Val de Vie Magazine 2024/2025 by Val de Vie Estate

BENTLEY SOUTH AFRICA

Power: 404 kW (550 PS); Torque: 770 Nm; 0-100 km/h: 4.5 seconds; Maximum speed: 290 km/h.

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Model shown: Bentayga Azure

URUS SE DARE TO LIVE MORE

Urus SE is the next step in Automobili Lamborghini’s journey towards hybridisation. As the first Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) version of the luxury Super SUV, the twin-turbo 4.0 V8 engine has been re-engineered to work in optimal synergy with the electric powertrain: 588 kW (800 PS) of power, 950 Nm of torque, acceleration from 0-100 km/h in just 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 312 km/h. All with an 80% reduction in emissions. The Urus SE also features a new design, optimised aerodynamics and unprecedented onboard technology, making it a revolutionary vehicle poised for the future.

Sold with a 3 year/100,000 km Driveplan at no additional cost.

CONTENTS SUMMER 2024/25

34 Architectural Manoevres

In The Dark Like night and day: this global roundup highlights after-dark architectural personality.

74 Cruising Into The Wild

The most remote corners of the Earth are tantalisingly within reach, but exploring them requires expert guidance and a light touch.

44 Barking Up A New Tree

From pet-friendly travel to stylish designer accessories, it’s anything but the proverbial dog’s life for South Africa’s pedigree pooches.

In The Heat Of The

Moment Made with passion, packed with care: Liz Lacey’s glass creations have found their way across the globe.

52 Dark Secrets

An illuminating dive into the history of watches built for the dark, plus some of today’s most eye-catching pieces.

88 The Reluctant Star

Between his masterful choreography, directing and dancing, the spotlight can’t help but find Mthuthuzeli November.

Editor-in-Chief &

Val de Vie Marketing Director: Ryk Neethling

Editor: Les Aupiais

Creative Director: Andrea Godwin

Head of Marketing: Marli van Schalkwyk marketing@valdevie.co.za

Advertising Sales: marketing@valdevie.co.za

Copy Editor: Annie Brookstone

Printing: Novus Print

Distribution: Media Support Services

Val de Vie Magazine is published for Val de Vie Estate, Val de Vie Management (Pty) Ltd

Val de Vie Estate: R301/Jan van Riebeeck Drive, Paarl, 7647, South Africa, Tel: 021 863 6100

Email: marketing@valdevie.co.za

Website: valdevie.co.za

Social media: @valdevieestate

56 Viva Portugal!

Portugal’s design hotels charm, dazzle and delight – and there’s never been a better time for South Africans to visit.

105 Paarl

From humbly under the radar to the province’s new hot spot, there are more reasons than ever to live, invest and – of course – eat in Paarl.

64 Reigning In Spain

One course at Disfrutar could turn everything you know about gastronomy on its head. Twentyeight of them is nothing short of magical…

124 Missy Morgan And The Mongol Derby

How one

Western Cape mother of four kept her cool to win the world’s toughest horserace.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored on an electronic system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, digital or mechanical, including scanning, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher and copyright owners as featured.

ISSN 2221-4852

Cover image

Photographer: Irina Kazaridi

12 Playing It Forwards

South Africans are riding a wave of optimism right now, says Ryk Neethling, and there’s every reason to keep going.

14 Going Ed First

Our editor reflects on the journeys and destinations that went into our biggest edition of Val de Vie yet…

Contributors

The people behind the pages.

Trophy List

What’s eye-catching, irresistible and should be on your shortlist?

The Buzz

Forget VIPs, in Mauritius, one luxury hotel’s very important bees are central to a multifaceted honey experience.

Methiers And Legends

A local meadery explores the honey-based beverage’s African ancestry while bringing mead into the 21st century.

Retracing Spanish Steps

Where better to answer Barcelona’s call than at the city’s oldest luxury hotel?

72 Seeds For Thought

An enchanting award-winning winery in McLaren Vale, Australia, demands a detour and visit to their Wonder Room.

80 Hand And Heart

Two lifelong friends are hand-crafting bespoke guitars coveted by collectors.

134

Riding High

Forego the usual 4×4 safari experience in favour of literal horse power in Botswana’s breathtaking Okavango Delta.

154 And The Heavens

Opened A once-in-several-decades deluge prompts reflection and natural recalibration on a Kalahari walking experience.

138 Shot In The Dark

When it comes to wildlife photography, knowing your way around a camera is one thing, but it also demands a deep respect for your subject.

158 Open For Exploration

Wild walks, superlative island surrounds and a history full of famous inhabitants –St Helena packs it all into a mere 122km².

148

Earthly Delights

Relaxation and healing go hand in hand in the blissfully tranquil spas of two top Winelands destinations.

164 High & Mighty

A Land Rover journey to deepest, darkest Karoo for solitude, stars and small-town charisma.

86 Looking Sharp

Knife-maker Stuart Smith has carved out his niche, elevating his craft to an art form.

92 The Crossing

Natalia Cohen rowed her way across the Pacific and into history in the course of one life-changing nine-month journey.

96 The Brown Dirt Cowboy

Change the way you think about the food on your plate and you could help change the world – just ask regenerative farmer Angus McIntosh.

122 Freedom And Vision: A Journey Through African

Photography The masters of African photography come to Val de Vie Estate.

130 The Greatest South African Athlete You’ve Never Heard Of

Nachi du Plessis is the South African polo player taking the legendary Argentinian polo scene by storm, one chukka at a time.

144 The Habits Of A Highly

Successful Traveller Looking to up your travel game? Tearing up your to-do list might be the first step.

162 Running The Risk The Garden

Route’s iconic Otter Trail is challenging enough as a five-day hike; try doing it in 11 hours.

172 A Mad House Reigning cats and dogs? Between two Bengals and a boisterous pup, it’s more likely than you think.

Playing It Forwards...

THERE’S AN OLD SAYING that ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’ and at any given point in the past year in South Africa, you would have been forgiven for some caution. We face steep challenges in many sectors, but right now, through a more optimistic lens, these challenges don’t seem insurmountable. Collectively, the picture looks remarkably good.

An election declared free and fair results in a government of national unity. Cartoonists and commentators make fun of the GNU wildebeest but markets react favourably and South Africans begin to believe that a form of co-operative governance may just work, especially in the Western Cape. The City of Cape Town secures second place in the latest global ranking of the world’s best cities to live in.

The Olympic Games nets us six medals, with Tatjana Smith’s 100m breaststroke triumph thrilling us all, earning her and all the returning medalists a resounding heroes’ welcome. After a victory over Argentina where South Africa scored seven tries, the Springboks add another trophy to a growing collection and the surge of pride sends a palpable wave across the country.

We are nothing if not resilient and inventive. With new sponsorship to cover the considerable costs of mounting an ambitious display at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show and minimal resources, South Africa not only wins a Gold at the prestigious show but is also awarded ‘Best Exhibit in the Pavilion’ and the ‘Best New Design’ award. The display scores a perfect 10 from the judges and waylays King Charles for an unprecedented 15-minute visit. The publicity is both remarkable and incalculable.

A modest but long-awaited interest rate adjustment and fuel price decrease have also added to a subtle but important ripple of optimism. But there are other reasons to celebrate.

Judging by the increased air traffic to Cape Town, the summer season has begun early. Visitors are drawn by what the country has to offer in biodiversity, adventure tourism, wellness and the overall standard of hospitality. It’s not only the spending power of the dollar and euro that’s a drawcard but a sense that when visitors arrive, the country over-delivers on its promise. Those who traditionally spend their summers here are now extending their stay for months. They are investing in property and forming business partnerships. Val de Vie Estate continues to be a magnet for those who value quality of life, security and strategic positioning. The announcement of a proposed second international airport in the heart of the Winelands has fuelled further interest in investment in the province. We reflect this in our 2024/25 edition of the magazine and showcase the grit, talent and spirit that define what it is to be South African – from world-class cuisine to architecture, the arts, tourism, agriculture and entrepreneurship to the lure of authentic wilderness. How has an Afrikaans-speaking polo player made it to the top international team in the world and won its most prestigious prize? His approach to the game and his humility say it all.

If there was a litmus test for optimism, a sense of forward momentum and confidence in South Africa, now would be the time to measure it. There is wind in our sails...

On a recent trip to Paris, the editor took a day out of the city to explore Musée Albert-Kahn... and the adjoining four hectares of glorious gardens and forested terrain.

Stay a while

to absorb the spirit and mood of a destination, and slip into ‘live-like-a-local’ mode. That’s our travel message in this edition. A recent two-week stay in Paris with a savvy young companion turned the potentially traditional way of exploring an iconic city into something of a wild and energetic ride. Covering 157km in two weeks, with an average of 15 000 steps a day, our sports watches buzzed with praise for the walking. Gridded in a clockwise spiral of 20 arrondissements, post-Olympic Paris was a treasure trove of hidden gardens, local artists, light shows, barista-run coffee shops and new perspectives. We ascended in a balloon for a magnificent view of the city and hung out in rooftop bars at sunset. The city had never been so thoroughly conquered by two determined women.

Lesley Stones is a veteran traveller and outlines the strategy for this kind of ‘slow travel’ bolstered by the insider perspective of residents. Richard Holmes spends a week ‘captured’ by

St Helena and absorbs the history, culture and wild walks there. One flight a week strands you for a full seven days. And if you’ve shied away from a luxury cruise because of crowding and overtourism, think of booking on Seabourn for a life-changing voyage. Explorer and extreme adventurer Riaan Manser is often the cruise line’s onboard expert, and his talks inspire bold steps into the unknown. The company’s sea adventures are designed for small numbers of guests, light impact and maximum adventure in some of the most remote areas of the world. It’s the notion of the ‘barefoot brain’ that intrigues us – time spent honing your natural senses in the wild.

Keeping to the theme of remote experiences, Natalia Cohen recounts her time on the first-ever all-woman crewed fours boat to row unsupported across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Cairns, Australia. What was planned as a six-month journey in a rowing boat ended up being nearly nine months at sea. Recently in South Africa to help raise funds for whale research, Natalia has turned the record-breaking transpacific feat into the inspiration for successful motivational talks around the world. Missy Morgan entered the notoriously tough Mongol Derby and wins against the best riders in the world. Peter Frost takes a Land Rover off the beaten track for a motoring thrill, and between features on horseback safaris in Botswana, running the Otter Trail and backpack bonding in an unseasonable storm in the remote Kalahari, we suggest that a travel experience should be more of an adrenalin rush than a leisurely doddle.

As always, we hunt down brilliant creativity, from glass sculptures to mead-makers and rare guitars crafted by hand. On a grand scale, Martin Jacobs explores global design trends, including how architecture has a new life after dark.

And finally, food should always be a grand gastronomic experience, and we set before you some rather exotic and altogether tempting ways to taste ingenuity and creativity on a plate, including a visit to the top-rated restaurant in the world.

We invite you to see this 2024/25 issue of Val de Vie magazine as an awe-inspiring adventure in print, and the biggest edition we have published to date, thanks to the robust support of some of the most prestigious brands in the world.

LES AUPIAIS

PETER FROST Passionate about cars, bikes, planes, boats and anything that moves, Peter Frost has been travelling ever since his mum put him in the backseat of an Austin 1100 at four weeks old and drove off into deepest Kruger. Today, his business is film as much as words and pictures; as the founding director of Oxbow Media, he concentrates on bringing the splendour of Africa to a wider audience.

SASHA SANDERS is an awarded writer of stories, scripts, articles, adverts and, really, anything that needs words, whether eight or 80 000 of them. He’s written for companies and causes, brands and blogs, magazines and media houses, and is currently studying toward an MA in Creative Writing.

ARLENE WAINSTEIN An award-winning South African television journalist with a serious travel addiction in her early career, Arlene says she was ‘lured’ into corporate communications leadership roles for multinational blue-chip companies based in Europe and then the United Arab Emirates. The travel bug never left though, and she’s clocked up trips to 87 countries including Turkmenistan (one of the most difficult visas to obtain after North Korea) and Eritrea (one of the least visited countries in Africa). A conservationist at heart, she describes the Okavango Delta in Botswana as her ‘soul place’.

CONTRIBUTORS

PIPPA HUDSON has spent over 25 years working in media, primarily in the radio broadcasting field, but also as a magazine features writer, professional public relations consultant, MC, media trainer and ghostwriter for corporate speakers. Her radio show on CapeTalk was voted Best Daytime Show in the country in 2022, and covers a wide array of topics, with a focus on personal storytelling, arts and culture, books and lifestyle news. She is a keen foodie and traveller, an avid attempted surfer, loves bulldogs, bubbles and her family (not in that order), and is never entirely secure unless she has a book in her handbag, just in case.

RICHARD HOLMES is a Cape Town-based travel writer who has always been drawn to wild places, from keeping a keen eye out for bears in Alaska to exploring northern Kruger on foot. But, he says, on St Helena he found a wonderfully wild island with an undercurrent of gentle charm.

life extraordinary DISCOVER

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65 YEARS & OLDER

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Central Square, 5 Lower Road, Morningside, Johannesburg 2196

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Life’s Little Luxuries

Make a Statement

There can be nothing as eye-catching as an ostrich feather clutch in motion. Any slight movement and the feathers float. It has a dynamic of its own and in colours that just pop and seduce the eye. This is only one of Okapi’s seductive range of luxurious, handmade creations deeply rooted in social upliftment to empower artisans and local communities. The detail and craftsmanship are exquisite, and any piece becomes a wardrobe investment and heirloom. Okapi works only with sustainably sourced materials such as ostrich, springbok and blesbok, the leather being a byproduct of the existing free-range farming industry in South Africa. Because they are handcrafted, each Okapi piece is a true original. The Okapi Small Yemaja is another showstopping piece and comes with a signature Okapi horn handle and gold-plated link chain as well as a length-adjustable sling handle and two tassels. To be worn in the day, at night and forever. Okapi Boutique, Anthonij Rupert Wine Farm, Franschhoek Valley; okapi.com

1. Roll On

Forget foam rollers... Here, you’ll be gliding over machines designed to give a deep tissue massage while promoting lymphatic drainage and helping your body detox and rejuvenate. Bring a friend or partner and relax fully, as each 45-minute session boosts circulation, targets stubborn cellulite and relieves tension and stress. Roll Refine Studio is based at Val de Vie Estate. Oh, and did we mention you burn calories? The exposure to dry heat boosts metabolism and helps sculpt a leaner physique. rollrefine.co.za

2. Breakthrough Formula

FutureMe is a global luxury skincare brand that inspires a journey into the future for those who invest in their most precious natural beauty asset. By bridging high performance with

‘The sculptures feel ancient and futuristic... a juxtaposition of the old and the new.’

ultra-indulgence, you can embrace both without compromise. FutureBlend, the brand’s innovative high-potency formula complex, allows active botanical extracts to penetrate deeply into the skin and produce visible results effortlessly. The range of FutureMe products also aims to provide a luxury experience inspired by the highest standards of Asian hospitality. You can experience the best of a spa treatment combined with one of the most powerful formulas in the world. Scents and textures will dramatically shift your understanding of how sensual and performance-based a skincare line can be but there are three magical pillars that underpin this brand’s futuristic approach: specialised hydration, regeneration and revitalisation – an essential regime that will change the way you face the world of tomorrow. futuremeworld.com

3. Ancient Meets Modern

Spotted at Decorex 2024, Jade Paton’s contemporary handcrafted clay sculptures are inspired by classic, ancient vessels but also forms in nature, architecture, design and art. There’s a raw earthiness to her work and anyone with their heart set on creating ikebana will delight in shapes that compliment a delicate Japanese-inspired floral arrangement. Her work is not only functional but decorative too, each piece making its own design statement. ‘During the building process, the shape mutates and evolves into something unexpected,’ she writes. ‘The surfaces of the work can be raw and natural, as if they have emerged from the earth, or saturated and colour-driven. The sculptures feel ancient and futuristic… a juxtaposition of the old and the new.’ Her Cape Town studio was established in 2018. studio@jadepaton.com

THERE IS NO GREATER LUXURY THAN THAT WHICH IS CRAFTED WITH UTMOST CARE, DEDICATION TO DETAIL AND A HEART FIRMLY ROOTED IN COMMUNITY

1. Faux Fur a Lifesaver

The African Congregational Church (ACC) has partnered with Panthera’s Furs for Life programme to save wild leopards in southern Africa. The initiative replaces traditional ceremonial regalia made from authentic fur with a synthetic alternative, ‘Heritage Fur’, providing a new source of income for women in the congregation. This collaboration has supplied 19 000 synthetic leopard fur capes to the Shembe Church, reducing authentic fur use by 50 percent. Furs for Life works with African digital designers to design hyperrealistic patterns that blur the line between authentic and artificial. The Heritage Fur pattern is based on digitised scans of authentic leopard skins as a direct replication of nature rather than a graphic design. Panthera, founded in 2006, is dedicated to preserving wild cats and their ecosystems through innovative conservation strategies. panthera.org

2. Naturally Talented

The Karoo Farm Box concept was born out of the devastating impact of the Covid years but soon turned into a proudly South African smash hit. The company was conjured up by Lani Lombard, her daughter Louzel and son-in-law Louis Steyn and what began with dispatching beautifully made sheepskin slippers, their Pantoffel Box now contains slippers, as well as other necessities for the distinguished Karoo lady or gentleman, including mohair-and-wool blend socks in the gents’ box and an elegant full grain leather cosmetics bag in the ladies’. Their sheepskin kaross is a must-have and their Karoo Farm Box mohair blankets are woven in Karoo-inspired colour options and come in two sizes: a travel-size throw perfect for a couch or single bed or a cuddly extra-large. Made in the Karoo by the people of the

Karoo, the products not only provide skilled work but rise to the demand for authentic, hand-crafted goods. karoofarmbox.co.za

3. Bead Daring

‘If you buy what’s mass-produced and readily available, you’ll miss out on a range that adds vibrancy, character and texture to the fabric.’

A splash of colour, a break in the neutral design line – whatever your motivation to use scatter cushions in your living and sleeping areas, Marise Kock’s Verstrooid Kussings take the humble scatter a creative leap further. If you buy what’s mass-produced and readily available, you’ll miss out on a range that adds vibrancy, character and texture to the fabric. The handembellished cushions take time to create but the result is a little work of art that adds one-of-a-kind individuality and sparkle to your décor. You can explore the latest offerings from Verstrooid Kussings on Instagram. instagram.com/verstrooid_kussings

‘INNOVATION COMES OUT OF GREAT HUMAN INGENUITY AND VERY PERSONAL PASSIONS.’

- MEGAN

SMITH,

AMERICAN ENGINEER AND TECHNOLOGIST

1. Light Relief

Polymer developer and manufacturer igus has collaborated with German e-bike company Advanced Bikes to create a bicycle frame made entirely of recyclable highperformance plastics and carbon fibres using injection moulding technology. The lightweight frame, featured on the Reco Urban trekking e-bike, boasts impressive strength and rigidity. The company envisions extending this approach to other components too, hoping to soon realise a fully recyclable e-bike. The 3,3kg singlepiece frame is corrosion-resistant, durable and free from weld seams. advanced.tech

2. Watch Yourself

Stay the course with Garmin’s fēnix 8 Series, a next-gen smartwatch that uses TopoActive Maps and advanced GPS features to keep you on track, no matter

what. The solar-powered battery lasts up to 48 days on some models, and when night approaches, the LED torch is a lifesaver. Designed for the extreme, it stands up to any challenge with its sleek design and robust functionality perfect for wellness tracking. As the official timekeeping partner for the Val de Vie Polo Club during the 2024/25 season, the fēnix 8 Series ensures that even your time on horseback is tracked with precision. garmin.com

3. Make a Splash

If the kitchen is your creative space and colour defines your mood, you’ll love the Officine Gullo cooking range. Pictured here is the Fiorentina line in ‘Cotton Candy’ with a brushed copper finish. These ‘cooking blocks’ are designed for high performance, user-friendliness and iconic design. All Officine Gullo kitchens and appliances can

‘The company envisions extending this approach to other components too, hoping to soon realise a fully recyclable e-bike.’

be produced in 42 glossy, 56 matte or 14 special colours, with seven different finishes for the details, making each kitchen a unique creation guaranteed to inspire. officinegullo.com

4. The Sounds of Silence

Whether you’re fighting in-flight clamour or zoning out from everyday noise, these Beoplay H100 headphones boast sound credentials. Available in three stylish shades, they have a smooth, scratch-free surface, haptic dials and tactile buttons within logical reach. Looks can thrill, but the sound is fabulous too thanks to 10 studio-grade microphones and B&O’s most advanced noise-cancellation yet. And they’re smart: one lift of a cup and you’re listening to your surrounds again. And finally, five minutes of charging gives you hours of play time. bang-olufsen.com

1. Elegance Uncorked

Val de Vie Estate’s wine collection is like a soirée in a bottle, each label with its own story to tell. The Perfect Host is the charming guest everyone wants at their dinner table – smooth, balanced and always ready to impress. The Ryk Neethling premium blend channels Olympic-level boldness, with a full-bodied punch that’s as memorable as its namesake. Valley of Life is a crisp, refreshing nod to the estate’s surroundings. And then there’s the Cuvée de Vie MCC, a bubbly that turns any moment into a special occasion. Each of these wines captures the essence of Val de Vie Estate’s luxurious yet laidback lifestyle, making every sip a little celebration. Wines are delivered nationwide. orders@lhuguenot.com

‘Each of these wines captures the essence of Val de Vie Estate’s luxurious yet laidback lifestyle, making every sip a little celebration.’

2. A Fashionable Love Affair with Africa

Inspired by the legendary writer Robert Ruark and the untamed beauty of the African savannah, the Ruark Collection is more than attire; it’s a call to adventure. Created for those who crave the wild but demand sophistication, this exclusive range blends durability with refined elegance. Designed to conquer the bush in style and using nature as inspiration, the range is timeless and classic. ruarkcollection.com

3. Strikingly Stylish

For women who embrace the power of the famed Bulgari icon and make it personal, these designs captivate with meticulous details and sinuous lines. Striking and infinitely modern, Bulgari eyewear has the soul of jewellery and

celebrates daring, charismatic and confident women. Glamorous and geometric, the Viper eyewear line is inspired by the jewellery creations of the same name, celebrating the beauty of the mythical snake’s scales. Serpenti Viper’s ever-elegant cat-eye shape is revisited in a rimless version. A nod to the unique heritage of the Roman Maison, this style is embellished with the iconic snake’s scale motif on the gold-finish temples and embellished with mother-of-pearl inserts for a feminine touch. The bold and elegant Serpenti Forever line features a figurative snake head with hand-applied enamel on the hinge and a delicate but instantly recognisable ‘BVLGARI’ signature on the temples. An enduring style icon, these models are irresistibly eternal. bulgari.com

‘AH, BUT A MAN’S REACH SHOULD EXCEED HIS GRASP, OR WHAT’S A HEAVEN FOR?’

