I ♥ Britannia Bay Because ...

I ♥ Britannia Bay

Hi, I’m Lucille Byrnes from Dolphin B&B+S/C in Britannia Bay a sub­urb of the town St Helena Bay up South Africa’s Cape West Coast.

Britannia Bay IS BEST KNOWN FOR long stretches of pristine beaches, “heaven” and “hell” surfer’s corners and the wreck after which the bay is named.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT the deck of my house (where do you get sea and surf in the fore­ground and back­drop of the Winterberge in one pho­to­graph?). From Britannica Heights one can see north to Baboon Point at Elandsbaai, a nat­ural her­it­age site, and south to the first work­ing light­house after you cross the equator at Cape Columbine near Paternoster.

THE BEST wed­ding PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT Sea Trader, the ideal spot to get mar­ried on the rocks. Continued

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

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

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

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

I ♥ Yzerfontein Because...

I ♥ Yzerfontein

Hi, I’m Myrna from the White House Beach Villa in Yzerfontein.

Yzerfontein IS BEST KNOWN FOR white sandy beaches, relaxed sea­side liv­ing, whale spot­ting, bird­life, the September flower sea­son, unfor­get­table golden sun­sets, surf­ing and boating.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Pearl Bay, on the beach, a stone’s throw from the White House Beach Villa.

THE BEST mid­day PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN lying in a field of Spring flowers.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S GOOD, I LIKE TO take a long leis­urely walk along the 16 mile beach or simply soak up the sun and enjoy the sound and smell of the ocean. Continued

The Red Windmill – another great stop just outside Napier

The Red Windmill

Eat, play, live at the nurs­ery | garden shop | res­taur­ant | play area | vin­tage shop ...

Just out­side the town of Napier, en route to Bredasdorp, sits a beau­ti­ful old Cape Dutch farm house, just off the road, with a bright red roof and white gables and walls. To the side of it stands a red wind­mill, admit­tedly minus its blades, but that's a story for later.

The Red Windmill isn't the farm­stall it first appears to be. Instead its some­thing of a col­lec­tion or col­lab­or­a­tion of four inde­pend­ent shops under the umbrella of Red Windmill. I bump into Dee Robinson. She's drink­ing cof­fee on the stoep with Erica (of Dave's Country Kitchen) and Lesley (of Cool Beans sweets shop). Everyone's laugh­ing and gen­er­ally hav­ing a rather fest­ive time. If this is what col­lab­or­a­tion looks like, count me in.

It's late in the after­noon on a Sunday and the lunch rush is over. Dee explains how she just had to have the house when it came up for hire last year. “I've had my eye on this build­ing since we arrived in Napier from Cape Town,” she smiles. “I didn't know what we were going to do with it, but I knew some­thing would emerge.” Continued

Chart Farm Photographs

My hus­band and I did some­thing dif­fer­ent on Sunday – we vis­ited Chart Farm in Wynberg Park and picked our own roses!  I had been earlier in the year only to find that roses are sea­sonal and I was a few weeks to late but tak­ing my flower­ing Iceberg rose at home as an indic­a­tion that other roses might also be bloom­ing we made our way to the farm.  Located near Wynberg Park, Chart Farm and its farm style envir­on­ment is well worth a visit.

There are a wide vari­ety of roses and they are avail­able for pick-your-own (a bucket and secateurs are provided) or altern­at­ively you can pur­chase the blooms ready picked.  It is lovely though to wander the ter­races, admir­ing the gor­geous col­ours on dis­play and tak­ing in the views of the Constantia Valley.  The cost to pick your own is R4 per stem Monday to Saturday.  Sunday pick­ing is half price; R2 per stem.  Already picked roses are R5.50 per stem.

Being a farm, the farm stall offers fresh, sea­sonal farm pro­duce which include lem­ons, limes, grapes, veges and chest­nuts.  For the keen garden­ers com­post and mulch are avail­able to pur­chase per bag. If you need lar­ger quant­it­ies a bulk deliv­ery could be arranged.

The views are there to be enjoyed and what bet­ter way to do that than by stop­ping for tea at The Terrace Coffee Shop.  Home-made cakes as well as break­fast and lunch are served between 9am to 4.30pm (with last orders at 4.00pm) daily.

