ants and cof­fee shops and things to do. It is easy to spend a day or week­end (or even a week ort two!) here and Franschhoek serves as an excel­lent spring­board to other wine routes and the Four Passes Fruit Route, of which Franschhoek is also part ... Continued

Franschhoek Bastille Day Festival Photographs

Some of our team mem­bers atten­ded the Franschhoek Bastille Day fest­ival on the week­end of 16 July and brought back some won­der­ful pho­to­graphs of the fest­iv­it­ies. We espe­cially like the pho­tos of the Solms-Delta march­ing band — aren't they a hand­some bunch? Franschhoek, South Africa’s Gourmet Capital, cel­eb­rates its centuries-old French Huguenot her­it­age with a won­der­ful feast of food, wine and enter­tain­ment at its annual Bastille Festival. Its a great time to be in Franschhoek and if you haven't been yet, we sug­gest you try to get there next year! Its a won­der­fully fest­ive time ... Continued

A Day Visit to Vermont — Photographs

Last week­end my fam­ily headed off to Vermont in the Cape Overberg (just before Hermanus) to say a fond farewell to my grand­father. He had lived in Vermont for more than 25 years and we thought it fit­ting to scat­ter his ashes in the town he called home. Although his house is quite lit­er­ally fall­ing apart Spangereid (as he called it) has an amaz­ing loc­a­tion and it just a short walk to the tidal pool.

The tidal pool is always a hive of activ­ity, not only does it boast gor­geous views but you will always find people sit­ting on the beach gaz­ing out into the ocean, chil­dren swim­ming (mostly in sum­mer), fam­il­ies play­ing soc­cer on the grass, eager fish­er­men try­ing their luck for the day and more. If you haven't been to Vermont it is well worth your time, enjoy the still­ness and beauty this sea­side town has to offer ... Continued

Muizenberg Beach — Photographs

After a late night and a dis­ap­point­ing Stormers match I woke up early-ish on Sunday morn­ing and headed off with a good friend to watch some other friends who had begun learn­ing how to surf with Roxy Surf  School. We arrived on Muizenberg Beach just after 09h30 and after find­ing a spot where the sun would warm our backs we scoured the waves to see if we could spot our mates.

The waves weren't really up to any­thing excit­ing on this morn­ing and I can't say I envied my friends in the cold water, how­ever after a good hour and a half in the water they were ready for a hot shower. Once they had warmed up we all sat down and shared a deli­cious break­fast and divine hot chocol­ate at Knead on the beach­front. This beach­front is bust­ling with people and it is a great way to spend a relax­ing few hours, if you're up for it dur­ing winter end it off as I did with an ice cream from Sinnfull ... Continued

Liliesleaf Farm — Photographs

On a recent visit to Johannesburg my mom and I decided to spend a morn­ing tak­ing a tour at the Liliesleaf farm in the leafy sub­urb of Rivonia. I had heard of Liliesleaf before but this was a learn­ing and his­tor­ical exper­i­ence unlike any­thing I have exper­i­enced in a while.

Liliesleaf farm was key to the polit­ical and mil­it­ary policies and strategies of the ANC dur­ing Apartheid and the farm has been restored and turned into an inter­act­ive exhibit which has been open to the pub­lic since 2008. We were taken on a tour by an exper­i­enced guide who was both know­ledge­able and happy to answer our bar­rage of ques­tions. She also showed us the places we could come back to visit should we want to find out more — or has she told us this is where you teach your­self. So you are able to take in as little or as much as you would like to from this visit. I strongly urge any­one who is in Rivonia to go and visit this spe­cial place. Learn more about our country's his­tory and exper­i­ence a fant­astic exhibit... Continued

Nottingham Road — Photographs

Nottingham Road, one of my favour­ite places in South Africa is a quaint farm­ing vil­lage in the heart of the Natal Midlands in KwaZulu Natal.  Surrounded by spec­tac­u­lar scenery; think green rolling hills, snow capped moun­tains in the winter (actu­ally Notties has been known to have a sub­stan­tial amount of snow dur­ing the winter!), fly fish­ing dams, fields filled with graz­ing cattle and trees turn­ing col­our dur­ing the autumn it truly is a beau­ti­ful part of the coun­try.  As part of the hugely pop­u­lar Midlands Meander it offers a wide vari­ety of gor­geous shops, res­taur­ants and sunny spots for cof­fee and cake! Don’t for­get to stop for a beer at the Nottingham Road Brewing Co and of course if you are in Notties then a visit to the infam­ous Notties Hotel is a must … just don’t wear a tie! Continued