1. Chic Retreats

The demand for villa rentals in Cape Town has surged remarkably, with Icon Villas leading the way in catering to an upscale clientele seeking a luxurious home-away-from-home experience. Recently, two exquisite properties, Symphony of Light in Bishopscourt and Phezulu in Higgovale, were introduced to their collection. A significant 60 percent of Icon’s 2023 bookings comprised multi-generational families and diverse groups, highlighting the appeal of coastal-based accommodation. These properties offer a perfect mix of hotellike amenities with the added benefits of privacy, space and flexibility. Features such as gourmet kitchens, expansive gardens with play areas and swimming pools with amazing views enhance a sense of laidback luxury that resonates with the South African lifestyle. Choose

‘The talks offer brilliant insights not just in design trends but the way the world is thinking and experiencing work and life in general.’

from in-house chefs, butlers and concierge services for exclusive experiences. iconvillas.com

2. Talks Spark New Insights

Visit Decorex Cape Town (5-8 June 2025) or Jo’burg (24-27 July) for design inspiration and one-on-one conversations with creatives, though arguably, your most rewarding experience will be attending the Future Talks by trend analysts and experts in their field. The series covers a multifaceted exploration of topics from sustainability to design entrepreneurship and the transformative impact of technology on the creative landscape. Each session is expertly curated to ignite critical discussions and inspire groundbreaking solutions to industry challenges. The talks offer brilliant insights into design trends and how the world is thinking and experiencing work and life in general. If you’re

launching a new product or want to know what drives the habits and behaviour of various generations, these trend talks will be invaluable. decorextalk@gmail.com

3. Every Jewel, a Masterpiece

Since 2005, Linde Collection has carved its niche in the luxury jewellery scene, blending creativity with craftsmanship in a way that few can match. Located on Val de Vie Estate, the atelier led by Philip and Annemarie van der Linde is not just a workshop, it’s a dream factory for bespoke jewellery. Annemarie brings a dynamic flair to the design process, while Philip’s expertise in gemstones ensures that each piece is not only stunning but meaningful too. Together, they offer a personal touch from the first sketch to the final creation, making each jewellery piece a reflection of their commitment to excellence.

info@lindecollection.com

TOWN Waterway House, 3 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town 8002

T +27 (0)21 419 5445

SANDTON Central Square, 5 Lower Road, Morningside, Johannesburg 2196

T +27 (0)11 262 5257

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DISCOVER SOHO, SLIDING PANELS. DESIGN GIUSEPPE BAVUSO

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Architectural Manoeuvres In The Dark

AS NEW TECHNOLOGIES FACILITATE ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION, AN INCREASING NUMBER OF ARCHITECTS DESIGN BUILDINGS WITH IMPRESSIVE NIGHTTIME PERSONALITY.

BY MARTIN JACOBS

THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE Come nighttime, a church in Luoyuan, China, glows from within, illuminated by lighting concealed between two façades. Designed by INUCE, the building’s stained-glass façade comprises close on 108 000 pieces of blue glass. By day, the church’s interior glows blue, illuminated by light flooding through these windows.

HAVING SUFFERED through almost two decades of rolling outages – load shedding, colloquially – relative to other citizens of the world, have South Africans developed a greater appreciation for the nuances of architecture after dark? Certainly, in the first 10 years of load shedding, when inverters and generators weren’t as commonplace as they’ve become, we became accustomed to navigating our cities by moonlight, headlight, torchlight and candlelight. We became familiar with the architectural silhouettes of our neighbourhoods, be they the monolithic contours of apartment buildings and office high-rises or the erratic outlines of freestanding suburban homes. To what extent, though, did we notice changes to that architecture, buildings that look significantly different after dark from their daylight appearances? Buildings that have personality come nighttime, an identity forged not simply by humdrum exterior illumination but by a considered interpretation of lighting or moving parts?

Most architecture, as we know it, is designed to best be admired during daylight. After dark, when our vision is reduced, those same buildings by default have diminished visual appeal, for often the subtleties of their façades are lost to darkness and shadow. That’s where exterior illumination steps in, floodlighting large surfaces, once again making material palettes visible and casting new shadows that themselves accentuate relief forms perhaps less visible during the day. Think of the ornate façades of Paris’s Musée d’Orsay or Cape Town’s City Hall. Consider too, post sunset, the vastly more linear forms of the Sydney Opera House or London’s Southbank Centre. New York’s Empire State Building, too, is an excellent example. It has the advantage that its uppermost floors have, for shortly over a decade, boasted 1 200 LED lamps (replacements to the previously affixed 400 metal halide lamps) that offer millions of variations of colour used to illuminate the building on a variety of notable occasions. But, given due consideration, it’s the lighting rather than the architecture itself that lends these edifices nighttime personality.

By contrast, the Perelman Performing Arts Center, also in New York and completed earlier this year, proposes an entirely more contemporary solution to after-dark personality. A building that is most frequented by the public come nighttime, by its very nature, the Perelman Performing Arts Center should

ABOVE By day, the monolithic Perelman Performing Arts Center, which opened earlier this year near New York’s 9/11 Memorial & Museum, is a sober grey, suitable given its location. After dark though, the building glows like a paper lantern, the iron within its marble façade emitting an amber hue.

OPPOSITE Three Half Lozenges, by artist Phillip K. Smith III, is a permanent and programmable light installation in the Newark Museum of Art. Installed in the windows of a street-facing façade, the artwork’s changing colours after dark add interest to an otherwise austere exterior.

be an edifice that has dramatic ‘after hours’ visual appeal. That said, located on the World Trade Center campus within metres of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, an appropriate measure of sobriety was necessary for its daylight appearance. Designed by Joshua Ramus, founding architect of the city’s REX design firm, the cube-shaped building, come dusk, glows from within like an enormous Isamu Noguchi lantern. Buildings glowing from within are nothing new. Here, however, the cube’s exterior is constructed from almost 5 000 veined Portuguese marble slabs book matched to create both horizontal and vertical symmetrical patterns across each façade. ‘During the day, sunlight passes through the façade, imparting the amber glow of the marble onto the interior. At night, this amber glow is reversed as the façade is lit from within,’ Ramus says, explaining that it’s iron within the marble that’s responsible for the amber colour. He also explains that the linear lighting within the building that results in its glow is installed in a manner that allows for uniform illumination across each façade.

In the former fishing village of Luoyuan, China, a church designed by INUCE Architects reflects a similar conceptual approach to illumination and its impact on façades. Architect Dirk U. Moench’s Church of Luoyuan is – like Ramus’s building – all about its glow. ‘The church’s interior is illuminated by a huge window made from almost 108 000 individual pieces of stained glass, each 10cm² in size,’ Moench says, explaining how his use of coloured glass also references Christian churches. ‘At night, the stained glass is illuminated from within the void between inner and outer façades, transforming the church into a glowing beacon.’

With more than 1 412m² of glass surface area, the edifice is the largest stained-glass façade in China and, equally, one of the largest worldwide. What distinguishes it from most other uses of stained glass is not only its scale but its use of colour. The Church of Luoyuan’s glass exterior comprises 21 shades of blue, which during the day, don’t appear dissimilar to other buildings with windows treated to reflect the colours of the sky. Come nighttime though, when lit from within, the glass emits a subaquatic radial glow.

ABOVE ‘We need to make sure we enhance rather than detract from the visual appeal of our city,’ says the Lexington Parking Authority of the Helix, a public parking garage. Pohl Rosa Pohl Architects more than met the brief, delivering a perforated steel façade that, come nighttime, can be illuminated in a variety of colours.

OPPOSITE Phillip K. Smith III’s Detroit Skybridge is a permanent light installation comprising programmable LED lights. After dark, its shifting colour variations add Blade Runner appeal to a downtown Detroit street.

THIS PAGE AND OPPOSITE By day, the Netherlands’ historic Afsluitdijk floodgates are unremarkable, but come nighttime they offer a futuristic experience. ‘Without cars on the road, the structures do not illuminate,’ says Dutch innovator Daan Roosegaarde of Gates of Light, his project that rejects energy-dependent lighting in favour of reflective material that emits light only when illuminated.

The Church of Luoyuan is an unusual example of an architect involving himself in the design of a stained-glass window. Historically, such creativity would be outsourced to a craftsperson or artist, as was the case with the Newark Museum of Art in New Jersey. Constructed a century ago, its mostly austere limestone exterior boasts a street-facing façade that, since 2017, undergoes a dramatic change come nighttime. Commissioned by the museum, American light artist Phillip K. Smith III has used three double-storey windows as a canvas for light for his permanent installation Three Half Lozenges . Utilising LED lights, Smith has created a colour choreography that includes gradating curves and lines as well as full fields of colour. ‘The windows operate as a monumental light-based triptych at the scale of architecture,’ says Linda C. Harrison, CEO of the museum. ‘During the day, the façade remains its true, historical self. At sunset, the windows slowly emerge as full colour.’

Choreographing coloured light is key to many of Smith’s works, dramatically so in his installation Detroit Skybridge. Sixteen floors above ground, a 30-metre-long skybridge (constructed in 1976) connects two of the city’s historic buildings, the Guardian Building and One Woodward. By day, the bridge is rather anodyne, but come evening, Smith’s 2018 installation becomes, as he describes it, ‘a beacon for the beauty, creativity and innovation of Detroit’. Like something out of Blade Runner, the bridge’s nighttime persona is futuristic, its moving panes of light and shifting gradients not only imbued with life, like a digital breath, but captivating for those in, or passing through, downtown Detroit.

Programmable coloured lighting transformed an even more unremarkable building – the Helix, a public parking garage – in Lexington, Kentucky. ‘We need to make sure we enhance rather than detract from the visual appeal of our city,’ says Gary Means of the Lexington Parking Authority. ‘We would be shortsighted to present the most utilitarian solution.’ To this end, Means’ team collaborated with Pohl Rosa Pohl Architects on the exterior of the garage. Architect Clive Pohl explains how his studio designed a grid-like series of perforated steel elements for the street-facing façade. By day, the geometric panels merge with and break up the horizontality of the unattractive concrete building. After dark, however, programmable coloured lights illuminate the panels. What’s significant about this project is that, come night, rather than illuminating the utilitarian façade, the backlit elements become the façade.

More accustomed in this day and age to rolling blackouts than we should be, as South Africans, we’re well aware that illuminated edifices of any nature rely on electricity, require energy and place demands on natural resources. Dutch innovator Daan Roosegaarde’s inspiring Gates of Light project proposes an alternative to illuminating architecture – rather incredibly, without using

Shutters on the façade of a Swiss apartment building hydraulically open and close, creating balconies, overhangs and screens in turn. Architect Manuel Herz considered that it’s how the building’s residents choose to live, day or night, that will determine its appearance.

energy. The Afsluitdijk is a 32-kilometre-long dyke that not only protects the Netherlands against flooding but is of historical importance to the country. At its entrance are 60 monumental floodgates that date to the 1930s, designed by Dirk Roosenburg, grandfather of starchitect Rem Koolhaas. Wanting to raise national awareness of the buildings’ cultural significance, the Dutch government undertook a restoration of the neglected floodgates, involving Roosegaarde. While the surrounds are largely unpopulated, more 20 000 cars pass between the buildings daily. Studio Roosegaarde fitted the floodgates with a retro-reflective layer – simply put, strips of highly reflective material that emit light when illuminated, much like discs fitted to bicycles. ‘In the dark, the architecture of these structures is illuminated by the headlamps of passing cars, reflecting the light through small prisms,’ explains Roosegaarde. ‘Without cars on the road, the structures do not illuminate.’ Driving through Gates of Light at night is a futuristic experience, the repeat vertical and horizontal lighting equal parts cinematic and otherworldly. But for architects, the biggest takeaway from this conceptual project should be that lighting the façades of public buildings need not require energy nor contribute to light pollution.

For some architects, imbuing a building with after-dark personality doesn’t involve lighting but, rather, moveable parts. Several of American architectural firm Olson Kundig’s rural homes incorporate double- or triple-storey moveable steel shutters or windows (some operated by hand cranks) that dramatically transform the homes’ appearance, either when unoccupied or at night. Swiss architect Manuel Herz’s Babyn Yar Synagogue in Ukraine similarly opens and closes, in this case, remarkably more like a pop-up book. But it’s his Zurich apartment building Ballet Mécanique, completed in 2017 and home to five individually configured homes, that offers an unusual take on the shifts in a building’s appearance from day to night. The building has façades comprising triangular shutters (or brise-soleil) with rounded edges. These shutters mechanically open to become balconies, roofs and shading, or privacy elements. Closed, they provide darkness and security. ‘In a mechanical game, the building opens and closes over the course of the day, subtly reflecting the inner life on the outside,’ explains Herz. ‘The shutters’ exterior surface is a mother-of-pearl colour, so when completely closed, the edifice appears uniform. But the inside of the shutters is coloured orange, red and blue, so when open, a multicoloured building is created.’

Herz’s Ballet Mécanique is architecture that’s constantly transforming and, as he describes it, ‘living with its inhabitants’. Its exterior personality, whether day or night, is conceptually determined by its architect but, in reality, is shaped by the day-to-day lives of its residents. Concepts like Herz’s and Roosegaarde’s agitate an architectural status quo and deliver to architecture after dark pioneering technology and an element of surprise. More of this and our nighttime world will be a more exciting one. t

Lighting the way

TWO ARCHITECTS SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS ON THE IMPACT LIGHTING CAN HAVE ON ARCHITECTURE.

Come nightfall, is there a way to temper interior light for outdoors? In my projects, I deal a lot with direct horizontal light (think sunsets), so I regularly use screens. Screens are great because at night they become semi-translucent elements, filtering interior light outdoors.

What building is a noteworthy example of architecture that offers something different after dark? Renzo Piano’s Maison Hermès in Tokyo is a great example of a low-tech way of achieving an external façade that dissolves in the evening – the interiors become visible, even if opaquely so, from outside.

– RENATO GRACA Founding architect, GSquared Architects

What are your thoughts on lighting as a means of adding character to a building? How one lights a building provides an opportunity to highlight its form. Lit by an up-light, a stone feature wall’s rough texture can be enhanced. Or a well-lit courtyard garden can cast plants’ shadows onto its walls. One can create a focal point through illumination by lighting, for example, a cleverly-positioned sculpture at the end of a passage.

What should one keep in mind when creating atmosphere with lighting? Light brightness (lumen) and temperature (the colour of light or its k-value) are vitally important. Cooler bright lights are associated with task-related spaces, while dimmer warm lights evoke feelings of comfort – just think of a warmly lit cosy reading nook.

What building is a noteworthy example of architecture that offers something different after dark? Phillip Johnson’s Glass House (with lighting design by Richard Kelly) embraces its surroundings through its entirely glazed façades. Positioned on a lawn surrounded by a forest of trees, by day, the building appears as a minimalist rectangular box reflecting its lush surroundings. At night, however, the home becomes entirely transparent, its warmly lit interiors both revealing internal feature walls and lighting the surrounding trees.

– BUCKLEY THOMPSON

Senior architect and head of lighting design development, SAOTA

A King Charles spaniel is one of the most popular choices when it comes to pedigree pooches. They are ‘affectionate, playful, gentle, happy’ and very, very dear.

Barking Up A New Tree

THE PEDIGREE PET INDUSTRY IS BOOMING AND SO ARE THE SIDE ‘HUSTLES’ – FROM FLIGHTS AND SPECIALIST HOTELS TO ACCESSORIES, INSURANCE AND NIBBLY BITS.

BY PIPPA HUDSON

STEP ASIDE designer labels spotted on the catwalk – the new marker of style and taste may well be what’s spotted on the dogwalk. A surge in pedigree dog ownership has seen popular breeds fetching eye-watering sums, not only for the dogs themselves but for their accessories too. From designer beds and leashes to gourmet food, insurance and travel, some dog owners are investing almost as much in their fur children as they would in the human equivalent.

There’s no shortage of non-pedigreed dogs needing a loving home: ask any animal shelter and they’ll tell you their kennels are overflowing. All will urge you to adopt, not shop. But for some fashionistas, or those with a lifelong attachment to a certain breed, only a purebred label will do. In such cases, the cost of a pup can range anywhere from R15 000 to R60 000.

The Kennel Union of Southern Africa (KUSA) is the only internationally recognised registry of purebred dogs in South Africa and its registration statistics map the rise and fall in popularity of breeds. Currently, the French bulldog occupies the number one spot, with 1 331 registrations in 2023 – nearly double the pre-Covid figure. The golden retriever is in second place at 867, a number fairly consistent over the last decade. Rottweilers, English bulldogs and Staffordshire bull terriers round out the top five.

KUSA registration alone isn’t a guarantee of a ‘good buy’. It may vouch for the dog’s bloodline, but it can’t speak to its temperament or health – nor does it answer the crucial question of whether a breed is a good match for the owner’s lifestyle. A buyer expecting a cavalier King Charles spaniel to be a good watchdog is likely to be disappointed, while a trail runner seeking a companion for long runs should definitely skip the English bulldog. Proper homework is essential to ensure a happy match for human and dog.

That homework should include a careful look at potential health issues. Pedigree breeds have a tendency to develop specific health conditions: breathing difficulties in bulldogs, cardiac disease in cavalier King Charles spaniels or knee dislocation in Yorkshire terriers, for example. Cape Town veterinarian Dr Roy Aronson says these problems are often the direct result of a pedigree breed’s rise in fashionability. ‘When a breed becomes popular, people can make money off it,’ he says, ‘and you inevitably see a rise in backyard

breeders. Some don’t know as much as they should about proper genetic stewardship; others simply don’t care. The latter will breed indiscriminately to sell as many pups as possible, leading to a rise in inbreeding and a lack of diversity within the local gene pool, often with serious results. One only has to look at the French bulldog to see this – what was once a hardy, robust little dog is nowadays prone to spinal issues, tracheal collapse and breathing difficulties. Meanwhile, a breed like the German shepherd, hugely popular in the 1980s when it was notorious for hip dysplasia and aggressive temperament, has seen the pendulum swing the other way: as it faded somewhat in popularity, many of these problems started to fade away too. When only responsible, conscientious breeders are left in the market, the situation will naturally correct itself.’

Addressing such health issues can lead to costly vet bills, and owners of pedigree dogs might do well to budget for the gold standard in pet insurance. The industry has seen substantial growth over the past decade, driven by rising veterinary costs and a shift in attitude towards pets. Louise Griffiths, founder of pet insurance brokers MediPet, believes the Covid pandemic played a significant role in deepening the relationship between pet and owner, thanks to the enforced time together during lockdowns, as well as the role animals played in combatting anxiety and isolation during this time. ‘With pet parents spending more time at home with their fur families while remote working,’ she says, ‘we saw a rise in claims, as owners became more aware of health issues their pets were experiencing.’

While Griffiths says crossbreeds make up the largest proportion of their book, she cautions that pedigree breeds are more prone to expensive hereditary conditions. ‘For example, we have a huge number of dachshunds on our comprehensive cover plans,’ she says, ‘due to spinal conditions like intervertebral disc disease. These can require costly surgeries, rehab and physio, easily running to tens of thousands of rands. Having pet insurance means an owner never has to face the awful choice of putting a beloved pet to sleep because they can’t afford the bill to heal them.’

MediPet’s top-tier product offers accident and illness cover, dental benefits, sterilisation, cremation and even prescription food, from R590 per month for dogs.

Human food bills aren’t the only ones soaring, especially as pedigree owners may need to embrace breed-specific formulas, raw food or hypoallergenic products. Some may prefer the convenience of a Woolies meal – a doggy meal with duck livers or roast lamb will set you back around R60. And for dessert, how about a tub of Cool Dogs ice cream at R125? If you feel like dining out, an increasing number of local restaurants will welcome your dog too. On the Bark-a-licious menu at the Twelve Apostles Hotel, fillet steak in gravy is a favourite, while top dogs wanting to be seen can sip on puppuccinos at Dizzys in Camps Bay. More and more establishments are recognising that pet owners want their dogs with them, all the time.

This trend extends to travel too. The poshest pooches will settle into a Car Travel Bed, patented by designer label Petite French & Co. and retailing at about R4 000. Gillian Taylor, founder of the brand, describes it as a ‘luxurious, all-in-one pet travel system that has been meticulously designed to provide your canine with a comfortable and stylish journey’. Simply pop your pup into the carrier bag before leaving the house, secure it safely to the backseat for the road trip, and then unroll it for a stylish and familiar bed upon arrival.

If flying is more your style, Lift Airline has you covered – they’ve flown over 3 000 small dogs since first allowing them to travel in the cabin in 2021. CEO Jonathan Ayache says the service requires careful planning to ensure the customer experience is a good one for dog, owner and fellow passengers. ‘Travellers must purchase a separate seat for their dog, which must always sit in the window seat, with its owner in the middle. They must remain in their travel

Per kilo, this bulldog punches above its weight, delivering a dual dose of ugly-gorgeous with a million-rand smile. The breed has captured the hearts – and wallets – of many South African fans.

crates for the entire journey. The seat must also be booked in person, well in advance, to ensure all vaccinations are up to date and that the dog is healthy enough to travel safely.’

On arrival at the airport, where next? A number of popular accommodation platforms offer a pet-friendly search option, while specialist platforms like Holidawgs and PetFriendly cater exclusively to travellers with pets. The hotel industry is also waking up to the trend with major brands like Southern Sun and Radisson now regularly offering pet-friendly rooms. Even luxury hotels like Four Seasons’ The Westcliff and the Belmond Mount Nelson are rolling out the red carpet. The Nellie recently introduced pet-friendly suites, accessorised by designer range Chommies, which has created bespoke food-and-water bowls, dog beds and more for discerning four-legged guests. They can snack from a pet minibar, order off room service or take a stroll in the gardens sporting a custom-designed Chommies collar. Founder of the brand Nathalie Klijn says the Mount Nelson range is in keeping with her brand’s ethos of stylish yet durable dog accessories that withstand the South African lifestyle of sun, sea and sand. The range includes everything from a poo-bag holder for R840 to rope leashes at R1 000 and collars from R1 225.