We really enjoyed our trip to Chart Farm and will def­in­itely go back again. Continued

I ♥ Greyton Because ...

I ♥ Greyton

Hi, I’m Gemma Downing from The Farmhouse in Greyton.

Greyton IS BEST KNOWN FOR its oak tree lined streets and mag­ni­fi­cent Riviersonderend Mountains.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN whilst bob­bing about in the Gobos River — so refreshing.

THE BEST still life PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN in the sur­round­ing moun­tains early in the morn­ing when the spider webs are drip­ping with dew. Its magical!

OTHER HAPPY SNAPS all over the vil­lage ... includ­ing the Saturday morn­ing mar­ket. Continued

City Bowl Market on Hope – one-stop market for all your food needs

City Bowl Market

Is it just me, or has the Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Cape Town become ridicu­lously busy, over priced and just plain unpleas­ant if you hap­pen to arrive at any time past 9am, and who doesn't?

I'm the last one to knock the Neighbourgoods. They're a first-rate mar­ket — they've out­las­ted the very best, they've set the bench­mark as far as excel­lent food mar­kets go, and could rival any sim­ilar European mar­ket. But enough already. It's really time for another mar­ket in the city bowl...

Enter stage left – the City Bowl Market — situ­ated on the rather obscure Hope Street in Gardens, which, not being a city bowl dweller myself, I man­aged to cap­ably miss for twenty minutes before finally find­ing it (but I did get to drive around Gardens, which was lovely). Continued

Taim-go-loer – a farm stay where time stands still in Napier

Taim-Go-Loer

The first thing to grab my atten­tion, other than the obvi­ous pret­ti­ness of our accom­mod­a­tion, is the name of the place we choose to stay just out­side of Napier — a little town in the Overberg close enough to Caledon not to feel like a trek-and-a-half for a week­end break.

It's called Taim-go-loer.

I love words, and can't res­ist play­ing with this obvi­ously lov­ingly selec­ted phrase to describe our self-catering venue. Time to go and look, time for a walk­about? It sounds a little like pidgin English. That it has some­thing to do with time stand­ing still is obvi­ous, as no sooner are our bags on the floor of the bed­room than time slows. Continued

CocoáFair – the Biscuit Mill acquires a taste for chocolate

CocoáFair

There is a little more to CocoáFair than simply chocol­ate. For many of us just the prom­ise of loc­ally made, artisan, organic chocol­ate is enough of an invit­a­tion to have us reach­ing for a taste...and believe me, hav­ing sampled, it is a mouth-watering experience.

But Thor soon explains, as I query the name, that yes, CocoáFair is def­in­itely about the fair­ness involved in the way the cocoa is traded, but the emphasis is also very much on the 'affair' with cocoa – not only the love of it, but the rela­tion­ship of cocoa with the people who grow it, and the people who turn it into chocolate.

And an affair there most def­in­itely is. On dis­play on shelves to my right and left are bars of organic chocol­ate, pralines, truffles, a bar­rel filled with incred­ibly reas­on­ably priced raw cacoa, organic sugar, and sliv­ers of chocol­ate — bagged, and tied up with a rib­bon. Continued

I ♥ Rosebank Because ...

I ♥ Rosebank

Hi, I’m Yves Ducommun from Carmichael House in Rosebank, Southern Suburbs of Cape Town

Rosebank IS BEST KNOWN FOR being on the slopes of Devil’s Peak.

"Upper Rosebank used to be a por­tion of much lar­ger prop­er­ties sold in the early years of the 19^th cen­tury by farm­ers to British immig­rants that came at that time to the Cape. Those por­tions of prop­er­ties were then sold into smal­ler sec­tions for build­ing plots. One of them con­sisted in two amal­gam­ated farms owned by Johannes Paulus Eksteenwhich, respect­ively named Zorgvliet (or carefree).and Brandenburg. It had earlier been part of a Free Burger colony: “de Hollandse Tuin”, under Steven Janz Botma. In mod­ern times it has become known as Upper Rosebank. The Zorgvliet homestead, which is shown in the paint­ing of Lady Anne Barnard, seems to have been on the Main Road, just about where the UCT res­id­ence towers are now." (from “Under Devil’s Peak” by Adele Keen) Continued