Volunteer Wildfire Services — Awareness Day

VWS — Awareness Day

The Fire and Fynbos Awareness Day is an annual event held in Assagaaibosch Nature Reserve which is part of the gor­geous Jonkershoek val­ley that lies just behind Stellenbosch. you might be ask­ing what this event is all about, well it aims to cre­ate aware­ness about the fyn­bos and fires as well as the oppor­tun­ity to raise money to sup­port our char­ity. So many people think that because we are fire­fight­ers that we get money from gov­ern­ment, unfor­tu­nately this is not case.

Because of the hot­ter sum­mers and drier win­ters the fires that these fire­fight­ers fight are get­ting lar­ger and more intense and are becom­ing increas­ingly fre­quent. This has neces­sit­ated a push in recruit­ment and fund­ing for the equip­ment we sorely need. Top on the required list is a new landrover that will enable another team to be ready to go out and fight the fires. Continued

Mooiberge — seeing is believing

Mooiberge Farm Stall

'Oh, my gawd!' I exclaim, as the full impact of the tableau across the road of the inter­sec­tion with the R44 hits me. 'We have to, have to stop off a minute and get a good look at that.'

We're just turn­ing onto the R44 that links Somerset West to Stellenbosch, en route to the Stellenbosch Botanical Garden, with Spier behind us (via a rather cir­cu­lar route, admit­tedly). Speak about advert­ising. If the hodge podge arrange­ment of what appears to be raggedy anne dolls, aero­planes and very tall gir­affe were a bill­board, it would be exceed­ingly large and out­rageously bright; vir­tu­ally incan­des­cent actu­ally. One is drawn like a mag­net... Continued

I ♥ Stellenbosch Because ...

I ♥ Stellenbosch

Hi, I’m Joerg Streibing from Auberge Rozendal in Stellenbosch. We are just 30 minutes from Cape Town International Airport and right in the heart of the Cape Winelands.

Stellenbosch IS BEST KNOWN FOR its friendly people, young stu­dent vibe, clas­sic uni­ver­sity build­ings and Cape Dutch archi­tec­ture, as well as the fant­astic wines and award win­ning food.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN in front of Stellenbosch's most his­toric icon, the Moeder Kerk (Mother Church) and you will return to Stellenbosch.

THE BEST animal PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT Vredenheim Wine & Game Estate with the ostrich, spring­bok, wilde­beest, don­keys, and many more ...
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS can be taken while you enjoy yourselves at the weekly Stellenbosch Slow Food Market held at the Oude Libertas Center every Saturday year around.
Continued

Stellenbosch Fresh Goods Market Photographs

I had been look­ing for­ward to this Saturday morn­ing for a while now, my friend had told me about a fant­astic mar­ket she had been to and we had finally arranged to go together. The Stellenbosch Fresh Goods Market is held every Saturday at the Oude Libertas Estate, Stellenbosch, Cape Winelands and opens at 09h00. We had a won­der­ful leis­urely few hours brows­ing through the mar­ket which offers you any­thing and everything from fresh pro­duce, delect­able home baked good­ies (you simply have to try the nou­gat and waffles), cloth­ing, jew­ellery and more. The stall hold­ers are happy to chat to you about their products if you have any ques­tions. I adore going to mar­kets and will be back to this one soon (armed with more cash and empty bags). Continued

De Volkskombuis in Stellenbosch — a review

De Volkskombuis

“De Volkskombuis? I can’t even pro­nounce that!” was my reac­tion when I heard where we were going for din­ner. Forgive me, I grew up abroad and my Afrikaans is lim­ited to “Dankie”. So on Tuesday night I found myself at De Volkskombuis Restaurant in Stellenbosch. Four food­ies and a couple of racing enthu­si­asts meant that our con­ver­sa­tion whip­lashed between track times and what we had been cook­ing. We were all look­ing for­ward to our din­ner immensely. I dis­covered that De Volkskombuis is a fine din­ing estab­lish­ment which spe­cial­izes in Cape Dutch cuisine, and was look­ing for­ward to some of my tra­di­tional favor­ites. Continued

The First Stellenbosch International String Symposium

This year will see the first ever International String Symposium comes to South Africa and it will take place between March 22^nd and 26^th at the University of Stellenbosch.

The music depart­ment at the University of Stellenbosch has, over the years, become well known with their innov­at­ive pro­jects with both the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival and the Endler Concert Series set­ting a bench­mark for the rest of the coun­try to fol­low.  The con­certs fea­ture inter­na­tion­ally acclaimed artists along with the best South Africa has to offer. Continued

To market, to market to buy a ...

Stellenbosch Organic

I'm a sucker for mar­kets. So shoot me. If I can, I visit mar­kets as often as pos­sible, and sel­dom the same one more than twice in a row. And we are so spoilt for choice in the Western Cape, that I can do vir­tu­ally that – visit one a week­end for most of sum­mer, without get­ting bored, not that you can pos­sibly get 'bored' with any of these markets.