Gill Taylor says the amount pet owners are prepared to spend on their dogs, pedigree or otherwise, is linked to the changing social view of pets. ‘The humanisation of pets is a big trend,’ she says. ‘They are no longer seen as “outside dogs” but are now considered an extension of the family, or even seen as children. Caring for one’s pet has become an essential, rather than an optional purchase.’

Klijn agrees. ‘In a world that is becoming more uncertain, homogenised and technology-driven, dogs are the perfect antidote. They keep us grounded in the present, they help us relax and forge a deep sense of connection, while forcing us to get outside in nature and experience the best of what life has to offer.’

The last bark goes to Dr Aronson who believes that the trend of people investing more in their dogs is good for the humans as well. ‘I think it’s incredible that more facilities are welcoming dogs into spaces where they were once excluded,’ he says. ‘It speaks to a certain gentling of society, a softer approach. Animal ownership is so good for us in so many ways – it’s wonderful to see this relationship being taken seriously and properly valued.’ t

WINGS

The Buzz

AT THE NORTHERNMOST TIP OF MAURITIUS, A LUXURY RESORT OFFERS GUESTS A MULTIFACETED HONEY EXPERIENCE THAT KEEPS THEM AS BUSY AS BEES.

BY MARTIN JACOBS

PART ONE Plan bee

As Tesigen Ramen, executive sous chef at Mauritian resort LUX* Grand Gaube, nods his approval, he’s well aware that he’s authorising a task that requires strength of mind and the utmost caution. Before him, Denis Douce, the resort’s beekeeper, carefully loads six active beehives into the back of a truck for temporary safekeeping off site. While both have the wellbeing of guests and staff in mind, it’s the 240 000 inhabitants of the hives that equally share their concern. For, like Douce, Ramen is well aware of the impending weather threat.

Ramen, who’s worked for the resorts for 17 years, was born and raised not far from the hotel. He traces his lifelong passion for bees, beekeeping and apiaries to his curiosity, from a young age, about nature and the intricate workings of the insects. ‘The world of beekeeping extends beyond just a professional interest for me; it has become an integral part of my daily life,’ he says. ‘At home, I’ve set up a beehive where I not only tend to the bees but also involve my children, providing them with hands-on learning in beekeeping.’ Vital to the conception of the resort’s Hug Me Honey guest experience – a multifaceted honey-focused offering that, as he describes it, seamlessly marries the beauty of nature with the artistry of gastronomy –Ramen also plays an active role in the resort’s biweekly offering.

At much the same time as the hives are being loaded, across the resort my WhatsApp blows up. Not what I want from my phone as I settle into the bliss of a short stay at the five-star establishment. Nonetheless, the messages in the group chat are warranted. Journalists I’m yet to meet, making their way to the island to join me on a media trip, bemoan cancelled inbound flights. They have no choice but to delay their arrivals, as Cyclone Eleanor weaves her way southwest towards the island. Veterans at battening down the hatches in preparation for such acts of God, the resort staff – calm in the face of the unknown – give every indication that it’s business (or, in this case, leisure) as usual, save for the suspension of outdoor activities.

‘The strong winds and heavy rainfall associated with cyclones pose direct risks to the structural integrity of the hives and the safety of the bees,’ explains Ramen about their temporary relocation. ‘Sudden changes in air pressure and weather patterns can disrupt the bees’ foraging behaviour and stress the colony.’ I later learnt that it was only two weeks after the cyclone that the hives returned to the resort. In the interim, an assessment of the hotel’s environmental conditions was carried out, ensuring that when the bees did return, healthy on-site productivity could resume.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT LUX* Grand Gaube initiated beekeeping in 2019 and remains one of the only resorts in Mauritius to have done so; Honey iced parfait with pollen and peppered meringues; Palm Court restaurant; Hug Me Honey offers guests the opportunity to interact up close with bees; LUX* Grand Gaube has six active hives, home to over 240 000 bees.

PART TWO

Tapping from the source

In 2019, LUX* Grand Gaube initiated its beekeeping project, one of the first Mauritian resorts to do so. ‘Recognising the vital role bees play as pollinators and our dependency on them, we took our commitment to environmental sustainability to the next level,’ Ramen says. The resort’s beekeeping and Hug Me Honey experience form part of a wider dedication to sustainability and community-focused initiatives, including donating repurposed towels and bed linen to animal shelters, recycling cooking oil as biofuel and maintaining an on-site water treatment plant. For Ramen, the Hug Me Honey offering is more than an eco-friendly initiative. ‘I wished to create an immersive culinary experience that celebrates the natural bounty surrounding the resort,’ he says. ‘The idea was to elevate the use of locally-sourced honey to showcase its rich flavours and health benefits.’

Eleanor looming, my Hug Me Honey experience is curtailed and, disappointingly, excludes meeting the bees or enjoying Ramen’s honey-pairing dinner. On days when there’s no weather threat with which to contend, the experience commences with participants enjoying a tasting of their 11 honeys adjacent to the hives, during which Ramen chats about honey’s health benefits and culinary versatility. Thereafter, those who wish to may don protective gear and assist Ramen in opening the hives. ‘For guests who prefer not to witness the bees’ activities up close, there’s an observation structure from which they can observe the workings of the bees through a glass panel,’ he says. ‘It’s at this point that I provide detailed explanations as to the lifespan of worker bees, the honey production process, the importance of male bees and the responsibilities of the queen.’

After this, participants partake in a honey cocktail-making session, before relocating to LUX* Me Spa, where – with the help of a therapist – they craft honey-based scrubs. The experience culminates in a multicourse honey-pairing dinner in the resort’s chic wine cellar.

PART THREE

Sweet surrender

‘Growing up in northern Mauritius was an incredibly enriching experience, surrounded by a tapestry of flavours, spices and tropical fruits,’ says Ramen. It’s this appreciation of local produce

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT

LUX* Grand Gaube is sited around several coves at the northernmost tip of Mauritius; Executive sous chef Tesigen Ramen; Salmon gravlax with pickled mushroom and Honey mustard, a dish served at the Hug Me Honey dinner.

that has shaped his interpretations of Mauritian cuisine, a cultural blend of African, Indian, Chinese and European flavours, and one that he presents to guests at the Hug Me Honey dinner. ‘I want to highlight the diverse flavours and textures of honey, as well as complementary ingredients that showcase its versatility,’ he explains of the menu, which includes dishes like honey-and-citrus seared sea bass, a honey-glazed rack of lamb and honey iced parfait with pollen. ‘While some signature dishes remain constant throughout the year, I embrace seasonality and may change elements of the menu to incorporate fresh ingredients.’

Eager to further my knowledge of cooking with honey, I quiz Ramen about his techniques and quickly learn he believes it’s all about highlighting its natural sweetness and delicate flavour by incorporating honey into dishes in a manner that complements, rather than overwhelms, other flavours. ‘And don’t use honey in recipes that require prolonged cooking or high temperatures, as this often diminishes its flavour and nutritional benefits,’ he adds. Ramen’s commitment to the resort’s Hug Me Honey experience is key to its success, and his passion for everything bee-related is contagious. It’s difficult to part ways with him without a heightened interest in the creatures and intrigue at the goings-on inside a hive. As he puts it, ‘Ultimately, I want guests to leave feeling inspired, enlightened and with a newfound connection to the natural world around them.’ t luxresorts.com/en/mauritius/hotel/luxgrandgaube

Methiers And Legends

MEAD MAY CONJURE IMAGES OF A NECTAR RESERVED FOR MYTHICAL GODS BUT ONE COMPANY IS BRINGING THIS LIQUID GOLD TO US MERE MORTALS, CELEBRATING ITS OVERLOOKED AFRICAN ANCESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS.

BY TOM GLENN

TWENTY THOUSAND years ago, a torrential spring thunderstorm broke the drought over the southern African savannah. From the hollow of a baobab toppled by elephants, bees fled their flooding hive. Over days of heat, the dissolving honey unlocked its floral yeasts and was transformed by fermentation. San foragers discovered the first alcohol: karri or mead.

Dr Ernst Thompson believes the hypothesis. With a PhD in nutritional physiology, he applies his scientific background and love for cooking as the Cape Town Meadery’s CEO and ‘methier’ – a mead maker. He speaks passionately about African cultures, stories and methods of fermentation.

The Khoi and San held honey and bees in high regard, featuring both in their creation stories. |Kaggen, the shapeshifting creator spirit, birthed the first human from a seed planted in him by a bee, and gave animals their colours by feeding them different parts of a beehive. Ancient rock art and artefacts also show the indigenous people’s history of collecting honey and brewing karri – and some of their practices survive today.

‘The Khoisan understood the behaviours of their natural surroundings, notably how the natural yeasts in plants and pollens worked. They kept fibrous plant material, like Sceletium tortuosum, in brewing vessels, which sped up fermentation,’ Thompson explains. His meadery uses a proprietary technology based on ancient principles. Wild honey and water are gently heated, then piped through a glass column filled with porous, hollow spheres. These create ideal structures for the wild yeasts to acclimatise and turn sugar into alcohol. The continual fermentation creates a strong, even raw mead that is refined into a diversity of products.

Filtered and flavoured with additional honey into dry, sweet and chilli variants, the Indicator range honours the greater honeyguide. This

extraordinary bird answers unique summoning calls from African honeyhunters to lead them to beehives and is repaid with leftover beeswax.

The Melaurea undergoes a year of secondary in-bottle fermentation and manual riddling, much like champagne. This yields the sparkle, mousse and dry acidity expected from a French brut but with honey’s woody undertones and nose. Double distillation creates the base of their gin, Alvearium, while barrel ageing with Chardonnay grapes gives hybrid hydromel ‘pyment’ Voluptus its full-bodied flavour. There’s even a spiced mulled gluhwein and traditionally brewed ‘braggot’ lager.

Processing this much honey requires a consistent supply. Fermented fynbos honeys vary too wildly in flavour and availability but are used for backsweetening. Instead, the company turned to an abundant, pristine source: Zambia’s Miombo woodlands. Thompson recently established a facility in Lusaka to select and brew honey ethically collected from wild hives by rural communities. By paying the savings in import costs back to workers, the project is preserving indigenous forests, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Peace Parks Foundation.

As it involves no farming, the mead production carries a minute ecological cost compared to other alcohols. Thompson calculates that a litre of his mead consumes five litres of water; for a litre of wine, estimates run from 90 to 900 litres. A typical gin uses even more.

‘We have a tiny carbon footprint, using very little power, and no large warehouses. We hope to lead the charge in more ecological and socially sustainable practices,’ says Thompson. ‘To bring mead into the 21st century, we’re sharing its African history, which for centuries has been overlooked and undervalued.’ t

Cape Town Meadery’s range is stocked at Tintswalo Group Safari lodges and is on offer at top Cape restaurants, including Salsify at the Roundhouse, Chefs’ Warehouse and Fyn.

THE WATCH DIAL PAINTERS, OFTEN CALLED ‘RADIUM GIRLS’, SUFFERED SEVERE HEALTH ISSUES FROM INGESTING RADIUM-LACED PAINT WHILE USING THEIR LIPS TO POINT BRUSHES.

MONTBLANC 1858 GEOSPHERE 0 OXYGEN CARBO₂

Montblanc’s limited edition 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen CARBO₂ pushes innovation further with a case made from recycled CO₂ and mineral waste. Featuring a luminous Mont Blanc engraving, dualhemisphere world-time complication and a mountaineer-inspired rubber strap, it exemplifies adventure and craftsmanship.

PANERAI SUBMERSIBLE

ELUX LAB-ID

Founded in Florence in 1860, Panerai supplied the Italian Navy with precision instruments for decades. Elux Panerai was created for them, for a variety of applications, and patented in 1966. The Submersible Elux LAB-ID exemplifies the manufacture’s innovation with on-demand luminescence powered by mechanical energy, a patented pusher-protector system and

ROLEX OYSTER PERPETUAL DEEPSEA CHALLENGE

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Deepsea Challenge is inspired by the watch that accompanied filmmaker and explorer James Cameron on his 2012 Mariana Trench dive. Crafted from RLX titanium, waterproof to 11 000m and featuring advanced diving technology, it’s designed to conquer the deepest pressures. The Chromalight display is visible once the watch is plunged into darkness.

Dark Secrets

FOR THOSE WHO WORK UNDERWATER AND IN DARKNESS, TIME MUST BE CLEAR EVEN IN THE MOST OBSCURE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. ACCURATE TIMEKEEPING IN LOW VISIBILITY IS A LIFE-PRESERVING PRACTICE.

BY DEBBIE HATHWAY

ZENITH DEFY EXTREME DIVER

The DEFY Extreme Diver’s 42,5mm titanium case is corrosion-resistant, equipped with a helium escape valve and features a ceramic bezel with Super-LumiNova for easy underwater reading. It is rated to 600m and built to rigorous ISO standards.

BREITLING SUPER OCEAN AUTOMATIC

The collection built for action and leisure incorporates 42mm and 36mm rainbowdial editions, alongside a new iteration of the bestselling 44mm turquoise-dial model. The hour markers and hands are coated in Super-LumiNova. Previously available on a black strap, the latter now sports a tone-on-tone turquoise

IN THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA, time is measured not just by minutes but by air, light and life. A diver must always know how much of each he has left. Sentiments shared, no doubt, by anyone who immerses themselves in extreme conditions. Since practical needs changed the face of fashion for watch manufacturers inspired to design for the wrist rather than the pocket and became indispensable to explorers of the deep, space and land, innovation has been one way to establish prowess in a highly competitive market.

Spokespeople such as Jacques-Yves Cousteau, ocean explorer and codeveloper of the Aqua-Lung, Sir Edmund Hillary, the mountaineer who, with Tenzing Norgay, was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, and astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have highlighted the achievements of the big Swiss watch brands by carrying their creations into the record books. Cousteau has a long history with Blancpain, Hillary wore Rolex, and Armstrong and Aldrin Omega.

Essentially, at high altitudes or in challenging conditions, a timepiece is not just about time but about life; it’s a device that signals when to

move forward and when to return. Yet the early 20th-century discovery and incorporation of radium into watch dials to aid legibility in low-light conditions countered the life-saving effect. Because of its radioactive nature, it negatively affected the health of the decorators, rather than the wearers.

At that time, the need for watches that could be read in low-light conditions became apparent, particularly for military use and aviation.

Radium, a radioactive substance discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, was first used in watch dials around 1910. The substance was mixed with zinc sulphide to create a paint that glowed in the dark, providing continuous luminescence without requiring an external light source.

Radium’s application allowed watchmakers to produce watches with luminescent dials and hands that could be read in total darkness. This innovation was particularly useful for soldiers during World War I, pilots during night flights, and later for divers who needed reliable timekeeping underwater. However, the watch dial painters, often called

TAG HEUER MONACO CHRONOGRAPH

This 39mm TAG Heuer Monaco in DLC titanium boasts a daring design with a black sandblasted skeletonised dial, luminous turquoise accents and red lacquered hands. Powered by the precise Calibre Heuer 02, it’s the epitome of fierce, avant-garde style.

LONGINES HYDROCONQUEST GMT

This 43mm model houses the exclusive and extremely precise Longines GMT calibre L844.5. Its resistance to magnetic fields is more than 10 times greater than the ISO 764 reference standard. Features include a power reserve of up to 72 hours, water resistance to 300m, a unidirectional rotating ceramic bezel, screw-in crown and screw-down case back, and a green, black or blue sunray dial.

‘Radium Girls’, suffered severe health issues from ingesting radiumlaced paint while using their lips to point brushes.

As the dangers of radium became more widely known, the search for safer alternatives began. By the 1960s, radium was largely replaced by tritium, a less radioactive material that still provided the necessary glow. Tritium, a hydrogen isotope, was safer because it emitted lowenergy beta particles that could be easily blocked by the watch glass. However, tritium also has a half-life of about 12 years, meaning the brightness would diminish over time.

Promethium, another radioactive material, was used briefly, but it had similar drawbacks and was not widely adopted. Both tritium and promethium required careful handling and special licenses due to their radioactive nature, so the watch industry continued to look for even safer, non-radioactive alternatives.

In the 1990s, non-radioactive luminescent materials began to gain prominence. Super-LumiNova, a photoluminescent pigment developed by the Swiss company RC Tritec, became the standard for most

watchmakers. Super-LumiNova is made of strontium aluminate, a material that absorbs light and then emits it slowly, providing a bright glow for several hours after exposure to a light source. Unlike radium or tritium, Super-LumiNova is completely safe and can be applied in various colours.

Many luxury watch brands have incorporated Super-LumiNova in their pieces or have gone on to develop their own proprietary luminescent materials. For example, Rolex uses a compound called Chromalight, a substance that offers a distinctive blue glow that lasts longer than standard Super-LumiNova. Chromalight was first introduced in the Rolex Deepsea Sea-Dweller in 2008 and is now used across many of their professional lines.

Today, watch manufacturers have shifted their focus to enhancing the brightness, duration and colour range of luminescent materials. The evolution of luminescent materials reflects ongoing innovation in the watchmaking industry, balancing safety, performance and aesthetics to meet diverse needs. t

Viva Portugal!

WITH ITS HOSPITALITY SECTOR EMBRACING PORTUGAL’S TOURIST BOOM, THE COUNTRY’S DESIGN HOTELS ARE ON THE RISE. CHECK OUT OUR FAVOURITES AND START PLANNING YOUR STAYS, FOR THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO VISIT – ESPECIALLY FOR SOUTH AFRICANS.

BY MARTIN JACOBS

IF PORTUGAL’S 2023 tourism statistics are anything to go by, its popularity as the European holiday destination du jour shows no signs of abating. Last year, Portugal experienced its greatest year in tourism ever, its 30 million incoming tourists securing the Iberian country a record €25 billion in revenue.

Of course, the Algarve has long been a migratory hot spot for Europeans and Britons looking to soak up some of the 300 days of sun that the south coast boasts per year, many choosing to retire along its string of seaside towns. But new generations are flocking to Portugal’s capital of Lisbon, to its Atlantic coastlines and to its second largest city, Porto, for a multitude of reasons.

Not only did the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) rank the country seventh in both 2023 and 2024’s Global Peace Index (GPI), a list which ranks peacefulness and safety worldwide but the UK Post Office placed Lisbon second on its list of Europe’s most budget-friendly city destinations. Add to that Portugal’s 398 Blue Flag beaches (many of which are paradise for surfers) and it’s no wonder that in cities like Porto, inhabitants for the summer months triple its out-of-season figures. That's a particularly strong drawcard for outdoor-loving South Africans.

As Portugal’s popularity continues to grow, the country – from its tourism boards to its hospitality sector – is confidently giving it all it’s got. TAP Air Portugal offers a convenient number of daily internal flights, with flight times from Lisbon to Porto, or Lisbon to the Algarve, only an hour. Comboios de Portugal, the state-owned passenger rail service, is equally impressive, offering high-speed Alfa Pendular and Intercidades trains with comfortable seats that can be prebooked from abroad. There’s joy to be had in crossing a country by train, more so when from one’s plush seat one can not only enjoy the passing landscape but access complimentary Wi-Fi and devicecharging points.

The takeaway from all this is that there’s never been a better time to visit, especially as South Africans, whose rand purchases considerably less elsewhere in Europe. Spend just that much more buck on accommodation and the sophistication and luxe factor increases exponentially. Hoteliers are repurposing historic palaces or modernising once-industrial buildings, calling on cutting-edge designers to conceptualise their reinventions.

We’ve tried and tested these five-star favourites to bring you their design scoops...

BELA VISTA HOTEL & SPA

PRAIA DA ROCHA, PORTIMÃO, ALGARVE

Celebrating old-world glamour Portimão today is characterised by a beachfront populated with drab high-rise hotels and apartments. It’s easy to imagine how, shortly after its completion at the turn of the 20th century, the three-storey gothic edifice of this once private residence could have dominated its clifftop perch above Praia da Rocha – and it still does, more so now by charm. Heavy on history, the hotel is not only rumoured to have been the first along the Algarve but also a safe haven for World War II spies, politicians and couriers. The structure was renovated in 2011 by interior designer Graça Viterbo, whose colourful design complements original fixtures including azulejo tiles, a wooden staircase and ceilings, and Art Deco chandeliers. At the same time, an additional building was constructed, increasing the room count to 38.

Standout features Chef João Oliveira’s Michelinstarred Vista Restaurante with its regional tasting menu, as well as a showstopper pool deck.

Rooms to request Insist in a room in the historic Palacete: room 102, one of the Character Rooms, is sea facing, as is its balcony and bathroom. hotelbelavista.net

PALÁCIO LUDOVICE

MIRADOURO DE SÃO PEDRO DE ALCÂNTARA, LISBON

Toasting Portuguese viniculture With two of Lisbon’s most iconic landmarks – the Elevador da Glória funicular and adjacent São Pedro de Alcântara viewpoint – literally on its doorstep, expect a stay on the border of Príncipe Real to be bustling with energy both day and night. Once the home of João Frederico Ludovice, architect to 18th-century King João V, the building – one of few to survive Lisbon’s infamous 1755 earthquake – has truly historic street cred. Miguel Câncio Martins’ award-winning restoration honours this past, accentuating original architectural features, including a not-to-be-missed intimate chapel on the second floor. Luxurious rooms combine restored azulejo tiles and timber ceilings with contemporary fabrics and furniture for stays that feel truly indulgent.

Standout features Palácio Ludovice celebrates Portugal’s winemaking with inventive wine-themed decorating, a wine-first menu at restaurant Federico, a wine shop and complimentary and informative daily wine tastings with head sommelier Miguel Ventura.

Rooms to request While city-facing rooms can be noisy, the views and people-watching from their windows are worthwhile. palacioludovice.com

TOREL PALACE SÃO JOSÉ, LISBON

A palace with a view Newly renovated and expanded, Torel Palace now includes the Lavra Palace, a national monument transformed into one of the hotel’s four buildings, three of them over a century old. As if the hotel’s city views weren’t already jaw-dropping, Lavra Palace boasts a climbable tower (once the highest point in Lisbon). The 39 suites and rooms are generously proportioned, many with pressed ceilings and Juliet balconies overlooking gardens and pools. Interiors are traditional, with a masculine aesthetic and regal mood characterising Duke’s Bar and casual restaurant Black Pavilion.