Heavenly Hilton — Photographs

Hilton, a pretty, misty vil­lage with an English coun­try feel is loc­ated at the start of the very pop­u­lar Midlands Meander. The streets are tree-lined and it’s the per­fect place to live dur­ing the sum­mer months with tem­per­at­ures nor­mally a good five degrees cooler than Pietermaritzburg in the val­ley below. The vil­lage was some won­der­ful examples of Tudor-style archi­tec­ture – the recently ren­ov­ated Protea Hilton Hotel is test­a­ment to that. Old Main Brewery (formerly Crossways) is loc­ated oppos­ite one of the two sets of traffic lights in the vil­lage and is a Hilton insti­tu­tion and a great place to meet loc­als while La Popote serves a deli­cious lunch. On clear days res­id­ents are treated to views of the majestic Drakensberg which is a short dis­tance away. Continued

A Day of Charcuterie at Lelieblom Farm — Photographs

This past week­end we left Cape Town bright at early on a cold and wet morn­ing and headed out to Darling to the Lelieblom Farm for a les­son in the art of char­cu­terie. The day was organ­ised by Slow Food Mother City and a large group joined up to make new friends and learn some­thing new.

We spent the first part of the morn­ing prep­ping the meat in order to make salami, bacon and boere­wors. This was a day to get your hands a little dirty because you mixed the spices into the minced meat and really got involved in every aspect of the pro­cesses Continued

Really Close — A Cheetah Approach

“Just remem­ber they are wild anim­als”, a warn­ing from Rudi, our game ranger, as we dis­em­bark our game vehicle. We’d been track­ing two male Cheetah near the Northern Gate of Sanbona Wildlife Reserve for about an hour and had finally spot­ted them (no pun inten­ded), lay­ing in the brush about 30 metres from the road.

“Stay close,” a reminder. “They’ll let us know once we’re close enough.”

And I’m think­ing, how exactly are they going to do that? And with that we’re off, walk­ing in single file Continued

Vergelegen Wine Estate photographs

Explore the gar­dens at the beau­ti­ful Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West. The Vergelegen story begins with some of the old­est liv­ing trees in the coun­try guard­ing the three cen­tury old Homestead open to the pub­lic. Grand interior and eleg­ant fur­niture nar­rate the pre­served archives of South African his­tory. The ori­ginal winery, ori­ginal pigeon house and ori­ginal mill are bystand­ers to a bygone era and the lib­rary dic­tates bound recol­lec­tions of life rebirthed through the elab­or­ate White, Herb and Rose Gardens. Continued

Green Point Park and Biodiversity Garden — Photographs

The Green Point Park and Biodiversity Garden is a won­der­ful, pub­lic area open seven days a week with free entry for all.  There are two entrances to the park; one off the fan walk (I fol­lowed the signs from the sta­dium) or oth­er­wise oppos­ite the Mouille Point light­house.

There is loads of open space for a pic­nic lunch or an impromptu game of cricket.  The biod­iversity garden fea­tures over 300 local Cape plant spe­cies and is both edu­ca­tional and inspir­a­tional.  Separated into ‘People and Plants’, ‘Wetlands’ and ‘Discovering Biodiversity’, the dif­fer­ent beds are planted accord­ing to veget­a­tion and inform­a­tion boards indic­ate where in the city the veget­a­tion can be found – most informative!

The Green Point Park is a fant­astic place to spend a few hours and what a priv­ilege it is to have such a place open to the pub­lic. Continued

Rhodes and Barkly East — Photographs

The Northern Ukhahlamba region of the Eastern Cape is an area of wide open spaces dom­in­ated by the majestic Drakensberg.  Known for its freez­ing winter tem­per­at­ures it is one of the only areas in the coun­try where snow ski­ing is avail­able!  This is not the only activ­ity avail­able though with options like moun­tain bik­ing, trout fish­ing, horse trails and fossil trails also high on the list of things to do.

The vil­lages of Rhodes and Barkly East are found in these Eastern Cape Highlands (one reaches Rhodes from Barkly East).  Barkly East is known as the Switzerland of South Africa, offer­ing almost guar­an­teed winter snow.  Rhodes is a little more remote and almost seems frozen in time.  Declared a con­ser­va­tion area in 1997 the vil­lage boasts won­der­ful archi­tec­ture from the flat-roofed church house to the Herbert Baker designed stone school house.  If you are vis­it­ing make sure you pop into the Rhodes Hotel. Continued

Stunning Silvermine Nature Reserve — Photographs

The beau­ti­ful Silvermine Nature Reserve is part of the Table Mountain National Park is is perched on top of the moun­tain, over­look­ing on the one side Ou Kaapse Weg (the entrance is at the top of this road), Tokai, Constantia and Westlake and on the other side Noordhoek, Fish Hoek and Sun Valley.

There are loads of well marked moun­tain bik­ing and hik­ing trails (dogs are allowed on some of the trails) so if you enjoy either of these activ­it­ies you will love Silvermine.  Picnic and braai areas are avail­able in parts of the park and some of these are situ­ated around the Silvermine Reservoir — a per­fect place to spend a Saturday or Sunday espe­cially dur­ing the sum­mer months. Continued