The Stellenbosch Organic Farmer's Market has been at its new loc­ale adja­cent to Spier, along Allandale Road — you swing right off Baden Powell Drive at Lyndoch sta­tion and the big straw­berry (make sure you crane your neck to look at the bus stop on your left along Allandale, shortly after the turn, as someone has spray painted a clas­sic pair of angel wings inside the shel­ter) — for just short of a year. Continued

Waterford Estate — Wonderful Wine at Waterford

Waterford Estate

It’s a beau­ti­ful sunny day, and I can tell the day is going to be hot. I’m head­ing down the high­way towards Stellenbosch, watch­ing the moun­tains come ever closer. My goal is the Waterford Wine Estate. To my mind this little winery is the jewel in the Stellenbosch Wine Route’s crown. Waterford is a rel­at­ively young estate, which was foun­ded by the Arnold and Ord fam­il­ies in 1998. Don’t dis­count it because of its age though; this estate pro­duces some fant­astic wines. The estate can be found in the pic­tur­esque Blaauwklippen Valley, and the winery was designed by archi­tect Alex Walker in the man­ner of the clas­sic Bordeaux chat­eaus of France. The build­ings are beau­ti­ful, and local stone was used to give the build­ings their warm glow ... Continued

Didn't even know Stellenbosch had a Botanical Garden

Stellenbosch Botanical

Hidden in the heart of Stellenbosch where one least expects to find a garden, and where Neethling, Murray, Keefom and Van Riebeek streets meet in amongst res­id­ences, his­tor­ical build­ings and gues­t­houses, lies one of the most beau­ti­ful gar­dens ima­gin­able. And I say this with all due respect to the myriad gor­geous gar­dens we have in South Africa.

Actually, the offi­cial entrance is in Van Riebeeck Street, lest you con­fuse your­self try­ing to find the not-signposted streets I've just men­tioned. The 'new' entrance was only com­pleted in 2010, made pos­sible when the University (to whom the garden has belonged since 1922) came to an agree­ment with the local muni­cip­al­ity to use a small park that links the Stellenbosch Botanical Garden to the his­tor­ical town centre. But like many of the stu­dents that wander through here as the whim takes them, we used a side-entrance through a couple of white pil­lars ... Continued

Stellenbosch photographs

The beau­ti­ful town of Stellenbosch, roughly an hour from Cape Town, lies sur­roun­ded by the Stellenbosch Mountains in the Jonkershoek River Valley in one of the most pic­tur­esque set­tings in the Western Cape. The second old­est town in South Africa has fondly been called ‘Eikestad’ or city of oaks and its streets are lined with some of the most beau­ti­ful sur­viv­ing examples of Cape Dutch, Georgian and Victorian archi­tec­ture in the Cape. Dorp Street is a national monu­ment and Continued

Slaley Farm Market — with an emphasis on food, family and fun

Slaley Farm Market

'Well,' says the brightly attired pan­cake man, whose name is Siegfried Kitching and whose kit­chen skills, I assure you, are rather admir­able, con­sid­er­ing I can't flip a pan­cake to save my life, 'there is sugar and cin­na­mon, syrup, or sugar, cin­na­mon and syrup!'

I look flum­moxed. Not my fault, prom­ise. But not hav­ing had time for an extra cup of cof­fee before head­ing out to Stellenbosch and the Slaley Farm Market is begin­ning to tell, and now it's too darn hot to con­tem­plate another, des­pite a stall selling what looks like really good cof­fee. My five-year old son is quietly burst­ing for a pan­cake (and he does few things quietly), which of course, would be the very first stand in the entire place, wouldn't it? Continued

Cooking demo at Olivello Restaurant in Stellenbosch

If you are look­ing for some­thing dif­fer­ent to do next week­end or would like to spruce up your recipe books and cook­ing skills then a cook­ing demo at Olivello Restaurant in Stellenbosch in the Cape Winelands could be just the thing for you (takes place on Saturday 19^th February).  With cof­fee and bis­cotti served at 9.30am with the demo com­men­cing at 10am sharp — call up your friends and book a spot before they are all snapped up ... Continued

Winner 3 Night Retreat in the Winelands

CONGRATULATIONS to Bea Becker of South Africa who has won a 3-night retreat on a 220 hec­tare wine farm near Stellenbosch, in the Cape Winelands. The prize includes 3 nights accom­mod­a­tion, break­fast daily, after­noon tea and a bottle of Hawksmoor wine and a cheese & meat platter.

Bea, your voucher is on its way. Please con­tact Hawksmoor House to redeem the voucher (valid until 15 June 2011). We’re sure you’ll enjoy your stay! Continued

Win a 3 Night Retreat in the Winelands (closed)

Hawksmoor House

WIN a 3-night retreat on a 220 hec­tare wine farm near Stellenbosch, in the Cape Winelands. Meticulously restored and beau­ti­fully dec­or­ated with exquis­ite antiques, Hawksmoor House occu­pies a stun­ning loc­a­tion amidst vine­yards over­look­ing Table Mountain, and enjoys spec­tac­u­lar sun­sets. Hawksmoor House is the per­fect place to unwind and let the day slowly go by, lie by the pool with a good book and a glass of our own fab­ulous Hawksmoor wine. It also serves as a great base from which to explore the Winelands.

The Prize

Valued at over R5,000 the prize includes:

• 3 nights bed and break­fast accommodation
• after­noon tea
• Continued

Lunch at Lanzerac

Lunch at Lanzerac

We spent the recent Heritage Day long week­end in the Cape Winelands and had lunch at Lanzerac on Friday.  I’d spent a few hours at the Spa and feel­ing a bit peck­ish we opted for what was close at hand – The Taphuis!  There was a fresh breeze blow­ing so we were happy to sit inside and the interior with its massive fire­place and long, wooden bar counter set a per­fect ambience.

There are only a few tables in The Taphuis but they are fairly large and I appre­ci­ated not hav­ing to rearrange the cut­lery, crock­ery and glass­ware to make enough space for the bread bas­ket! The ser­vice was good (although as we were one of two tables you would expect it to be!) and before long we were tuck­ing into a very sat­is­fy­ing lunch indeed ... Continued