Standout features The Michelin-starred, intimate 2Monkeys restaurant seats a maximum of 14 diners at a counter around a chef’s kitchen, in which acclaimed chefs Vitor Matos and Guilherme Spalk perform culinary magic in a tasting menu that’s plated before one.

Rooms to request For the hotel’s most beautiful suite, opt for room 39 (a suite royal with view), named for the royal infanta Maria Benedita of Bragança. Or for soaring rooftop views of Lisbon, book room 44, the Antónia of Bragança suite royal with view. torelpalacelisbon.com

THE REBELLO CAIS DE GAIA, PORTO

A design-savvy newbie A year old, The Rebello on the Douro’s Vila Nova de Gaia bank is Porto’s design darling, an entirely contemporary hospitality offering in a former kitchen utensils factory. The newest establishment from Bomporto group (check out Lisbon’s The Lumiares and The Vintage) offers apartment-style rooms and suites – that range from compact to three-bedroom duplexes – with killer views of Porto. Interior designer Daniela Franceschini’s décor is the ultimate in cool, pairing punk with vintage in locally crafted furniture with cutting-edge shapes and unusual artworks. Plus, in-room indulgences include Marshall Bluetooth speakers and Claus Porto amenities.

Standout features The atmosphere at the rooftop restaurant and bar Bello is relaxed, making it the perfect spot from which to watch the sunset, the river and Porto’s bustling Ribeira riverfront.

Rooms to request Insist on a river view – you won’t regret it. therebello.com

HOTELIERS ARE REPURPOSING HISTORIC PALACES OR MODERNISING ONCE INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS, CALLING ON CUTTING-EDGE DESIGNERS TO CONCEPTUALISE THEIR REINVENTIONS.

LUMEN HOTEL PICOAS, LISBON

Embracing the light The only four-star hotel on our list, the mod cons and amenities of Lumen Hotel make it feel like a five-star experience. Located near Picoas metro station, a precinct adjacent to Lisbon’s iconic Marquês De Pombal Square at the base of Parque Eduardo VII, the hotel boasts several noteworthy neighbours, including the El Corte Inglés department store, and the Gulbenkian and Banksy museums. Celebrating its third year, both the building and interiors are contemporary, with warm woods and a solar-inspired palette influencing the minimalist décor. But design simplicity doesn’t mean a lack of luxury: the beds are enormous and the thread counts high, windows span from floor to ceiling, and the city’s historic Benamôr toiletries come standard. Inroom tablets ease navigating one’s way through Lumen’s offering, and true to its name, rooms come with a multitude of lighting configurations to suit every mood.

Standout features Not to be missed is the hotel’s nightly Lisbon Light Show, an evocative 15-minute audiovisual video-mapping presentation that not only creatively recounts a day in the life of the city but ingeniously makes the most of an otherwise unadorned garden oasis.

Rooms to request Courtyard rooms offer front-row seats to the nightly light show, while those on the sixth floor – with complimentary access to an executive lounge – are well suited to business travellers. lumenhotel.pt/en

BAIRRO ALTO HOTEL

PRAÇA LUÍS DE CAMÕES, LISBON

An updated classic Located on the city’s historic Praça Luís de Camões, the border between the refined Chiado and bohemian Bairro Alto neighbourhoods, Bairro Alto Hotel is widely considered Lisbon’s original boutique hotel. Renovated and expanded several years back, its second incarnation is a lesson in craftsmanship and attention to detail, both in design and service. Pritzker Prizewinning architect Eduardo Souto de Moura was responsible for creating stylistic cohesion across the hotel’s four buildings, while in both public and private spaces, Atelier Bastir combines antiques and contemporary art, local and international furniture, textured and sleek finishes. The result? Rooms bold in personality and rich in comfort that deserve an extra star for their plush factor.

Standout features River views do all the work adding character to the understated drinking-and-dining spaces of the fifth-floor terrace and sixth-floor rooftop.

Rooms to request Opt for original wainscoting and wooden floors in the updated historic Chiado rooms, or request a stay in room 219, a plush Tejo suite in the hotel’s newer wing. bairroaltohotel.com

Lisbon’s Restaurant Hot List

FORGET ABOUT THE CITY’S TOURIST-CENTRIC TIME OUT MARKET; INSTEAD, RESERVE YOUR TABLE AT THESE ESTEEMED EATERIES.

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Chef George McLeod’s intimate Alfama restaurant offers a six-course tasting menu that champions the restaurant’s no-waste values: the upcycling of by-products, the use of heritage, undervalued and invasive ingredients, and the promotion of future food systems.

Expect Micro-seasonal ingredients, shelves filled with fermenting byproducts and a natural wine list from estates with similar values. restaurantsem.com

FOGO

Everything that passes through Michelin-starred chef Alexandre Silva’s kitchen is cooked by open flame or over coals, making smoky flavours a delight on a menu that includes grilled oysters, beef tartare, home-baked bread, traditional lamb rice and a variety of seafood.

Expect Moody industrial interiors, robust dishes and an inventive cocktail menu. fogorestaurante.pt

KABUKI

Perfect for a celebration, this one’s not only special but the talk of the town. Chef Sebastião Coutinho’s multilevel restaurant has the sophistication and sexiness of a celebrity hot spot. His mastery of Japanese and Portuguese techniques and flavours marries across à la carte and tasting menus.

Expect Exquisitely presented and unusual dishes, like whitefish and clams in ‘à Bulhão Pato’ sauce, and a memorable pastel de nata mochi. kabukilisboa.pt

BAHR

Come sunset, Bairro Alto Hotel’s brunch eatery doubles as one of Lisbon’s most lauded restaurants. Stylish interiors extend to a terrace with views that make focusing on one’s meal a challenge. Everything from bite-size snacks to desserts are crafted in the open kitchen, with attentive service of a commendable standard.

Expect A jet-set crowd and interesting flavour combinations (think tuna with pickled strawberries or dulce de leche with Aperol granita). bahr.pt

Bring It Home

The utmost in quality and craftsmanship, this legacy brand’s soaps, candles and fragrances are the ultimate Portuguese indulgence. Everything about the 137-year-old, family-owned Claus Porto brand proclaims seduction. From its historic retail spaces to its reimagined vintage packaging, but most of all, from its growing collection of body and home scents, Claus Porto’s artisanal creations captivate and enchant. Instore archival displays speak to the brand’s heritage, while new releases – like in the Musgo Real collection for men and the Floral Symphony Collection of candles – reveal the company’s mastery at intuiting customer desires. Leave room in your luggage for Claus Porto luxuries. clausporto.com t

Deceptively simple in appearance, La Calçotada requires 12 preparatory steps including freeze drying and dehydration. The dish champions the humble calçot onion (traditionally flame barbequed), serving it with consommé and romesco miso.

Served early on the tasting menu, Flavour Concentration requires diners to taste 12 different sprouts, comparing each to a flavour essence proposed on an accompanying note. Borage, for example, matches with cucumber, while Atsina cress tastes like fennel.

Reigning In Spain

DINING AT DISFRUTAR, BARCELONA, THIS YEAR VOTED THE WORLD’S BEST RESTAURANT, PROMISES AN EXPERIENCE THAT DELIVERS CULINARY MASTERY, THEATRE AND ILLUSION TO ONE’S TABLE.

BY MARTIN JACOBS

‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN 28 courses?!’

I gulp, wondering whether the incredulity of that gulp constitutes the first of the many courses. I’m the last of the evening’s 40 diners to arrive at Disfrutar, unaware – as I’m seated in an alcove with a view across the restaurant and into the open kitchen – that I shall also be the last to leave, in the early hours of a Thursday morning at the tail end of a sticky Barcelona summer.

With the calm, confidence and certainty of a front-of-house maitre who’s worked at Disfrutar for the decade since its opening, and who’s been asked this question on

repeat, restaurant director Vicente Lara takes my somewhat surprised reaction in his stride, assuring me that I’m welcome to ask for a pause at any point during the meal.

Nestling into my banquette, home for the next five hours, across a white-clothed but otherwise unadorned table, I survey the room. It’s understated – unexpectedly so, given Disfrutar’s reputation as the temple of creative gastronomic experimentation. Double volume in height, its white walls are roughly textured, suspended rattan screens hang from above, a patchwork airbrick wall abuts the kitchen and patron-filled chairs

occupy the spaces between tables. To my right and sharing my alcove, a surprisingly young American couple, a night-long tangle of limbs more engaged in petting and kissing than they are in the award-winning courses before them. So, this is what it’s like to dine at the world’s best restaurant, I think, as my evening begins.

For any diner who’s made the pilgrimage to Disfrutar – whether that’s waiting an average of eight months for a reservation, committing to the notable expense, or both – it’s impossible to spend time in the restaurant without two names inevitably

COURSE AFTER COURSE,

I’M STRUCK BY THE EXTENT TO WHICH DISFRUTAR’S CHEFS CONJURE MULTISENSORY MAGIC AND ILLUSION.

coming to mind: the first, a chef; the second, his restaurant. Unquestionably Spain’s greatest chef, Ferrán Adrià, then at the restaurant elBulli, forever altered the course of Spanish cuisine and was a game-changer for global gastronomy. Shunning the term ‘molecular gastronomy’, Adrià would become, at the turn of this century, the face of (as he preferred to call it) ‘deconstructivist’ or modernist cuisine. Within the confines of elBulli’s high-stakes kitchen, voted best in the world no fewer than five times, three head chefs – all mentored by

Adrià and all his right-hand men – were not only fast learning on the job but fast becoming lifelong friends. Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas all served as head chefs at elBulli between 1996 and the restaurant’s closure in 2011, thereafter working alongside one another at Adrià’s elBulli Foundation.

In conversation with Emilio Molines of Tapas Magazine, Xatruch recalls how, in 2012, the three chefs had a frank discussion about their future. ‘We asked ourselves what would happen if we took a step forward and set up

our own business, since, professionally, we were rowing in the same direction,’ he explains.

That same year, with financing from a local bank, Castro, Xatruch and Casañas founded restaurant Compartir in Costa Brava’s Cadaqués, followed two years later, in 2014, by Disfrutar in Barcelona’s Eixample neighbourhood. The trio’s first Michelin star followed a year later, with a second in 2017, and Disfrutar’s third late in 2023. Year on year since its launch, Disfrutar’s awards and recognitions have been too plentiful to mention; this year, it topped The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list after placing second in 2023.

Underpinning everything Disfrutar-related is the trio’s insatiable desire to encourage fun and promote the unexpected. It begins with the restaurant’s name (Spanish for ‘enjoy’), extends to the typographic emoji in its logo, and unfolds within the space itself. The interior architecture is such that patrons have no choice but to pass the open kitchen en route to their tables. Look up in the dining room and skylights with trompe l’oeil blue skies and clouds foster a disorienting sense of timelessness, especially for those dining at night. Ask politely and one may be escorted into the subterranean creativity kitchen (complete with private dining lounge), a room that’s equal parts Wonka laboratory and futuristic test kitchen in which dishes are conceived, shelves crammed with Laura Roig’s prototypes for Disfrutar’s conceptual cutlery and crockery.

Protégés of Adrià that they are, nowhere is Castro, Xatruch and Casañas’s appreciation of the unexpected more apparent than in their culinary offering. Across two tasting menus – one classic, the other seasonal, each with 28 courses and an optional wine pairing, and each available to diners five days a week at lunch and dinner – their ingenuity shines. It’s in their food that they explore and develop concepts, and hammer like battering rams at the limits of techniques. Course after course, I’m struck by the extent to which Disfrutar’s chefs conjure multisensory magic and illusion.

ABOVE Diners must pass Disfrutar’s open kitchen to access the understated dining room. Kitchen walls are clad in terracotta and white airbricks, chosen for their evocation of traditional brick ovens.

OPPOSITE One of Disfrutar’s signature dishes, the Panchino doughnut – filled with caviar and crème fraiche – is fried for 20 seconds to give it a brioche-like texture. Wanting to democratise their techniques, the chefs have filmed this technique and shared it on social media.

This is not a meal for a lazy diner; all five of my senses are called upon and concentration is required. Waiter Adrián Abella serves as my guide for the evening, fluently navigating me through the repertoire of dishes. All require his explanation, some his instruction (‘eat this in three bites’ or ‘smell this before tasting that’), and a handful his assembly, like a cider decanted and instantly smoked at my table. In moments when I’m slow to follow (I suspect nixtamalization is a process confusing to even the most seasoned gourmet), his assistant Miguel Martinez graciously recaps techniques. These are of great importance at Disfrutar, and when Xatruch takes me on a tour of the wine cellar and test kitchen, he explains that all recipes are documented. Two volumes of work have been published by the restaurant, with a decade’s worth of processes available for all to discover. Equally important to the trio are emotions and sensations, and many of the courses force one to confront these. Fear is seldom an emotion I associate with fine dining, but when presented with a wooden box little larger than two fists, into which I cannot see and am asked to place my hands to identify

my next course, fear and apprehension immediately present. As does uncertainty, as I’m quick to discover that not all is as it may seem. A crustless sandwich triangle, when bitten, is solid gazpacho with tomato-flavoured meringue disguised as bread. What resembles a deep-fried puri ball atop a hollowed eggshell turns out to be a tempura egg yolk, runny within. Paying homage to their mentor, the chefs have reimagined the traditional Basque pintxo ‘gilda’ (an olive, anchovy and peppers skewered on a cocktail stick) as a marinated mackerel dish that includes their interpretation of Adrià’s famous ‘liquid olive’.

Associations, too, are explored in the tasting menus, often in deceptively simple form. Early in the evening, I delight in a liquid salad, a tasting of 12 sprouts atop a tomato-water jelly. Given tweezers to taste each sprout, I’m asked to compare them to their flavour essences as proposed on an accompanying note. And, indeed, a borage sprout does taste like cucumber, and that of kyona mustard like raw potato. The humblest of ingredients here presented as champions. Ahead of the dessert courses, Abella presents

me with a tray of chocolate engagement rings and encourages me to pop one on my finger and eat it. Immediately, it calls to mind the oversized candy and marshmallow rings often present at childhood birthday parties. Memory is integral to savouring La Calçotada, a newly added dish that celebrates the elongated calçot onion, traditionally flame barbequed, wrapped in newspaper to retain its heat and enjoyed by Spaniards in winter months. To look at the restaurant’s reinvention is to consider it easy enough to replicate at home – it’s even served with a newspaper detailing the recipe. But to read this is to realise that Disfrutar’s freeze-dried calçot , with its consommé and romesco miso, requires 12 preparations, each with multiple steps, and a freeze dryer and dehydrator on hand.

As I bid the team an appreciative farewell shortly after midnight, I can’t help but feel I’ve witnessed a magic performance – except with illusions far trickier to decipher. I opt to

TOP Dishes are seldom what they seem, and Pearl Necklace with Lychee is no different. This approach to fine dining stems from the chefs’ appreciation of the unexpected.

BOTTOM Founding chefs Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas are the faces behind the world’s best restaurant.

AS I BID THE TEAM AN APPRECIATIVE FAREWELL SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT, I CAN’T HELP BUT FEEL I’VE WITNESSED A MAGIC PERFORMANCE...

WHERE TO STAY

Located in the heart of Barcelona, Hotel Midmost is less than a 10-minute walk from Disfrutar. The four-star boutique property is housed in a charming building between Plaça de Catalunya and Plaça de la Universitat, so it’s conveniently close to both subway stations, making navigating the city easy. With four elegant room types on offer, those overlooking Carrer de Gravina get my vote, not only because many include charming French balconies but equally because they’re the quieter rooms, Carrer del Pelai being a busier thoroughfare. Not to be missed is the hotel’s rooftop terrace, complete with pool, loungers and cocktail bar, all with snappable views across the city. majestichotelgroup.com/en/barcelona/ hotel-midmost

return to my hotel on foot; the exercise will aid digestion (yes, a brief pause was needed midway through my evening), and the balmy air the opportunity to reflect on my meal. It’s been an all-encompassing night, in many senses of the word. Certainly, from an emotional and sensory perspective. And while proudly and undeniably Spanish, it has included ingredients and techniques as exotic as confit pinecone, lulo fruit, oxidised walnut shell, amazake and the always contentious foie gras, and wine pairings from boutique wineries in Sweden, Japan and the Canary Islands. The insatiable drive that compels Disfrutar’s chefs to act as creators of new concepts and techniques is the same drive that’s established Castro, Xatruch and Casañas as icons of the culinary kingdom. But this is to suggest they’re unapproachable when, in fact, the opposite is true. Here are three masters, humble, tireless and eager to democratise their culinary advancements. t disfrutarbarcelona.com

Retracing Spanish Steps

HOW CAN YOU FEEL INEXPLICABLY AT HOME IN EL PALACE

BARCELONA

WHEN NOTHING IN YOUR GENEALOGY CONNECTS YOU?

BY MARLI VAN SCHALKWYK

THERE’S NOT MUCH I don’t love about Spain. Despite an ancestry DNA test confirming not a trace of Spanish blood in my lineage (though four percent Italian is close enough, I guess), I’ve always felt a deep connection to this country and its culture. And so, on a significant birthday and dressed in a polka-dot skirt – a tribute to my flamenco dancing years – I’m outside the Hotel El Palace Barcelona. The baroque-style entrance, adorned with eye-catching red drapes, leads to a corridor tiled in gold mother-of-pearl and as I step through the emblematic revolving door, I feel strangely nostalgic in this foreign hall.

Formerly the Ritz Barcelona, the stately grande dame first opened her doors in 1919, making it the city’s oldest luxury hotel, famous for hosting glittering social galas and high-fashion couture shows in the opulent ballroom. Entering the hotel’s chic brasserie Amar Barcelona, I wonder what tales these walls – now a custom shade of midnight blue – could whisper of its century-old legacy. The timeless sparkle of the original Ritz crystal chandeliers scatters light across gilded accents and soaring black marble columns as we take our seats at the rectangular gold bar. I opt for a negroni, a homage to my Italian lineage, meticulously prepared by a skilled bartender who reveals that Rafa Zafra is in the

Formerly the Ritz Barcelona, El Palace Barcelona boasts a rich history, having hosted the likes of Josephine Baker and Salvador Dalí. At Amar Barcelona, one of the hotel’s luxury eateries, renowned chef Rafa Zafra carries that iconic status into the future.

kitchen tonight. A no-expenses-spared menu is presented as we sit down at our table, filled with seafood dishes – from caviar served in every form imaginable and eight different takes on oysters to Ritz classics like sole meuniere, lobster cardinale and red rose shrimps.

Our dining journey begins with a superlative brioche and butter with a sprinkling of caviar. The dishes that follow are fresh and exploding with flavour – precisely what you would expect from the former head chef of elBulli, who is also one of the youngest Spanish cooks to be awarded a Michelin star. We indulge in the spider crab salad served with zesty romesco sauce and tarragon jelly as well as traditional jamon for starters, Catalan rockfish and grilled white asparagus in pil-pil sauce for mains, washed down with a white wine from Bodegas Amaren.

A tower of profiteroles drizzled with cream and toffee arrives as the night draws to a close – a birthday surprise from Rafa. I steal a last glance around the room. In my mind’s eye, the glamorous patrons of the Ritz dance and dine under the chandeliers. Sometimes, the places we feel most connected to reveal more about us than any DNA test. I look down at my polka-dot skirt. In that moment, I’m 100 percent Spanish. t hotelpalacebarcelona.com

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Seeds For Thought

A WORLD-CLASS AUSTRALIAN WINERY, DANDELION VINEYARDS IN MCLAREN VALE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, IS WORTH THE DETOUR.

BY LES AUPIAIS

Bulgarian-born Elena Brooks believes that the way to the heart of a great wine is through its terroir. The soils and climate in the area have produced many award-winners for Dandelion Vineyards.

ADELAIDE may be off-trail when it comes to visiting Australia, especially if you only have Sydney in your sights. What a shame. Redirect your focus and explore the city (the Art Gallery of South Australia is fascinating and highly recommended) or, even better, head out 45 minutes into McLaren Vale country and to Dandelion Vineyards on Firehawk Farm.

Bulgarian-born Elena Brooks has been making wine since she was 16 and is today considered one of the brightest stars in the Australian winemaking industry. She believes the essence of a great wine is its terroir, and the soils and climate here have given rise to a slew of award-winners.

Their Wonder Room is set on a hilltop with the vineyards rolling out for hectares and Gulf St Vincent a sliver of blue on the near horizon. The architecture is contemporary Australia – glass, steel and iron – infusing the space with light. Here, guests are invited to experience a moving feast of seasonal dishes paired with a range of Dandelion wines.

The delight of eating at the Wonder Room is that there is no menu. The chef creates a flurry of beautifully presented dishes with ingredients that tantalise your tastebuds. One dish of the day was a combination of

roasted and seared leeks on a bed of apple shards topped with a hollandaise sauce; another, a buckwheat rosette with quince and P’tit Basque cheese, cured trout cannoli with ikura and the chef’s sourdough with lutenitsa butter. Or perhaps beef short rib with master stock braise jus and celeriac and Jerusalem artichoke tart. It’s a ‘surprise and delight’ menu from the chef’s repertoire and what he and his team can source organically and locally. The Wonder Room’s broad sweeping steps lead onto the lawns, perfect for their weekend picnic offering. Their biodynamic certified wines (a leap up from organic) are outstanding and there are surprises, including the 10-year-old Fairytale of the Barossa Rosé that’s sailed through the decade gathering colour and nuanced flavours. You may request a Chardonnay tasting, spanning 2013 to 2023, or tastings of their Kindred Skies of the Eden Valley Riesling, Treasure Trove of McLaren Vale Grenache and more. Who could resist when you are lured to taste by the labels alone with their distinctive, geometric dandelion design? There’s Honeypot of the Barossa Roussanne, Twilight of the Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, Sleeping Beauty of the Barossa, Grenache, Shiraz and Mataro… It’s all rather magical.

The pairing is guided by a team that knows instinctively that wine should be accompanied by food but experienced in a relaxed, informal way. If you’re lucky, your host will be front-of-house manager Rhiannan Wilson. She’s a delight and you’ll leave the Wonder Room laden with wines she has matched to your palate and your lifestyle. t

Find Dandelion Vineyards at 191 Chaffeys Road, McLaren Vale, or visit dandelionvineyards.com.au.

ABOVE Guests are seated with a panoramic view of the vineyards of McLaren Vale with the Gulf of St Vincent providing essential cooling breezes for the optimal development of the grapes. BELOW There is no menu at the Wonder Room and guests wishing to pair food and wine will discover that their dishes will be created around the seasons and availability of produce.

Cruising Into The Wild

THERE’S NO NEED TO VOYAGE SOLO INTO THE WILD TO EXPERIENCE SOME OF THE EARTH’S MOST HEART-STOPPING SIGHTS, RARE CREATURES AND CULTURES. NOW YOU CAN JOIN A SMALL BUT GROWING NUMBER OF LATTER-DAY ADVENTURERS WHO ARE SAILING TO SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST REMOTE DESTINATIONS.

BY LES AUPIAIS

‘IF YOU HAVE MEN who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.’ There it is, the gauntlet thrown down. David Livingstone, 19th-century missionary and explorer, penned the words, but they could well be a mantra shared by 21st-century adventurer Riaan Manser. Among many escapades, Riaan has circumnavigated Africa on a bicycle – 37 000km and through 34 countries – and Madagascar in a kayak, encountering leatherback turtles and sharks that rammed his craft. Next may be a roundthe-world voyage on a yacht with his wife and sons, aged three and six.

While his extreme expeditions are on the backburner with his family front and centre in his life today, he’s not lost his love of authentic encounters in the wild. His books are bestsellers and his children’s publications are captivating a new generation. Here is real adventure, not a digital avatar, and the stories ignite a passion to experience a ‘lost’ world.

This is the man chosen by Seabourn to inspire exploration of some of the world’s most remote destinations on board a brace of bespoke vessels. They are designed to carry guests who are not solo extremists but still have a deep desire to skip the overburdened tourist spots of

the world. These travellers sign up to experience how ancient human societies interacted with the natural world and walk the furthest corners of the Earth on land only lightly touched by modern man.

Riaan shares his stories in a series of lectures and joins guests on sea and land expeditions during the voyage. ‘I am often faced with guests who themselves have had to find courage and perseverance in many different ways and I’m very mindful and respectful of this.’ Still, the venues are packed and guests hold Riaan captive in their enthusiasm to relive his adventures, albeit vicariously. They may not face Riaan’s challenges – breaching whales or negotiating dangerous foreign border posts – but there will be wildlife encounters, hikes to remote trails and close (but safer) encounters with the rarest of wild animals and marine life.

Seabourn’s general manager and vice president of expeditions, Robin West knows exactly how to capture the imagination of this latter-day traveller.

‘The expedition business as a whole is a fast-growing sector in the cruise industry,’ he says, ‘and follows on years of successful river cruising with companies specialising in this travel genre.’

High-definition documentaries on BBC and National Geographic, and social media have been partly responsible for inspiring these travellers who may be ‘seniors’ on paper but are, in reality, a fit, vigorous generation. Sixty-something is the new 40 and they think nothing of jumping into Zodiacs or setting off on a 15-kilometre hike in the wild. ‘We want a meaningful experience,’ they say, ‘not just a vacation.’

‘They certainly want to be more engaged,’ says Robin, and this demands seriously planned itineraries to remote areas and in smaller groups. ‘Expedition cruising ticks those boxes,’ he adds.

Seabourn, known primarily for their luxury offering, heard the call and began to consider designing bespoke vessels that would accommodate a relatively small number of guests. Five to eight years ago, this wish list could only be fulfilled on robust but basic ships, more geared towards a scientific expedition.

‘What’s changed is that this is now possible in luxury or ultraluxury, and I think that’s where the seasoned, well-educated and informed traveller leaps at the opportunity to go off the beaten path,’ says Robin.

On a Seabourn cruise to the Antarctic or any of the company’s other exotic and remote destinations, the rules are clear. Passenger numbers are kept low to meet strict environmental rules, allowing a handful of guests at a time to explore by kayak or even by submersible to observe marine creatures that one might only see in a documentary film.

It’s an extension of an industry we know well in South Africa: the luxury safari. The ‘vessel’ is essentially your base camp lodge, explains Robin, while your Zodiac is the equivalent of a Land Rover.

‘We’ve seen this ourselves over the last season with both our ships in Antarctica,’ says Robin. ‘Word of mouth drove a sell-out itinerary. It was in 2013 that we started with the Seabourn Quest and our first voyage to Antarctica, which got the highest ratings in the 30 years of the line’s existence.’

It’s not surprising.

Of all the deserts in the world, the Antarctic must rank as the most fascinating and yet, without a modern vessel and expert navigation, it’s a zone inaccessible to most travellers. But from southernmost Argentina, Seabourn takes guests nearly a thousand kilometres across the famous Drake Passage to a wonderland of wildlife. This is rich territory for seabirds and perhaps a sighting of an albatross as it glides on massive wings above the ocean. Zodiacs take you through ice-blue channels, searching for seals and penguins. Or, if you love the idea of low-tech exploration

by kayak with an experienced guide, you can glide past wildlife, touching the environment lightly, unobtrusively.

What lies beneath is a world so fascinating and alien that the images will be with you forever. From the comfort of a submersible, view marine worms, Antarctic scallops and alienlooking crustaceans.

This journey to the ‘Great White Continent’ is like no other adventure in the world. There’s the sheer scale of the icebergs and the awareness that before you, as a modern-day adventurer, came ships of old that faced the peril of crushing ice floes and fierce storms, protected from the elements by only the most basic of gear. Today, travellers are well-equipped to fend off the cold. We must leave no trace of our visit and take with us only the photographs of a lifetime.

The overwhelming success of the Antarctic itinerary inspired a new programme called Ventures by Seabourn. ‘We put small expedition teams on our fleet around the world with onboard lectures and land expeditions,’ says Robin.

There’s a critical formula to the success of these micro-voyages. The Seabourn Quest takes on 458 guests. It’s a dealbreaker for the Antarctic where there’s a cap of 500 on the number of guests, who are then allowed to land in batches of 100 at a time. It’s a vital discipline to retain the environment.

But it was in 2019 that the company took its most significant and, some might say, daring step: build two purpose-designed and dedicated expedition vessels, the Seabourn Venture and Seabourn Pursuit, that carry a maximum of only 264 guests in 132 suites.

To design the vessels, Robin called on 20 years of experience in the industry. ‘Over time, you see what works and slowly end up with the best of everything.’ He spent time at Paris-based Stirling Design International with its multidisciplinary team of designers, architects and engineers, a powerhouse of technical and aesthetic expertise. What was important was designing something new that retained the Seabourn brand zeitgeist. Based on what an adventure-orientated cruise ship should feature – think discovery centres, bow lounges and landing zones – all it needed was the magical design touch of Tihany

Design, which has been responsible for the fleet’s overall design look and luxury interiors. It called for the signature look with elements that spelt excitement, new territories, exploration and unique experiences.

And that they are. For example, an itinerary designed for 2025 takes guests to the Wild Labrador Coast including Baffin Island (Nunavut) and Labrador (Nunatsiavut) and Newfoundland. Islands such as Lady Franklin, Monumental, Resolution and the Lower Savage Islands are explored by Zodiac. Expedition teams will expose guests to a thriving Inuit culture, active fishing villages and the remains of the first Viking settlement in North America. There are few places in the world where travellers might see polar bears and a black bear population in one area, or perhaps the last birds migrating south from an Arctic summer. Torngat Mountains National Park offers guests a chance to hike, walk, kayak and dive in the extraordinary fjord system.

But these modern travellers also interrogate the company on sustainability and the impact on local communities. To this end, the cruise line has departed from the usual tradition of a ‘godmother’ in the form of a royal or a high-profile celebrity to smash the traditional champagne bottle against the bow. The Seabourn Pursuit will cruise The Kimberley, Western Australia’s sparsely settled northern region. This inaugural season was the opportunity to formally name the vessel but instead of royal patronage, it will be the turn of Aboriginal people, the Wunambal Gaambera, to send her on her way, blessed and safely to sea.

‘We really wanted to come in with a positive tourism message,’ says Robin. ‘We made a significant contribution to the indigenous landowners to help them build a facility on Ngula Jar Island, which adds to funding already received from Tourism Western Australia. By building the infrastructure and our ongoing contribution to the people for every guest that visits, it’s a mutually beneficial partnership. Guests are exposed to their unique culture and given the opportunity to engage with a local community.’

If the Labrador coast appeals, imagine this. Lift your Swarovski binoculars and in the autumn colours of the Arctic, you see, silhouetted in the afternoon light, a black bear against the yellow and reds of the Torngat Mountains. Or that bucket list occasion when the Earth's magnetic field collides with gases in the upper atmosphere and the sky is filled with eerie lights that shimmer and dissolve, seemingly with a life of their own. If it’s only once in your lifetime, be at the bow of a Zodiac to capture the moment. It may be the beginning of a magnificent obsession. t

Dada Engineered

Hand And Heart

THE FIRST THINGS MATTHIAS ROUX AND MATTHEW RICE MADE TOGETHER AS BOYS WERE BLACK POWDER BOMBS. NOW THEY ARE LUTHIERS WHO CREATE BESPOKE ACOUSTIC GUITARS WITH A BLAZINGLY RADIANT SOUND AND VISUAL FLARE THAT SELL FOR OVER A MILLION RAND.

BY TOM GLENN

FOR HIS HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT, Matthew Rice built an electric guitar for his live performances. At the same time, Matthias Roux made a classical flamenco acoustic, mentored by the legendarily accomplished guitar-maker Marc Maingard. Roux left school to join Maingard’s workshop for the next 12 years, working on guitars for buyers including Steven Seagal and Earl Klugh.

Rice worked as a silversmith, jewellery designer and guitar repair technician, doodling tweaks of wasted design opportunities he saw on diverse models. When his band broke up, he returned the borrowed acoustic he used as a tool for songwriting. Roux invited him to a builders’ course to make a replacement and helped to collate his sketches into his dream instrument. Over a year, the prototype Casimi came to life.

Its futuristic silhouette of racetrack lines produced a startlingly powerful and unique sound beyond their expectations. The final ingredient was a reduction. Cutting highly unusual side sound ports gave the guitarist a monitor and tamed a wild horse: the harmonics clicked happily into place through the stereophonic spread. Rice joined Maingard’s studio, applying his skills as a jeweller to decorative inlays. But when Casimi orders came in, the former apprentices struck out together.

Casimi is Arabic for ‘as if in the heart’ – in astrology, it occurs when a planet is aligned to the heart of the sun, enhancing an astrological archetype with the conjunction of creativity.

Rice says the $40 000 baseline price tag isn’t just for their name.

‘It’s because we build them to sound and look the way that they do.’ Each of their five guitar models takes up to three months of painstaking, strenuous labour by hand – with no automated gauges, computer analysis or CNC technology.

‘Every day is a deadline. More than often, it’s a guy doing it by himself – but here we get to watch each other do the stuff that we couldn’t bear to do ourselves,’ laughs Roux.

With only 52 finished guitars – and some collectors owning four – the pair strive to meet a high demand. Clients join a three-year waiting list, while prices have grown to reflect the pieces’ rarity and coveted, investible status.

Much of the cost pays for rare, beautiful tonewoods with unique sonic qualities.

The moon spruce used for tops could be named for its silvery, holographic patina. But it’s a slow-growing alpine wood, cut during a winter’s new moon for minimal growth and sap, to capture the lowest weight and highest stiffness possible. African blackwood has become Casimi’s signature for strong sides and

backs, but its stony density is the bane of their cutting blades. Hawaiian koa lines flow with fiery chatoyance. Quilted mahogany from a single 30-meter titan felled in the Honduran jungle in 1965 is so famous it’s known as ‘The Tree’.

Rice’s inlays of Paua seashell, Hawaiian black-lipped pearl, lapis lazuli and 24-carat gold make each model a unique, thematic artwork. He loves to transform brief cues from clients or use traditional motifs and animals from a tonewood’s birthplace. One soundhole’s rosette is haloed in cymatic glyphs of ultrasonic dolphin language; another’s back detail sparkles with the golden outline of a lake or crackling kintsugi. On a side, Mayan jaguars glare, or a secretary bird slays a snake.

Wrapping the minutely detailed designs over curves and corners presents new curveballs and rewards every time. ‘A guitar is a multisensory experience. It’s about tone, yet also playability, the scent of the wood, the feeling when you see the thing... A guitar is designed to inspire a musician, and the more that you can ignite the senses and that process, the better.’

Roux explains that their calibre means a lifetime guarantee on workmanship, with appropriate protection. ‘We use the same durable automotive finish you’ll find on a Rolls or Ferrari, but we get it super thin – so it’s tough but doesn’t inhibit the wood from doing what it needs to do,’ he says.

‘There’s a kind of living quality in having to do it almost afresh every single time, in the sense that you have to take every piece of wood as an individual. The challenge that remains for us is to be continually, incrementally evolving towards a higher standard.’

The fortunate few who’ve played a Casimi, like acclaimed composer and performer Michael Watts, describe their sound with terms like clarity, definition, power and sustain. A single strum rings out for 18 seconds of rippling, over toning layers of harmonics.

Somewhere, I think I can hear a collector weeping. t

‘THE

THE MAGNETIC BRIDGE A guitar is always trying to fold itself in half. The bridge – where the tensioned strings attach and transfer vibrations to the body– is carved from a single piece of African blackwood. The design is reinforced with carbon fibre bracing between pinless holes and a magnetic cap for easy string maintenance. THE HOLLOW HEADSTOCK ‘Our goal is always to balance form and function. Slotted headstocks on classical guitars have two apertures, and the designer in me went, “Well, why don’t we just have one?”’ Matthew Rice points out that while they’ve existed since the 1970s, the Casimi look seems to have started a thing.

TWISTING PLANES, ASYMMETRY AND PARABOLIC CURVES RENDER IT NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO MANUFACTURE BY ANYTHING EXCEPT OUR HANDS.’ - MATTHIAS ROUX

In The Heat Of The Moment

BOTH FRAGILE AND YET RESISTANT, GLASS INSTALLATIONS BY ARTIST LIZ LACEY BEGIN IN HER IMAGINATION AND END IN A GLORIOUS FANDANGO OF COLOUR AND LIGHT.

BY LES AUPIAIS

CLOCKWISE, FROM LEFT Capturing the strong sunshine belt of Paarl, this installation is reminiscent of a giant sea anemone; This delicate starburst of light adorns a ceiling in the Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, but Liz Lacey’s work also wings its way (meticulously packed in sections) to many international destinations; This striking work is the focal point of space overlooking the 2 000-year-old city of Cologne in Germany.

THE CALL FROM CHILE brought devastating news. There had been an earthquake and the destruction to infrastructure was severe. Buildings collapsed, metal stairways buckled, furniture was reduced to jagged splinters… In one building, high on a reinforced ceiling that had withstood the violent shaking and upheaval, a multifaceted artwork remained. Designed by Liz Lacey, a South African conceptual glass artist, the beautifully balanced, iridescent installation was defiantly intact.

David Jackson, Liz’s husband and business partner, takes up the story. ‘I supervise all the installations,’ he says, ‘and the call had come from a man who had helped us on the Chilean project. He sent picture after picture of the devastation, but the final one showed our glass chandeliers: they were still perfectly in place and undamaged. I’d made sure they were attached with seismic springs and spaced evenly so that they would not touch each other if they swung.’

It seems impossible that something so fragile, so ethereal, was not the first casualty of this upheaval of the earth, but it’s also not surprising, given the process from design to destination. From brief to concept, concept to furnace, from kiln to transportation by airfreight, and then the sheer engineering skill required to mount pieces that may weigh up

to 300kg, the process must be safeguarded at every juncture. Every outcome or possible incident is factored into its final placing.

Dramatically large pieces, Liz’s forte, have found their way around the world, from Dubai to Switzerland, all escorted and installed personally by David. ‘I wish we could claim air miles for our works,’ jokes Liz. Once, David was flown in a Learjet to be present at the ‘delivery’ and undertake the intricate installation. He hastily disabuses anyone of the notion that he lives the proverbial life of Riley. ‘It’s simply the fastest and safest way to ensure a safe journey,’ he says.

Over the past 25 years, Liz’s pieces have been showcased in both commercial and domestic locations around the world. One commission called for 120 plate-shaped pieces to be wall-mounted in the six-storey atrium of an apartment block. Every tenant enjoyed a view of its spectacular effect. Another installation called for 19 chandeliers with 2 500 pieces of glass for a hotel foyer. An article in an international business magazine led to a private commission in a €50-million home in Switzerland.

It’s a considerable investment from start to finish. Sourcing the raw materials is the first battle. ‘Some of the raw materials come from Ukraine and Russia,’ says Liz. When war broke out, prices went through the roof. Conglomerate Consol Glass bought up all the stock; consequently, many users, including farmers who needed the potassium nitrate for fertiliser, struggled to find raw materials. Colour pigments are also imported, and the making of glass colour is in the realm of true alchemy.

It’s a fascinating medium: blowing, slumping and fusing are only some of the methods used. While a drinking glass on a conveyor belt can be made mechanically in seconds, Liz’s works are more malleable at the bench and are individually blown freehand, as opposed to mould formed. And load shedding? Glass-making eats electricity and there was no way forward for them other than buying a generator large enough to keep a hungry furnace and kilns at optimum temperature. David jokes that when they advertise for apprentices, they’re brutally honest. ‘It’s hot work, hard work, long hours and initially badly paid.’ In essence, it’s a calling and a passion that takes many years of dedication.

While Liz admits she becomes overwhelmingly nervous even watching her pieces get packed, freighted and hoisted skywards to their final position, it’s David who ensures that her pieces are doubly secured and will be displayed to maximum effect. They need to be installed to make the most of natural sunlight, the translucent shadows and the prism effect of the glass bringing a room instantly to life.

This perfectly balanced partnership came about by a series of serendipitous events 35 years ago. Liz had set her sights on a glass blowing degree at Stourbridge in the UK, but days before she was to fly out, she accepted an apprenticeship with established glass artist David Reade in Worcester. Four years later and with her own work exhibited, Liz met her future husband. David was a former advertising agency executive who’d moved into the music industry as a promoter.

THE RED HOT GLASS STUDIO FEATURES A MESMERISING COLLECTION OF COLOUR AND SHAPE, MODERN ITERATIONS OF AN ANCIENT CRAFT.

TOP LEFT AND BELOW ‘Fire lily’ shapes create a vibrant, decorative focal point in a Camps Bay home while the mesmerising blue of this dramatic work in Nettleton Road, Clifton, reflects the blue of the Atlantic Ocean far below. TOP RIGHT These sunburst glass forms hang suspended from a ceiling in Chile. An installation of this kind requires meticulous care and planning.

The weight of the glass pieces demands an understanding of both engineering and the desired aesthetic.

‘I was in South Africa as part of promoting “unbanned” talent and exploring the country as part of an international tour circuit. I fell in love with South Africa.’ And there was meeting Liz too. He is a ‘hopeless romantic’, he confesses, and that was that. He remained in South Africa for good.

In those early years, Red Hot Glass made glass objets and Italian-inspired furniture for companies such as Bakos Brothers. The then Sun International casino wave brought commissions for large and dramatic installations in the golden era of big statements. It may look dated now, but then, as part of the overthe-top and theatrical design of gambling emporia, the glass works made a statement.

Currently, Liz’s work is on show at Creation Wines on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, Overberg, and is reminiscent of the

spectacular work by Dale Chihuly at Kew Gardens in 2019. The glass ‘flames’ are interspersed in the fynbos gardens and create beautiful ‘flowering’ pieces amidst the greenery.

The studio, formerly in Paarl, is now situated in Fisherhaven in the Overberg. They both love it for the climate and its proximity to the sea. The Red Hot Glass studio features a mesmerising collection of colour and shape, modern iterations of an ancient craft. After all, the first evidence of glass blowing goes back to 250 BC and archaeologists have unearthed delicate Egyptian pieces from 1500 BC, and from Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon) from 4500 BC. Despite its fragility, perhaps because it is of the earth, it has survived, a reminder that when artists bend their hearts and minds to nature, they create a legacy for us all. t

Looking Sharp

STUART SMITH IS A BLACKSMITH, A METALLURGIST, A PRECISION ENGINEER, A WOODWORKER, A JEWELLER, A MACHINIST AND A WOODCARVER. ‘KNIFE-MAKER’ SEEMS FAR SHORT OF THE MARK. BY

TOM GLENN

Stuart has been a full-time bladesmith for the last two decades and has developed some unique ways of testing his blades. ‘I do a few basic things to check that a blade is of sufficient quality,’ he says, ‘like dropping the knife tip-down onto concrete. If it chips the concrete and the edge of the knife is fine, that’s excellent.’

STUART SMITH may be the first of his lineage to craft blades, but he wasn’t always interested in knives. ‘I was a sales rep for six months. I said to my wife, “I can’t sit behind a desk or the wheel of a car.” She said, “Well, what do you want to do?” “The only thing I know is how to make a knife.” And she said, “Well, do that!”’

After a knife-making course with Master Bladesmiths Heather and Kevin Harvey, Stuart started off making practical knives for buyers to take out and actually use.

‘I’ve elevated to more exclusive blades with all sorts of interesting techniques, but I still make everything as functional as I can.’

He is a Journeyman Smith in the American Bladesmith Society, a prestigious qualification with gruelling standards. Applicants submit at the Atlanta Blade Show, the world’s largest knife show.

‘You cut rope, to test edge geometry and edge sharpness. You hack through a plank – twice – testing edge retention. Then, you shave hair with it. Finally, you stick your blade in a vice and bend it to 90 degrees.’ Stuart’s blade neither snapped nor bent but flexed as required: a pass.

‘Then a bunch of elders in cowboy hats and boots inspected my work for fit and finish with callipers and magnifying glasses. It’s very intimidating.’

Smith joined a community who compete, collaborate and inspire each other, while his enterprise has grown into a family business. His wife has final say on a piece and crafts their handsome leather sheaths, and he hopes that his 15-year-old will one day join ‘Smith & Son’.

While currently busy creating a series of chefs’ knives for restaurant Obento Yum, bowie knives are his favourite. ‘There’s not a practical application for a bowie knife – unless you’re attacked by a bear. To me, they’re just beautiful. Call it functional art, with bragging rights!’

He loves the freedom of forging. ‘The thrill of the blazing fire, the ringing of the hammer and anvil... It’s all very romantic – until you start sweating and your arm gets tired.’

Steel is fluid in that state, he says, so he can play with it until it feels right.

The blades’ intricate texture is called pattern welded ‘Damascus steel’ – a hot topic for purists. The ancient, legendary metal was made in India. Iron ores and carbon sources were fired in a crucible until they fused together, forming a tough blend of steels with beautiful but random crystalline structures. Stuart, instead,

deliberately forms patterns by forge welding, cutting and folding steels with contrasting characteristics together. One will have high carbon, the other nickel, which resists an acid etch to emerge silver alongside the carbon’s black.

The many processes to shape and finish the durable handles and their ‘furniture’ can take longer than the blades. Stuart respects African hardwoods like blackwood and bushwillow. Mammoth and walrus fossils are more ethical and expensive than ivory; a molar’s rock-hard enamel yields stunning stripes. Meteorite, finite and strictly controlled, is the pinnacle.

He has achieved his aim to syncretise elements into a style and quality distinctly his own. ‘Often, it’s what looks cool to me – it’s that simple. I’m very selective about custom orders, preferring to make what I want, giving me more freedom.’

His injuries from flame, steam and steel are the price he pays for doing what he loves.

‘I’m pouring blood, sweat and tears into these knives to make them the best I can – and the next one, even better.’ t

WHILE SOUTH AFRICAN dancer-choreographer-director Mthuthuzeli November explores life more as a highly respected choreographer than as a company dancer, he shies away from naming ‘award-winning’ accolades for fear that they might define him or predispose people to his work. His burgeoning talent can’t be ignored, however, as his dance creations attract industry recognition that fuels demand for his take on movement, music, voice and rhythm.

Mthuthuzeli has been dancing formally for half his life. He started training at 15 through Dance For All’s outreach programme in Montagu, earning a scholarship to attend Debbie Turner’s Cape Academy of Performing Arts (CAPA) two years later in 2011. He graduated with distinction in 2014, winning gold in the Best Contemporary category at the South African International Ballet Competition that year. This, and later experience as a member of Turner’s Cape Dance Company, Africa’s only neoclassical repertory dance company for which Mthuthuzeli created his debut choreographic work, enabled him to learn from inspirational masters of the craft like Bradley Shelver, Christopher L. Huggins and Jose Agudo.

In the nine years Mthuthuzeli has based himself in London since leaving Cape Town, his work has won or been nominated for multiple awards and he has choreographed for some of the top dance companies in the world. He joined Ballet Black in September 2015 and has celebrated some of his most significant achievements with the company. These include the 2020 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production for Ingoma and the Best Choreographer Award at the 2023 Black British Theatre Awards for the film Nina: By Whatever Means. Both pieces were created for and performed by Ballet Black. It was a prolific period. During the pandemic, Mthuthuzeli created the company’s first short film, Like Water, which won seven film awards. This is one artist who couldn’t walk invisible if he tried, although he might do so when entering a rehearsal room complete with invited guests.

We saw it in practice as he put the dancers through their paces ahead of Turner’s newly formed Cape Ballet Africa debut season in September 2024, for which he was commissioned to create another piece, Chapter 2 . He arrived and almost immediately started playing games, much to the delight of the audience and participants. ‘Dancers are grumpy in the morning,’ explains Mthuthuzeli, ‘and I work best when I’m happy. So, every day, I do a check-in where we stand in a circle and every dancer shares how they are feeling, and I share how I’m doing and what my idea is for the day. We play some games for at least the first hour of rehearsal and we laugh and chase each other around the room. Because from that moment, I know I will create from a happy place and everyone will be happy to be there.’

The Reluctant Star

It’s one of the things people remember best and miss most about working with Mthuthuzeli. He’s unsure of how it all started, but it resonates with the age-old prescription for laughter as the best medicine. It’s also in line with the global trend driving people to rediscover their inner child, prioritising fun and play that supports their wellbeing. ‘I remember when I was growing up in Zolani [near Montagu in the Cape Winelands], I used to dance barefoot in the street, outside the shebeens, and drunk people would play music on the jukebox. I’d just be dancing outside and they’d throw coins – I wasn’t asking for them, I was just dancing because I loved it. At some point, that feeling disappeared. I think maybe I’ve been on a search to find that and to remind the people I work with that we used to love this before it was a job.’

MTHUTHUZELI NOVEMBER WOULD PREFER TO SIDESTEP THE LABEL ‘AWARD-WINNING’. THERE’S NOT MUCH CHANCE OF THAT WHEN AUDIENCES WORLDWIDE ARE FILLING THEATRES TO SEE HIS WORK.

BY DEBBIE HATHWAY

Grateful to be on home turf, however briefly, Mthuthuzeli appreciates being in familiar territory. Without the pomp and ceremony afforded to him elsewhere in the world, when he’s working on a Debbie Turner commission, he can walk into (in this instance) her Cape Ballet Africa rehearsal space and greet colleagues he knows with, ‘Alright, shall we do it?’

‘I value that a lot and I think I miss that in dance,’ he explains. Later, he expands on the topic, writing in a social media post, ‘Being back home has been such a refuelling

Mthuthuzeli November’s The Waiting Game for Ballet Black has two nominations for the Black British Theatre Awards 2024, in the category of Best Dance Production or Performer for dancer Ebony Thomas and Best Choreographer. Typically, November credits the latter to his team. The winners will be announced on 4 November 2024.

Mthuthuzeli November in rehearsal with Chapter 2, an extension of a work made previously for Debbie Turner, aptly named for the new space many of those involved with the newly formed Cape Ballet Africa find themselves in.

‘I AM FOREVER GRATEFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE WORK. CAMAGU.’

experience for me. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to create work. Camagu .’

Mthuthuzeli pours himself into his work, heart and soul, and those who shine in his choreographies have likely mirrored his effort and developed a connection that resonates. Nina: By Whatever Means , based on Nina Simone’s life, is one of his most transformative works. He says it took a lot out of him emotionally and mentally because he came home to make the music for it. He went to Zolani, found the choir and played around with some ideas. ‘They rehearsed and then I put them in a little taxi. They came to Cape Town and we recorded with them at Milestone Studios. Then I got a string quartet, another vocalist and a pianist from the UK… It was one of those pieces I wanted to give everything to, but it kind of broke me.’

Ingoma is another of his ‘very special’ works, not only because it was challenging to make for Ballet Black but because he didn’t know how it would be received in the UK. Ingoma is a captivating blend of ballet, African dance and song, delving into universal themes of humanity and authenticity. Inspired by the art of Gerard Sekoto, especially ‘Song of the Pick’ and ‘Blue Head’, it examines the pivotal Witwatersrand miners’ strike of 1946. The performance imagines the struggles of black miners and their families as they courageously protested for better wages.

‘So, again, I had put a lot on the line, for myself and the piece, in the story that I was trying to tell, pushing the dancers in a completely different way. They are classical ballet dancers and I asked them to do gumboot dance. I didn’t know how they’d feel about it. The emotional toll it had on them, performing it every day, was quite intense. As with Nina, the recognition for it obviously made me really happy, but it’s the stories I wanted to get right. That’s why it’s so difficult – they’re black stories and I hope to be somebody who represents black stories in a good light.’

While awards count in international circles, Mthuthuzeli points out, ‘We don’t come from a culture like that. We don’t get rewarded for just doing our job. It’s just like, “Okay, keep going, on to the next thing!” This mentality, in many ways, has been driving me since I was a student. I find myself quite sad when I’m at some of these ceremonies because I’m just there thinking, “What are we doing?” It puts an unnecessary amount of pressure on creatives and, in my case, an expectation that whatever I make must be of a certain calibre. Sometimes, honestly, I just want to create dance with no meaning… just create, and whatever happens, happens.’

Mthuthuzeli is far from drying up creatively. The ideas he presents to companies are vastly different. Sometimes, he’ll want to explore absurdism and do that in a language that is more ‘cartoony’, or he’ll do a piece like Nina , which incorporates a lot of jazz. ‘I made a piece on Rhapsody in Blue , which was interesting, because working on a Gershwin score is a whole different challenge. And then there are pieces that are purely my creation from the ground up… when I meet music that has an African aesthetic to it. I think that’s also what makes me a little unpredictable. When people see my work, they get the idea that I’m from South Africa and my work is very much influenced by where I come from. And they might commission me hoping that I’ll do something African-inspired but I might not be there mentally. I might want to create a classical duet,’ he laughs.

Mthuthuzeli’s journey is a testament to the power of passion and the joy of dance. This year, he’s taken a position as artistic associate at the Dutch National Academy, where he looks forward to continuing to share and develop his movement language. t

The Crossing

NEARLY 10 YEARS AGO, A GROUP OF FOUR WOMEN SET OFF TO ROW ACROSS THE PACIFIC IN A CRAFT SO SMALL IT WAS A BLIP ON THE RADAR. SOUTH AFRICAN-BORN NATALIA COHEN VOLUNTEERED TO MAKE THE LIFE-CHANGING 15 000-KILOMETRE JOURNEY.

BY LES AUPIAIS

IT WAS APRIL 2015 when four women of diverse personality types, ages and varied backgrounds set out from San Francisco with the goal of landing in Cairns, Australia, six months later. They would set two world records as the first all-woman crew fours boat to row unsupported across the Pacific Ocean.

The mission involved a rigorous selection process and military training in the mountains of Wales to whittle down the applicants to the final team of women between 24 and 40 years old. The website advert for candidates had read: ‘Are you woman enough to row across the Pacific?’ South African-born Natalia Cohen says she found it ‘inexplicably compelling’.

Natalia, who was out in South Africa recently, went on to become a successful international motivational speaker. She joined the crew and started the 10 months of intense training necessary to survive

and achieve their goal. The team’s motivation was fundraising for two charities: Breast Cancer Care and Walking With The Wounded, for women injured in war.

‘Although I have been in the travel industry and managed a safari lodge,’ says Natalia, ‘I’ve always loved the ocean and the idea of going into the unknown. I never believed this expedition was about the rowing though – this was a mental challenge, team dynamics and having to find a place of inner strength. And all this had to be in place before we even left the shore.’

One of the hurdles was to figure out how the crew would remain functional while plagued by inevitable seasickness and extreme sleep deprivation. For Natalia, it was a necessary part of the journey. ‘This would be a fascinating way to knowingly suffer,’ she says with her customary wide grin and offbeat humour.

A voyage that was meant to be six months turned into 257 days broken down into strict two-hour shifts. Sleep deprivation, occasional severe weather and an on-board fire turned the challenge into a life-changing experience for the four-woman crew. To keep sane and focused, Natalia thought no further than the immediate task at hand.

Their ocean rowing boat, named Doris , would be their home for all these months. There was no engine for backup, but their radio equipment was critical. For how else could they communicate with the men who crewed the vast ships that traversed the same coordinates?

A container ship can be as long as 400m and about 40m high. Think of a 14-storey apartment block the length of four rugby fields moving at about 45km/h. While the captain might be aware of other mammoth vessels that plied a similar route, how easy it might be to miss a craft only eight metres long and not much wider than a large bed…

‘We had to constantly monitor these ships with an AIS marine tracking system,’ says Natalia, ‘and contact captains to alert them that we were here, explain the reason we were in the middle of the Pacific in a rowing boat and that we had no ability to get out of

‘ONE OF OUR CREW MEMBERS FELL IN LOVE WITH THE SEXY VOICE OF A CAPTAIN BUT, OF COURSE, WE WOULD NEVER MEET OR EVEN SEE THE CREW WE PASSED.’

their way. On their radar, we came up as a “boat”, but that failed to describe something our size.’ The response from the crew, she says, was often incredulous: ‘You’re doing what… in what?’

‘One of our crew members fell in love with the sexy voice of a captain but, of course, we would never meet or even see the crew we passed. One ship that plied the route between California and Hawaii kept passing us to and from the two ports, eventually coming cautiously close enough for us to see them. We could hear the horn they sounded in greeting.’

It was a fragile connection to other human beings in a 257-day voyage with a constant 360-degree horizon. Day rolled into night, blue sky into blue sea, night and day. Those 24 hours were divided strictly into two-hour shifts: two hours to row, two hours to sleep. Adverse currents and poor weather sometimes drove the craft backwards, to the frustration of the rowers. ‘It was hard,’ recalls Natalia. ‘It was challenging, it was frustrating and it was scary.’

Who in their right mind, we might ask, would risk everything for an experience this extreme? It turns out that a ‘rightness of mind’ was key to survival and success.

Barely out of San Francisco, the hatch flooded and a fire blew vital charge controllers, which meant there would be no pump for

desalinating water, navigation or monitoring possible ships nearby. ‘We had a backup system,’ says Natalia, ‘but when that blew, we had to abandon the trip and return to land to make the necessary changes to restart.’

It was only one of many challenges the crew would face in the months that followed.

Connected to their support team daily, the satellite phone was reserved for brief contact with their families and emergencies. Everyone blogged about their thoughts, feelings and experiences. However, they were not entirely alone out there on the ocean. Doris attracted the attention of other creatures who roamed the Pacific too.

Beneath the rowboat lay, at times, over 4 000m of ocean; at its deepest lived only pale creatures adapted to survive extreme pressure and perpetual darkness. There’s no sense of forward motion, even though the two rowers on shift pulled strongly against the resistance of the water. It was as if time and motion came to a standstill.

A Galapagos shark followed the craft for two weeks. They named him Fernando. The shark swam lazily in the boat’s wake, curious or, perhaps, just patient. For some of the crew members, the hunter’s presence was ominous.

carefully, there was a real chance that they could suffer from memory problems or an inability to act timeously. Dangerous when you are thousands of kilometres from land.

While the four women (with two replacement crew for two women who completed only part of the voyage) battled physical discomfort, disorientation from sleep deprivation and mental stress, there were life lessons that Natalia in particular took away with her.

‘There are situations in life that we can never foresee, can never predict,’ she says. ‘Things don’t go according to plan.’

The trip, planned for six months, took nine. Mother Nature overrode even the best-laid plans. Favourable trade winds and currents were critical, but an El Niño year played havoc with normal conditions… with one advantage: the hurricane season would be delayed just long enough to give the expedition time to reach safety.

‘For me,’ says Natalia, ‘he helped me stay in the moment and appreciate what was happening around us. He actually filled me with joy when I caught a glimpse of him in the water and he became a big part of my day. For others, he caused an adrenaline rush, and he wasn’t welcome.’

How does one deal with fear? For Natalia, it was a chance to reflect on this powerful and potentially debilitating emotion.

‘Obviously, I'm not talking about situations where your life is in actual danger and the psychological effect of fight-or-flight comes into play. I'm talking about those challenges and situations that stretch you and make you feel really uncomfortable, where you actually have the power to choose how you deal with them and your instinct is to run, ignore, put off or discount. Ultimately, it's about dealing with this uncertainty and moving through it – and that, for me, is a choice.’

There were moments that were overwhelmingly beautiful on the voyage. At one point, the water was an aquamarine and sunlight penetrated far down beneath the surface. ‘It seemed that the shafts of light were coming from the sea itself,’ she says.

The crew settled into polyphasic sleeping, a rhythm unlike the monophasic sleep that landlubbers naturally favour. ‘As long as we could have 45 to 90 minutes of REM sleep, we were okay,’ says Natalia. It was potentially a huge issue. Unless they watched each other

‘This is the perfect time to focus your attention and energy on things that are in your control,’ says Natalia. ‘It can be liberating to know when to let go of the unnecessary feelings of stress, frustration and anxiety and take the opportunity to become more self-aware, self-directed and self-motivated.’

The obligatory two-hour shifts were just one way that Natalia learnt to cope with the brutal yet mesmerising rhythm of the day.

‘That routine became my anchor,’ she explains. ‘It helped me deal with things when they started to become overwhelming. I wouldn’t think about the next 24 hours or the next week or month. I would concentrate simply on the next two hours. I broke everything down into these manageable chunks.’

Natalia says she believes that everyone has their own Pacific to cross. ‘And you can fight and overcome anything that stands in your way.’

When Doris finally landed in Cairns in January 2016, the crew had much to celebrate. Not only had no one missed a rowing shift but what grew from the confines of the craft were deep friendships, trust and respect. When you put your life in another’s hands every day for nine months, it changes everything. t

• Losing Sight of Shore , the documentary on the trans-Pacific crossing, is available on Amazon, iTunes and Tubi. nataliacohen.co.uk

The boat interior was not much bigger than a single bed but here the women reflected, wrote diaries and grabbed all-important sleep. At one point, a shark trailed the vessel for days and not everyone felt at ease with an ocean predator within touching distance.

The Brown Dirt Cowboy

IF YOU WANT AN UNFILTERED, NO-PUNCHES-PULLED OPINION ABOUT WHAT, WHERE AND HOW WE GROW OUR FOOD, CORNER FARMER ANGUS MCINTOSH. JUST REMEMBER TO COME BAREFOOT.

BY KEITH BAIN

ONE EVENING, six months before the pandemic lockdown began, Angus McIntosh stood barefoot in front of a TEDx audience in Johannesburg and spoke about how he went from being a ‘big swinging dick’ investment banker in London to farming in Stellenbosch.

If you didn’t know him, you might have mistaken him for a younger Al Pacino: full of brio and a touch of swagger, same eyes and jawline, though his tan was unmistakably made under the Western Cape sun. Apart from his mic, he wore nothing but his customary knee-length shorts and a T-shirt emblazoned with a sequence of letters arranged like a protest slogan across his front torso:

are we eating?

Then he held aloft a tie – a Rudolph Moshammer bought during his stockbroking days from the original Munich boutique – and put it around his neck as a symbol of the person he’d been in his twenties. ‘At Goldman Sachs, I’d drunk the Kool-Aid. I believed it didn’t matter what you eat, what you think, what you drink, what you do – because there’s a pill to fix everything.’

Five years later, he still speaks with all the candour and steely resolve of a smooth-talking Pacino about how and why he became a crusader for regenerative farming, an alternative agricultural practice that continues to fly under the radar for most South Africans. You might know him as Farmer Angus; maybe his meat and eggs, bone broth and collagen even form part of your regular grocery haul. If you do, you’re part of a sliver-sized minority who’ve tasted the difference and perhaps felt the impact on your own body of eating the meat-made-differently that McIntosh rears and sells.

This year, he added wine to his portfolio, made as naturally as possible from grapes grown with minimal interference, and bottled sans chemicals and sans intervention.

Whether you heard him that night, speaking about why he does what he does, or you’ve met him at Spier for one of his personalised farm tours, chances are he’ll have made a convert of you. Having spat out the KoolAid, McIntosh believes we’re in the midst of a global health pandemic – and that changing the way food is produced is key to our salvation.

He reckons he’s spent the last 20 years unlearning everything he was taught in the first 30, and he unflinchingly believes that there are only two types of farmers: destructive farmers and regenerative farmers.

‘Agriculture is a binary situation,’ he says. ‘You’re either regenerating your land or you’re destroying your land. You can’t sit on the fence.’

It’s why the word ‘sustainable’ is banned on his farm. That’s nothing against the aspirations of environmental crusaders who bandy the word around, but he says he ‘cannot think of one thing in this world today that we need to sustain’. Whether it’s human health or ecological health, he

says, radical improvements are required and only regenerative farming adequately addresses those requirements.

Big talk from a man who is fundamentally opposed to wearing shoes. In fact, the only time he does is when he has to go into town (‘dirty places’) or when he’s riding his motorbike to get around his farm. ‘I’m too scared of coming off without shoes on,’ he says.

While being barefoot is a way of ‘earthing’, a practice he picked up from a book about connecting with Earth’s frequency, he says it’s also simply the natural way to go. Like his farm, his lifestyle is organic, back to basics, rooted in what nature intended. ‘Biomechanically, being barefoot is nature’s design,’ he says, citing a cascade of negative consequences on human physiology that arise from wearing shoes. ‘Whatever we can do by design, we should be doing by design.’

When he started farming his parcel of land at Spier in 2008, McIntosh saw first-hand the result of working against nature’s design. The land had been destroyed by monoculture agriculture. ‘For seven years straight, these guys grew only carrots. Nature attacks a monoculture like that. The only way monocrops are kept alive is through a toxic combination of artificial fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, larvicides, you name it. So, they managed to keep it going with poisons that killed everything in the soil.’

He says the land was ‘desolate’, covered in the kind of sand that blows away in the wind and lets rainwater seep right through. ‘The earth had no smell, because it was dead.’ Aside from duiweltjies , pretty much nothing grew.

‘For the first two years, the soil was sickly yellow, homogenous, like beach sand.’ Fast forward 15 years and the land’s undergone a radical transformation. ‘It’s like a forest floor,’ he says, ‘humic and fecund.’

McIntosh doesn’t use chemical fertilisers, doesn’t keep living creatures in factory-style confinement centres, doesn’t inoculate his cows with antibiotics. His methodology is simply to allow his animals to do their thing. His hens famously live in large mobile homes that are moved daily so that when they go out to forage, they do so on a different patch of land to where they explored yesterday.

On visits to his farm, you can witness first-hand the results of letting animals roam freely. His pigs are raised out in the open, allowed to snuffle around and do what pigs like to do. His cattle are moved between pastures, so they spread their manure across different patches of land, fertilising the ground by trampling their own excrement back into the soil. This natural composting produces a biodynamic loop that improves soil health and increases the ground’s water-carrying capacity by sequestering carbon into the earth.

Spier was the first farm in the world to be paid carbon credits for restoring carbon to the soil in the pastures where the beef cattle graze. ‘If every farm in the country pulled as much carbon into its soils per year as we do, then South Africa would pull in three times more CO ₂ than

we emit as a nation,’ McIntosh says. He believes if all our farmers focused on building their soil in this way, there’d be no drought.

He says it’s entirely possible to address climate change using regenerative agriculture. And, because it’s heavily labour-dependent, it would significantly raise employment. ‘Lots of people working as opposed to machines,’ he says.

More than anything, though, he believes shifting to this more natural way of farming is vital if there’s to be enough healthy, nutrient-rich food for a global population that’s on track to reach nine billion by 2050. ‘These people will need to be fed, but the food system of conventional farming doesn’t nourish the world. It pollutes the world and makes humans sick.’

It does so, he says, using practices most of us pretend not to know about. ‘The food industry does not want us to know how our food is produced. Most people choose the ignorance-is-bliss strategy regarding their food. They don’t want to know because it’s too scary.’

Over and above the ethics of factory farming, McIntosh argues that feedlot-raised animals are fed an unnatural diet that perpetuates what he calls our ‘species-wide suicide’.

‘Cows are herbivores, not granivores,’ he says, explaining that when bovines are fed a grain diet, it violates their digestive system, causing the wrong fats to metabolise, resulting in an inflammatory ‘omega-6 overload’.

‘In order to cope with the problem of perpetually sick feedlot animals, antibiotics are routinely issued to these confined animals.’ This, he says, is the primary driver of human antibiotic resistance, a major global health catastrophe, according to the World Health Organization.

Outspoken as he may be, harmony is at the core of Angus McIntosh’s regenerative farming ethos; harmony with nature and a deep respect for every creature and the important role it plays in keeping the farm in balance – yes, down to the humblest of hens.

Even if health isn’t an issue for you, you might be swayed by your tastebuds. ‘Conventional beef is all on the same diet,’ McIntosh says. ‘Apart from being rammed with antibiotics and asthma drugs, they’re all eating the same corn. Of course, it’s going to be bland.’

He says that allowing cows to graze in pastures fertilised by free-roaming animals creates a very different kind of animal, one whose meat is delicious. ‘If an animal has only eaten grass off a specific farm, there’ll be a unique flavour. That’s the terroir of the farm. It’s not the homogenous, blended flavour of an unnatural grain diet.’

Try telling that to the juggernaut of Big Food and the vast, rapacious and incredibly profitable system it perpetuates, though. ‘I’m a niche player, and those industrial farmers have humongous tractors with which they plough fields that reach from horizon to horizon. They have small margins, but because they do such large scales, they make money. And, in the process, they take the life out of the soil.’

Still, he says, he does what he does because ‘it’s the right thing to do’, an ‘act of self-preservation’ for himself and his family, certainly not in the interests of his bank balance. ‘People ask, “How do you go from being a stockbroker to a regenerative farmer?” It wasn’t a Damascene conversion. It was one small thing that led to another, a series of cracks in the edifice, learning how poisoned the food world is, and maybe my rural upbringing.’

McIntosh spent much of his childhood on farms in KwaZulu-Natal. His father was a beef farmer who became an opposition MP, known as the ‘Peter Pan of politics’, a tireless thorn in the side of the apartheid government, known for outspokenly pointing out the moral vacuity of the ruling party.

Not only did McIntosh inherit his father’s gift of the gab but he has his unflagging spirit too. Hearing him speak, you’re left with little doubt that, like those toes of his which are so unwilling to be shackled by shoes, he’s uncontainable. There’s a refusal to back down in the face of adversity, even if the odds are stacked against him.

He’s driven by wanting his children to inherit a world that’s healthier than the one we’ve got. ‘Maybe it’s a pipe dream to think this change can be made. But it’s super depressing thinking about what’s ahead if we don’t change. That’s why I bother. Because I’m not going to let these f**kers win.’

For those of us who aren’t farmers, McIntosh says there are three things we should do. One is to be more mindful about what we eat – and consider who we’ve assigned, by proxy, to be our farmer.

The second thing is to switch off our cellphones as much as possible. ‘Engage on a human-to-human basis,’ he says. ‘People are so awesome one-on-one.’

And thirdly, take off your shoes, he says. Stay grounded. t

One Winelands town is fast becoming one of the most attractive destinations in the Western Cape.

THE WINDS OF CHANGE are blowing through the tree-lined avenues of Paarl and all for the greater good. Despite its established attractions, the Winelands town may live in the shadow of Franschhoek with its literary festival and high concentration of high-end restaurants and shops. Stellenbosch, which has bragging rights as the second-oldest town in South Africa, is known for its culture, history and world-ranked university. The competition has been steep.

Paarl may have been unfairly overlooked. To date, it could boast the longest main street in Africa, the Taalmonument, a selection of wine farms, and excellent hiking routes. Recently, the town has seen the rise of sophisticated new restaurants and key residential developments that are likely to offer the best and most attractive options for anyone relocating from other parts of South Africa.

The Cape Winelands Airport, only 30km from Paarl, is scheduled to open in the next few years. The regional airport, established in 1943 for light aircraft, is still in operation but has been earmarked for a bigger and more significant role to meet international standards and requirements. This alternative to Cape Town International is set to stimulate the economy of the entire area with significant job creation and will offer domestic and international passenger and cargo operations a strategic alternative landing base in an emergency. Private jets will give passengers a short-hop option into the heart of this tourism hub.

If you’ve not yet put Paarl on your radar as a possible location for a new business venture or an alternative residential home base, now is the time. We invite you to ‘taste’ Paarl first through the superior cuisine of its newest restaurants...

A Modern-Day Fairytale

TRANSFORMING A NEGLECTED 67-HECTARE FARM INTO A NARRATIVE OF REVIVAL, THE RUDD FAMILY ORCHESTRATED A REMARKABLE TURNAROUND AT BROOKDALE ESTATE.

BY MARLI VAN SCHALKWYK

THE SUN DIPS below the Hawequa Mountains, its ochre glow illuminating manicured gardens, vineyards and the expansive windows of our manor house room. Inside, the southeasterly’s howl is barely heard and we deliberate over which Brookdale wine to uncork as a sundowner.

The Mason Road Syrah 2023 is fitting for now, while the Chenin Blanc Old Vine 2022 is reserved for dinner: it’s Brookdale’s essence captured in a bottle, harvested from a vineyard block planted in 1985 that was discovered under the overgrowth when the farm was transformed in 2015. For 30 years it stood, surviving the virus that ravaged the rest of the vines, today the source of a wine of depth and character.

Approaching Brookdale might test your faith in GPS, as the turn off Sonstraal Road towards Wellington leads to a seemingly misplaced dirt road. But as you venture further, the estate reveals itself, dramatically

set against the imposing Klein Drakenstein mountains – so perfect they seem almost unreal. A paved driveway introduces the estate’s lush indigenous gardens and sprawling vineyards, leading you directly to the Cape Dutch-style manor house. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, this was an overlooked and underutilised property.

Originally from the UK, Tim Rudd and his family looked beyond the estate’s desolation. Recognising the latent promise of the vineyards, they undertook extensive rejuvenation efforts that involved clearing invasive species and planting an array of grape varietals from Portugal, France and Italy, alongside some from the Paarl region. Today, 24 hectares flourish under vine, cared for by Kiara Scott Farmer, a distinguished winemaker whose efforts are gaining international acclaim. One of only a handful of female winemakers in the country, Kiara enhances the estate’s charm with her wine-tasting evenings and leads the annual harvest, inviting guests to participate in the experience, with her dog, Pepper, at her side.

It’s dinnertime and we’re treated to a five-course affair served in the manor house. Fresh ingredients and greens have been harvested from the garden and meat and fish sourced locally. It’s all delicious. The next morning, a breakfast of pomegranates, mangos and plums picked from the orchard is served in a sunlit dining room. It gives us enough sustenance to explore the meandering trails of the farm on foot, but you can also bring your own mountain bike to navigate the rolling landscape.

The manor house, newly constructed based on 18th-century designs, is an H-shaped gabled farmhouse oriented to maximise natural cooling during the sweltering summers typical of the valley. While the estate’s name pays homage to Derbyshire, England, where the Rudd family once lived, the architecture is deeply traditional Cape Dutch-inspired. The manor includes six spacious bedrooms with classic décor: five in the main house and the romantic Vineyard suite in an adjacent cottage.

Guests can unwind in the manor’s luxurious living rooms, dining room, breakfast room, kitchen or private study. Outside, numerous terraces boast mountain views, and the gardens, swimming pool and pool house provide secluded spots for relaxation. Guest suites may be booked individually on a bed-and-breakfast basis, but the manor house is also available for exclusive use for a group of up to 12 people, complete with tailored guest experiences that include the options of wine tastings, lunches and dinners prepared by a private chef.

While owning a wine farm is a dream for many, staying at Brookdale Estate offers a slice of that dream with a real-life Cinderella story too. t brookdale-estate.com

Opened in 2023, The Bistro is situated near the manor house and invites both day visitors and overnight guests to indulge in a menu that emphasises the rich, local flavour of Paarl. It’s an elegant and unpretentious dining experience that is adapted to the seasons,

serving lunch from Wednesdays to Sundays and dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. In the mood for a glass of vino and an appetiser? The Tasting Room is open Wednesday to Sunday, offering visitors a taste of the estate.

Once Upon A Time …

TRAVEL BACK TO THE 19TH CENTURY AND A TIME BEFORE MODERN CONVENIENCES RULED OUR LIVES WITH A VISIT TO SOETMELKSVLEI.

BY MARLI VAN SCHALKWYK

THERE WAS A TIME when the glow of the hearth was the heart of the home and not that of a screen. There’s no electricity inside the historical farmhouse. Instead, fire warms my hands and face and we’re devouring bread still hot from the wood-fired cast-iron oven chamber. We slather it with butter and wash it down with cups of traditional moer koffie , strong enough to give you palpitations. As an extra treat, there are koesisters , sweet, dense and wholly unlike the syrup-drenched versions you find in stores today. Outside, a typical Cape winter unleashes rain from clouds almost black with weight. It’s as if time stands still – and the clock is paused in 1897.

A short shuttle ride from the Babylonstoren Farm, Soetmelksvlei is the latest project by husband-and-wife duo Koos Bekker and Karen Roos and their teams. Babylonstoren has become a national and international tourism icon, as has The Newt, their reimagined country estate in Somerset in the UK.

Acquired in 2019, the farm Donkerhoek has been transformed into a historical site and renamed, depicting craftsmanship from a time two years before the Anglo-Boer War started. Soetmelksvlei opened its doors to the public earlier this year, offering an experience that transcends a typical museum visit with its immersive interactive historical displays.

Medwin Dombas, assistant activity manager, with the farm’s blackhead Persian sheep, a breed chosen for its remarkable local history. The ancestors of this breed were stranded on the shores of the Cape after the ship they arrived on was damaged at sea in – 1869! From a ram and three ewes, the blackhead Persian was established as a prominent breed in South Africa.

BELOW LEFT Soetmelksvlei leather craftsmanship celebrates the lost art of hands-on creation by reviving 19th-century tools and techniques.

BELOW RIGHT The ox wagon in the centre nave tells a fascinating tale of travel long before the one-click convenience of exploration today.

As you enter the farmhouse, it’s as if you’ve stepped into a living scene from that time. The Bosman family, although fictional, are portrayed as the inhabitants of this meticulously restored home. Historical experts went to great lengths to source era-appropriate antiques or recreated items to the style of the period, creating an environment so authentic that it almost feels intrusive to be there. The attention to detail is incredible with the children’s rooms particularly striking, reflecting the simple, uncluttered lifestyles of the time, devoid of any unnecessary luxuries.

Life under British rule in the Cape Colony meant isolation and hardship, despite the expansion of a railway network connecting Cape Town with the interior regions. Families relied heavily on horse-drawn carts and ox wagons for transportation. From sunrise to sunset, daily survival hinged on essential tasks, from tending to the watermill and milking cows to sowing crops and fixing farm equipment. Soetmelksvlei is a working testament to the traditional agricultural methods of the era, featuring historic livestock breeds such as Ayrshire cows, giant Percheron horses and blackhead Persian sheep.

Wandering through the farm, the experience is enriched by live demonstrations in the workshop. Here, a blacksmith, carpenters and leather workers demonstrate their trade using 19th-century tools and techniques to make and repair farm implements and utensils for the home. Visitors can witness firsthand the separation of milk using the

centrifugal force of a hand-rotated machine and taste freshly churned cream. The operational watermill, a replica of one from the late 1800s, underscores the authenticity, grinding wheat into flour daily. Kaalnek hoenders feast on kernels from an antique dehusker while sharing their living space with other chicken breeds, Pekin ducks and turkeys in the Fowl House.

A highlight is the veritable ‘wonder room’ inside the old cellar and distillery. Part exhibition space, part playhouse and part reading room, it celebrates the era’s fascination with culture and natural history collections. Hundreds of books from the era line the floor-to-ceiling shelves of the library, featuring copies of advertisements, newsletters and other artefacts. A replica of a now-extinct blue buck and other taxidermied specimens, preserved insects, a collection of seeds and various dioramas offer fascinating insights. Library desks with charging stations are perfect for sitting down, relaxing, reading and researching while children play inside the life-size Cape Dutch playhouse.

The centrepiece of the library is a meticulously detailed ox wagon, ready for a seaside vacation and complete with period-specific items like wooden containers, clay vases, blankets, clothes and sewing kits strapped on with ropes – even the father’s springbok velletjie lies ready where he would sit to steer the oxen and the wagon on a trip to the coast that could easily have taken a few days.

In the Old Stables Restaurant, delicious seasonal farm-to-fork food is

served for lunch, showcasing dishes typical of the Boland. Guests can enjoy hearty oxtail, waterblommetjie bredie, bobotie and a harvest table filled to the brim with fresh fruit, roosterkoek , artisanal cheeses, jams, Chianina biltong and droëwors

Soetmelksvlei is an educational gem for adults and children alike. Little ones can play in the outdoor play area, splash around in the shallow water canals, play in the sand pits or explore the haystack clamber area. They can also try their hand at the wooden ‘milking cows’ that squirt water or ride the moveable donkeys on the historic threshing floor.

Inside the Jonkershuis Farm Shop, the interior evokes a general store of a bygone era, with collections of domestic antiques alongside traditional bakes, preserves, cordials and handcrafted items by local craftsmen and women. From crocheted blankets to wooden toys and hand-forged iron cookware, the shop offers keepsakes as well as treats and refreshments to take home.

In every corner of Soetmelksvlei, the past is alive, making it not just a visit but a journey back in time. It’s more than just a museum; it’s a vibrant, functioning reminder of a simpler way of life and a must-visit for anyone interested in the rich layers of South African heritage. It provides a profound appreciation for the resilience and ingenuity of previous generations. t babylonstoren.com

TOP Jonkershuis Farm Shop at Soetmelksvlei is a trove of artisanal treasures.

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT Visitors can take a break in the Old Stables Restaurant; Tjokkie, the farm’s beloved miniature donkey; Jamy Sampson, poultry handler, in the Fowl House – home to funny-looking feathered friends belonging to the Naked Neck breed of chickens.

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Love At First Lunch

SET ON A 330-year-old working almond farm in the Suid-Agter Paarl area, Vrymansfontein has been given a new lease on life by Vondeling Wines. With Table Mountain in the distance and situated at the foot of Paarl Mountain, Vrymansfontein was originally planned as a wine-tasting facility for Vondeling Wines but the extraordinary view drove its development. The property officially opened in November 2023 and is home to SCAPE restaurant and its shared plates dining concept, the Vondeling Wines Tasting Bar under a canopy of trees and The Shed (opening in November 2024), a family-friendly alfresco dining option adjacent to a custom-built play area. t

Natural beauty and meticulous design strike a harmonious balance at Vrymansfontein, a historic almond farm reimagined and restored by Vondeling Wines. Open since 2023, it has worked its way up the list of Paarl’s must-visit destinations.

Where There’s Smoke

PAARL’S NEWEST HOT SPOT REMINDS ME OF THE AFRIKAANS EXPRESSION ‘WAAR ’N ROKIE TREK IS ’N VUURTJIE’ – FYRE DINING HAS QUICKLY BECOME A POPULAR CONTENDER IN THE LOCAL DINING SCENE. BY MARZANNE SCHOEMAN

WARMLY GREETED with a choice of crisp Donkiesbaai Steen Chenin Blanc or bold Olijvenkraal Shiraz on a beautiful Winelands afternoon overlooking (obligatory) mountain ranges, the ‘open-flame’ adventure started.

A nod to South African cooking, dishes have incredible depth of flavour and evoke fond memories of weekends around the braai, from ‘fyre bites’ to skaapstertjies (hello, nostalgia), braaibroodjies and pap en vleis. Chef Ashley Dokter is the braai master whose passion for primitive cooking is evident in his locally sourced ingredients and the inviting atmosphere of the open kitchen.

The views are as pleasing to the eye as the sumptuous menu is to the palate, with an outside play area for children making it an ideal family weekend destination. FYRE Dining at Olijvenkraal Olive & Wine Farm is a must-visit for a dining experience that blends South African tradition with modern sophistication. With its open-flame cooking, hearty flavours and charming location, it offers a culinary journey that will make you feel proudly South African. t olijvenkraal.co.za/fyre-dining

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Laws Of Attraction

THE GRANDE ROCHE HOTEL IN PAARL HAS RETAINED THE HEART OF ITS HISTORY WHILE RISING TO EMBRACE EVERYTHING THAT’S GOOD ABOUT HOSPITALITY TODAY.

BY LES AUPIAIS

A historic monument turned luxury getaway, the Grande Roche Hotel in Paarl has a history stretching back to the early 1700s. While recent updates and revamps ensure that the Grande Roche effortlessly meets the needs of today’s travellers, its rich heritage remains the beating heart of this gem of a hotel.

WE TRAVEL TODAY for many reasons but if there’s one common thread, it’s the pursuit of warm and authentic hospitality. The Grande Roche Hotel has discovered a wonderful sweet spot by offering an accessible and flexible yet luxurious experience. Summer will be upon us soon and dining on the broad elevated terrace is the place to be. At night, the season’s air can be warm and the breeze gentle while the town of Paarl spreads out in a net of dainty lights.

The menus have undergone a contemporary revolution; expect dishes with locally sourced ingredients and the lightest of touches by acclaimed chef Christiaan Campbell. Traditionally, the hotel had a set formula of lunch and dinner. Campbell has changed all that by designing an all-day menu, offering a selection of dishes perfectly suited for light lunches and more casual meals. How does this sound for just a few ways of capturing summer? Baby cos lettuce, plated with Caesar dressing, poached egg and avocado, or potato agnolotti served with Karoo blue cheese, candied pecan nuts and piquant pickled pear, or perhaps a gourmet toasted sandwich served on house-baked ciabatta?

‘Throughout my career, I’ve always looked to find great ingredients – seasonal, local and organic, where possible,’ he says. ‘I work with those natural flavours to ensure they shine through in each dish. It’s the alchemic effect of chef and food and creating a connection on the plate.’ He is particular in his approach, extending from how the food is produced and sourced to how it is managed in the kitchen and presented to please the eye at your table.

The hotel was revamped in early 2024 and the 18 Terrace Suites have kept their charm and comfort but textures and colours now give them a light contemporary touch. We travel for different reasons and whether you need privacy and seclusion or a quiet place to work remotely, the suites become a versatile home base for any traveller.

Acclaimed interior designer Misi Overturf is largely responsible for a respectful nod to the hotel’s long tradition as a Paarl icon. ‘It’s about creating character while working respectfully with what we have,’ says Overturf. ‘There’s such a rich history at Grande Roche and we want guests to feel like they are part of that heritage but in a modern way. My approach is really to colour in between the lines. I love old things and the stories behind them, and we found a nice synergy between those elements.’

From old to new… If you tire of solitude and wrestling with the business of the day, take a break. Not only can you meander down into the town and explore but you can relax at the spa, swim or flex yourself! Guests can now try their hand at a sport that is fast developing a loyal following in South Africa: pickleball. Played on a smaller court than Padel, this is a great intergeneration game.

And a final feather in the Grande Roche cap is an investment in sustainable green energy. The hotel property has a 300-year-old history but has embraced the needs of the modern traveller, the multigenerational family and digital nomads. t granderoche.com

Italian Flair

TYPICALLY DOMINATED BY FRENCH AND DUTCH INFLUENCES, IT'S REFRESHING TO FIND SKY-HIGH ARCHES, CYPRESSES AND SIPS OF SANGIOVESE ON THE CAPE WINE SCENE.

BY MARLI VAN SCHALKWYK

BACCO owner Nathan Jankelowitz simply ignored a geotechnical report that deemed his chosen terroir unsuitable for winemaking. He planted the first vineyards in 2016, and by 2019, was harvesting the inaugural crop. Success was ‘immediate’ given the long wait for vine maturity and a list of international awards followed for Bacco. Currently, winemaker Julia Blaine is honing her craft under the guidance of the accomplished Martin Smith, known for his work at Vilafonté, Paserene Wines and Atlas Swift.

The wines at Bacco are inspired by Super Tuscan varietals, which involve breaking traditional winemaking rules, planting Bordeaux varietals on farmland previously overgrown with Port Jackson and then adding Vermentino and Sangiovese grapes into the mix – echoes of the story of Bacco’s own defiance. The estate’s sold-out vintages are a testament that sometimes it pays off to resist sound advice and follow your heart.

In late 2022, the modern tasting room and restaurant opened its doors, offering visitors a blend of intimacy and grandeur. Inside, inviting spaces make you feel at home, while the exterior impresses with its monumental precast concrete arches (the largest weighing 15 tonnes), rustic red brick walls and expansive windows that ensure that nature is a glance away. The views are of Paarl’s mountains, yet the atmosphere transports you straight to an authentic ristorante in the Italian countryside where long, lazy lunches are the order of the day.

A lush homage to Bacchus, the god of wine, indulgence, fertility and vegetation, Baccō Estate in Paarl is celebration of abundance, the bounty of nature and, of course, excellent wine.

While Nathan tends to the wine, daughter Carla oversees the kitchen. Together her team, they create seasonal menus that change monthly. Cicchetti -style dishes, the Italian take on tapas, pair beautifully with the estate’s wines. Dishes are complex yet reminiscent of comforting home-cooked meals. The menu we enjoyed featured golden cauliflower with bergamot mayo, blackberry risotto and crispy spiced duck, a nine-hour braised lamb pithivier pie and a 30-yolk, 20-layer spinach-and-feta lasagne. Decadent desserts, create-yourown cheese trolleys and freshly baked breads are a feast for the senses and complete the experience. t

Bacco is open seven days a week from 11am - 4:30pm. The restaurant is family-friendly, welcoming visitors of all ages. For those exploring the region via the Franschhoek Wine Tram, Bacco is part of the orange route. baccoestate.co.za

There are many remarkable properties. But it’s the human ones we value most.

Freedom And Vision: A Journey Through African Photography

FREEDOM, I DREAM UP FOR MYSELF AND OTHERS FEATURES WORKS BY SOME OF AFRICA’S MOST REVERED PHOTOGRAPHERS, OFFERING A PROFOUND EXPLORATION OF CULTURAL IDENTITY, HISTORY AND THE UNIFYING POWER OF VISUAL ART.

BY DEBBIE HATHWAY

IN 2023, Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust (SOST) and Private Clients by Old Mutual Wealth brought an exhibition – Freedom, I dream up for myself and others – curated by Anelisa Mangcu, to the historic streets of Stellenbosch. Showcasing work by photographic masters such as South Africans Berni Searle, David Goldblatt, Roger Ballen and Obie Oberholzer, Malian Malick Sidibé, Nigerian Akinbode Akinbiyi, Ghanaian James Barnor and Zimbabwean Calvin Dondo, the exhibition is now being staged at Val de Vie Estate. A special addition to the Val De Vie exhibition is Isiqhaza II, Philadelphia (2018) by Prof. Zanele Muholi, one of the most acclaimed photographers working today. Their work has been exhibited the world over, most recently at London’s Tate Modern, Venice Biennale and Art Basel.

The exhibition explores an archive of work by artists who draw inspiration from the African continent. In her curatorial statement, Mangcu writes: ‘The artists have pushed boundaries within the medium of photography and created works that have stood the test of time. Archives are not just windows into the past; they are the authentic creations of [individuals] who lived before us and still live among us. They are the archaeology that was never buried.’

She explains, ‘Freedom, I dream up for myself and others explores a visual language that bridges gaps between cultures, creates understanding, and inspires empathy and connection. This photographic presentation transcends language barriers and allows people to convey ideas and concepts using imagery and visual cues.

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‘The works selected in this exhibition are intended to be more mindful of the subtleties of our dreams and how we view the world. The works are intended to resonate with us all, and with the medium of photography, it does so in its purest form; it does not distort. This visual universal language [can] change perception, encourage understanding, and create a sense of urgency when needed. It has been the reason to incite human action and, at other times, to inspire human connection.’

SOST is an NPO mandated to bring contemporary art to public spaces in Stellenbosch. The organisation has been doing so since 2012. Funded by individuals, foundations and corporations, SOST exhibitions are curated to educate future generations of creative problem solvers, inspire critical thinking, stimulate the creative economy and add to the cultural richness of the town. More than 450 works of fine art by some of the most renowned artists in the world have been displayed on the streets of Stellenbosch, offering the public powerful experiences with art and the urban environment and providing varied educational opportunities for learners and participants at academic workshops. This ensures that people of all ages are exposed to artworks in various mediums, encouraging curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.

To date, more than 1 200 high school learners have attended workshops and guided art walks to explore career opportunities in the creative industries. In addition, more than 10 000 primary school learners have toured public artworks on school tours, and hundreds of students from tertiary education institutions have participated in workshops and lectures given by participating artists from around the world. Artworks are displayed at approved outdoor locations with the cooperation and support of the Stellenbosch Municipality and access is complimentary.

‘The appreciation of art in all forms is a global phenomenon and is as old as time itself. Beyond its emotional and aesthetic value, we believe that art is a real and tangible asset that appreciates over time. Furthermore, the joy experienced in collecting, investing in and engaging with art in its many forms has an intangible value and is one that fascinates and inspires us at Private Clients by Old Mutual Wealth. We are delighted to be proud patrons of the Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust (SOST).

‘The organisation’s mission is to bring art into public spaces, making it accessible to all. In many ways, art can be a great equaliser, allowing us to see and experience the world through another perspective. As such, providing support for SOST’s ongoing education efforts for emerging and established artists is close to our hearts as we believe that this kind of creative thinking is important in developing a vibrant and diverse economy.’

– Private Clients by Old Mutual Wealth, proud patrons of SOST. t Visit stellenboschtriennale.com/exhibitions for more.

Missy Morgan And The Mongol Derby

HOW DOES A WOMAN WIN THE NOTORIOUSLY TOUGH MONGOL DERBY? IT’S ALL DOWN TO MORE STRATEGY, LESS GUNG-HO AND A VERY COOL HEAD.

BY KEITH BAIN

THEIR BLOODLINES stretch back millennia. Mongolia’s horses – short, powerful, surefooted – are descended from the world-conquering stock that helped Genghis Khan establish the largest empire the Earth had ever known. Intimately intertwined with Mongolia’s sense of self, its horses are ridden, revered, held sacred.

They are also raced daunting distances, their mares milked, and they are eaten… Which is possibly why Missy Morgan, a 45-year-old equestrian and mother of four who resides on a farm next door to Val de Vie Estate, chose not to look too closely at what she ate while competing in the Mongol Derby in August.

‘I tried not to overthink the food because some of it was unidentifiable,’ she said a few days after she’d returned home, having won what is unquestionably the world’s longest, most demanding horse race. ‘I ate what I was given because my body needed fuel.’

She knew what she was drinking, though, imbibing local culture. ‘Fermented mare’s milk, airag , is slightly alcoholic and probably not my first beverage choice, but that’s what there was, so I drank it,’ she says.

Morgan says any stiffness or pain she felt was secondary to what she got to see, feel and experience. She says Mongolia’s vastness is beyond comprehension. ‘We raced over 1 000km, and that distance is like a pimple on the country’s map. It’s fun. It’s eye-opening. It’s so culturally different and so emotionally and physically different from anything else I’d done – and that, for me, made it exciting.’

When it comes to horses, Morgan says she’s ‘a jack of all trades, master of none’. From cattle-rustling on her family’s farm as a girl to a previous job working in horse safaris to daily rides today, it’s a lifetime of equine experience that helped her prepare for the Derby.

OPPOSITE All Derby competitors participate in pre-race training that includes navigation and developing an understanding of the terrain and the horses; Morgan says a highlight of the race was being welcomed into the homes of local families and getting a taste of a radically different kind of life.

Derby riders – there were 44 this year, 30 of them women – need whatever sustenance is available for the 1 000-kilometre, unmarked, self-navigated route across the Mongolian Steppe. The multiday event sees riders switching horses – 25 different horses per entrant – at stations set up 40 kilometres apart. Each new mount is drawn from a hat, the horses pooled from the herds of the seminomadic people of the Steppe, one of Asia’s last grassland wildernesses, comprising rolling hills, vast open plains and arid deserts.

Centuries of adaptation mean these horses are genetically purpose-built for the often unforgiving terrain. ‘They’re tough, a very different conformation from the horses we know back home,’ Morgan says. ‘They’re small, but they have huge hearts.’

Some horses are keen to race, while others are barely tolerant of being ridden.

‘Not all are wild but some horses are very wild,’ says Morgan. ‘One took three people 15 minutes to saddle. It was going crazy and yet ended up being a really wonderful ride. Once I was on, it went.’ More difficult was a ‘fat, unfit, very quiet and very sweet kid’s pony of a horse’. Morgan says she battled to squeeze 35 kilometres out of it.

Competitors are limited by the number of hours they’re permitted to ride each day, so if they find themselves in the middle of nowhere when their time runs out, that’s where they put up for the night or they’re penalised.

While organisers keep tabs on riders’ locations to monitor adherence to the rules, there were nights when Morgan threw herself on the mercy of local families, literally turning up at someone’s ger and using sign language to indicate that she needed a warm place to crash for the night. ‘You’re tested outside your comfort zone, having to ask strangers for help – or their floor to sleep on.’

Circumstances varied. One night, she slept in a goat shed. ‘It was grim. There was a dead goat in there and it smelled awful.’

Another night, she made camp in the middle of nowhere, no provisions save for a bit of bread she found in her pocket. ‘That was my dinner,’ she says, alluding to priorities more pressing than eating. ‘You’ve got to untack, get organised, set up your camp, graze your horse, make sure it’s watered. And you’ve got to secure your horse.’ She says many riders lost horses in the night, wasting precious time searching for them at dawn.

Morgan’s mornings were about efficiency and practicality. ‘If there was a nearby river or lake, I’d quickly tootle off to wash. At one station, they gave me a pot of boiled water to clean with. But there’s no shower, no running water.’

‘The nomadic lifestyle of the people of the Mongolian Steppe is so foreign to ours,’ says Morgan. ‘They often just let their horses go and round them up in the morning or when needed. The foals may get tied up for an hour or two while their mothers are milked. They love their horses but don’t brush, wash or pat them.’ OPPOSITE Horse health is a top priority during the Derby and riders who allow their horses to become overexerted are penalised; ‘There were some pretty awful falls,’ says Morgan. ‘I went down quite hard on a few horses, but I was constantly watching where my reins were in order to lift the horse up if we went down, so I had only the one real fall.’

Despite long hours in the saddle, switching off was never an option. ‘You can’t go into some mantra state because if the horse stumbles and you land on your head, you’re out. I was constantly checking the length of my reins, riding a fraction defensively.’

She also had to adapt her riding style. ‘You think of riding as sitting, but these little horses are quite uncomfortable, so you stand out of the saddle a lot – or they’re bolting, you have no control and you’re just hanging on.’

Compared with some riders, Morgan got off lightly. ‘My only fall happened when my horse stepped in a marmot hole. Luckily, at a very low speed on a fat little black horse who went so far down the hole that we just rolled over.’

If this sounds like 10 days of unnecessary hardship, it was also a life-changing exposure to something raw and primal that saw Morgan tapping confidently into a well of self-reliance, especially during four days when she rode alone at the front, not another soul to depend on for assistance – or to talk to.

While winning the race wasn’t an accident, Morgan says it wasn’t necessarily something she’d anticipated either. ‘You enter a race to enjoy it, to experience it,’ she explains. ‘I didn’t set off with a gung-ho desire to win at all costs, but on Day Four I went on my own because other riders had penalties, and I was out front.’

She says that while winning is ‘nice’, the real reward has been what she learnt about herself and what she’s capable of.

‘Everyone wants these huge war stories, that I was broken and in tears,’ she says. ‘Or that I had to rally into the depths of my absolute inner being to pull myself out. But the fact is I had an amazing time. Of course, you get stiff and sore and it’s like nothing your body has done before, but what can’t you do for 10 days? You hear yourself saying that you can’t do this but there’s no one else there, so you make it work. You get going and you just do it.’ t

The Greatest South African Athlete You’ve Never Heard Of

PLAYING PROFESSIONAL POLO IN ARGENTINA TAKES A LOT MORE SKILL THAN JUST ON THE FIELD. SO HOW DID A SOUTH AFRICAN FARM BOY GET THERE AND WIN IT ALL?

BY SASHA SANDERS

ARGENTINA IS TO POLO what New Zealand is to rugby. In men’s polo, nine of the top 10 ranked players in the world are Argentinian. So are more than 40 of the top 50. Three of the world’s most celebrated tournaments are held in Argentina, including the most prestigious, The Argentine Open.

But that doesn’t begin to articulate what an achievement it is for Nachi du Plessis to have won all three. Nachi (abbreviated from ‘Ignatius’ and pronounced like ‘naartjie’) might be one of the greatest South African athletes you’ve never heard of. Not just because of his success in Argentina, but because of how exceptional it is that he’s even there. Argentina is the most sought-after place in the world to play professionally. It’s also the hardest to get into – especially if you’re not Argentinian.

Consider some of the obstacles.

First, there’s the intensity of the competition. There are around a thousand professional polo players internationally, competing for very limited spots. And if you’re going to play with the best, and beat the best, you have to be as good as the best.

Then there’s the issue of money. Polo is not a cheap sport. For one thing, there’s the cost of the ponies (as they’re called in polo parlance, though they’re actually fully grown horses). The ponies matter a lot. In this respect, polo is a bit like Formula One racing, where the best drivers tend to win only when they’re in the best cars. Some professional polo teams’ budgets run into tens of millions of dollars or euros. But polo players can’t ride just one pony. In Argentina, games are played in eight chukkas, each seven and a half minutes long, and ponies usually don’t last longer than half a chukka at a time. At 275 metres long and 145 wide, a polo field is roughly the size of six soccer fields, and even on four legs, horses are depleted after a chukka of full-on sprinting. It’s not uncommon for each player on the team to use two different ponies in each chukka, sometimes even three.

If you can’t afford the horses, you need to know, or find, someone who can. Which requires connections and networking. Which is perhaps the biggest obstacle.

The dominant teams are owned by an inner circle of old families with long-standing polo credentials and extensive horse breeding (even cloning) and trading operations. A patron (pronounced pa- trohn , the Spanish way) sponsors the team. And there’s a strong sense of keeping things in the family: among the five top-ranked players in the world are two Cambiasos and two Castagnolas. If it’s not a closed shop, it’s not exactly an open door. So how did Nachi do it? How did an Afrikaans-speaking boy from a farming family in KwaZulu-Natal make it to the top of international polo and win its most prestigious prize?

Well, he has the skill, of course. He’s described as an outstanding horseman, a powerful and accurate hitter with great ball control, very agile, good at creating space and opportunities, and able to adapt his playing style to suit the team, opponents and conditions.

For the record, Nachi’s handicap shows that he’s right up there. Unlike in golf, where the better the player, the lower the handicap, in polo a higher handicap indicates a better player. The highest possible handicap is 10, but there are only a handful of them. Nachi’s handicap is nine.

PHOTOGRAPH:

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Move halfway across the world? Check. Become fluent in a fourth language? Check. Make it into the inner circle of the highly exclusive Argentinian polo world while still flying South Africa’s flag high? Check. The rise and rise of Nachi du Plessis might just be one of the greatest sporting success stories you’ve (n)ever heard; Nachi and La Natividad teammate Pablo Pieres celebrate a win; You can take the man out of Africa but you can’t take Africa out of the man... Even playing polo abroad for Argentinian team La Natividad, Nachi’s helmet is a colourful nod to his South African roots.

Even so, raw talent only gets you so far, and perhaps Nachi understood that he’d need to have a few more tricks up his sleeve. Winning in any sport, in any game, requires more than just great skill. It needs great strategy. Nachi is regarded as very tactically astute, and you could say that he's applied that particular skill to his career – perhaps more off the field than on it.

One of his first moves was to progress from his home club in Swartberg to Plettenberg Bay, and then beyond. Polo in South Africa has a loyal following, but to play in the top (or ‘high goal’) competitions, players mostly gravitate to Argentina, the USA or the UK. The structure of the sport there sometimes means there’s one spot in a team that accommodates a rookie. Those were opportunities that Nachi took.

And there was something about him in England that made him the ultimate team player, even beyond the polo field. Nachi is very non-threatening. He speaks slowly, thoughtfully, even soothingly. Doug Lund, who played polo for South Africa and has followed Nachi’s career from early on, describes him as ‘very adaptable’. He says, ‘He’s a respectful, humble, quietly-spoken guy. He’s very well-liked, and was very well-accepted.’

Fitting in like that is not so easy for an Afrikaans speaker in England. Even harder in Argentina. Except Nachi was actually already trilingual, speaking English and Zulu too. And when he got a chance to spend time and play in Argentina, he went about it in the same quiet, unobtrusive but intentional way, becoming fluent in Spanish. By then, England had proved to be the springboard Nachi needed. He’d established himself as a quality player and, perhaps more importantly, a quality person. In Argentina, one of the country’s greats, Lolo Castagnola, had two brilliantly talented but young and inexperienced sons. Nachi had the maturity and smarts to guide and grow their team, La Natividad. He remained grounded, measured. His role was not just to play but to manage and mentor. Castagnola and Nachi had a three-year plan for La Natividad, to win one of the big three tournaments, known as the Triple Crown. They ultimately won all three. Nachi is one of the few non-Argentinians to win even one of them. Back home in South Africa, Nachi is a legend in polo circles. To the general public, though, his achievements are under-acknowledged, his skills under-appreciated and his success understated. Polo simply isn’t in the public eye, so neither is Nachi. But, being the kind of guy he is, perhaps that’s exactly the way he likes it. t

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Riding High

ON HORSEBACK, THE BUSH IS CLOSE AND THE WILDLIFE CLOSER. GUIDES BRING YOU TO THE BRINK OF AN EXTREME SAFARI EXPERIENCE THAT LEAVES YOU WIRED AND TRIUMPHANT.

BY ARLENE WAINSTEIN

THERE ARE THOUSANDS of skilled safari guides across Africa, but only a handful qualified to lead horse-riding safaris through Big Five country. They’re highly intuitive riders and trackers, proficient with the rifles they carry on their saddles, equipped with an understanding of wildlife behaviour that can’t be learnt from a textbook, and possess Top Gun -style reflexes. Their job involves implicitly trusting a 500-kilogram partner, hours of daily intense focus and making splitsecond decisions to dodge potential hazards around every corner.

Thabo Mothanke, Bernard ‘Bernie’ Ngundura and Kelebogile ‘Chief’ Mosepele are three of these wildlife masters. They’re the backbone of African Horseback Safaris’ 450 000-hectare private wildlife concession, Macatoo Camp, in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.

The Okavango is the world’s largest inland delta and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, spanning up to 16 000km². Changing seasons and game life cycles are distinctly punctuated by the availability of water. The annual flood arrives between May and August, bringing new wildlife and bird sightings. By September, the water begins sinking into the thirsty Kalahari sands, never reaching the sea.

Being in the Delta is raw and addictive. The endless arc of a delphinium sky meets rolling floodplains broken by the silhouettes of termite mounds, their rough-edged conical shapes seemingly carelessly dropped from the hand of a giant Play-Doh-modelling kindergartner. Palm, mopane, baobab and marula trees stand starkly on ribbon-shaped islands abundant with game.

It's the perfect environment to explore on horseback. No invasive engine noise disturbing the peace of the Delta, and the ability to turn on a proverbial dime and observe wildlife drama in cinematic close-up. Hearing the piercing call of fish eagles while cantering alongside giraffes and zebra on an endless floodplain, the clear air perfumed by the distinctive wild sage under your mount’s hooves, makes for extraordinary memories.

Macatoo has 57 horses. They’re immaculately turned out each day for the fast four-hour morning rides and mellower two-hour sunset excursions. Macatoo veteran Motamedi ‘Mod’ Manyema, also a proficient horseman, leads horse care and manages a team of grooms and backup guides. The horses are housed in a predator-proof barn at night, and those not working graze on the floodplain during the day, watched over by one of the team. The remote location of the camp means that provisions for both horses and riders are delivered by truck from Maun in a 24-hour round trip on dirt roads in a precisely timed bush supply ballet orchestrated by uber-efficient camp manager Katie Hodges. The farrier flies in every few weeks, taking four backbreaking days to attend to the herd’s hooves.

The rides are for those who can confidently manage a fit, fast horse, weaving through the bush and across the floodwaters at speeds of up to 40km/h. Macatoo stresses that riders ‘must be able to gallop out of danger’, together with advice on packing muted bush colours and well-worn gear. This is the black ski run of the horseback holiday.

The guides use hand gestures to point out game. Talking spooks animals like elephants who have limited vision but hear at frequencies 20 times lower than humans. An upturned hand mimicking a claw means hyenas and wild dogs; a downturned claw signals big cats: leopard, lion and cheetah. Zebra stripes are represented by five outstretched fingers and buffalo will be indicated by a thumb against the head with fingers fanned out to illustrate their helmet-like horns. The sign for elephants? A snaking arm depicting a trunk.

We’re on an early ride with guide Bernie, calmly walking past a small breeding herd of elephants at a respectful distance. Suddenly, the matriarch charges us, trumpeting a warning. ‘Move!’ says Bernie urgently to our group of four, and we quickly follow backup guide Tshepo Keoagile in an orchestrated tactic outlined earlier in a mandatory safety briefing.

I glance back and Bernie and his horse, Murray, are almost obscured by a cloud of dust. They’re standing completely still, Murray with his ears pricked forward, dwarfed by the fast-moving grey mountain. There’s a lot more flying dust and ear-splitting trumpeting and then, suddenly, there’s silence

Splashy canters and weaving across the floodplains almost shoulder to shoulder with giraffe and zebra make for cinematic wildlife encounters that leave even the most experienced riders in awe and avidly recounting their epic moments from the day’s rides at beautiful bush dinners.

and Bernie and Murray emerge. ‘I just told her we aren’t going to do anything to harm them,’ he says with a smile.

It takes the heart of a giant to stand up to a charging elephant and not rapidly turn tail, but Bernie is modest about the encounter. I’m in awe of the trust between him and his horse and how his demeanour and accurate reading of elephant behaviour quickly defused the situation. But there are non-negotiable rules.

Riding ahead of the guides is discouraged, not only because of the unpredictable wildlife but because the guides can expertly spot uneven ground as well as camouflaged surly buffalo bulls and predators at a distance and need a clear field of vision to see both.

The horses are accustomed to the game, picking their way through the bleached bones and tusks of a hidden elephant graveyard or getting almost within touching distance of a two-metre-long water monitor lizard.

They’re also speedy on the rare occasions when we need to accelerate and ‘gallop out of danger’. There’s a 180-degree left turn into the bush for a hasty getaway from a pride of four lions who suddenly seem a little too interested in our group.

AFRICAN HORSEBACK SAFARIS

There are several specialist riding safari operators and agents who organise trips to Macatoo along with flights to Botswana. You can find a full list on the African Horseback Safaris website at africanhorseback.com. Alternatively, contact their Maun reservations office via email at reservations@africanhorseback.com or call +267 686 1523.

On another ride with Thabo, we’re on the lookout for leopards, notoriously elusive and difficult to track. The big cats tread very lightly, are usually solitary and will often hide behind bushes when approached. Yet, within less than an hour, Thabo has found tracks. ‘Big male, going east,’ he whispers. A few minutes later, he points out a shadow breaking the line of a termite mound 500m away. We quietly make our way there and spend the next 40 minutes spellbound, following a relaxed adult male with distinctive rose-shaped spots on a spun gold coat, walking powerfully through the tawny grass. There’s a healthy respect for all big game, especially the unpredictable ‘ dagga boys’, massive adult buffalo bulls who wallow in slushy pools having been ousted from their herds. One morning, a short distance from camp, an oxpecker shoots into the air ahead of us. Thabo abruptly changes direction and as we turn our horses to follow, he points out a looming black shape half-hidden in a thicket. Later, he explains the bird’s symbiotic relationship with the buffalo, plucking off parasites and acting as an early warning sign for its host. Thabo’s quick reading of the bird’s behaviour has us heading in the opposite direction before the buffalo spots us.

Zebras are surprisingly skittish around horses, but guide Chief meticulously draws out his approach, getting us closer to a herd a few metres at a time. Eventually, we’re standing in a line, our steeds calmly chewing grass, facing their wary cousins in an equine stand-off.

Bernie, Chief and Thabo share decades of wildlife experience between them. They all grew up in Botswanan towns on the fringes of the Delta, learning to ride donkeys, and then horses. Thabo’s very first steed as a child was an unruly goat, he tells us with a grin.

At the communal camp dinner table, they recount mesmerising bush stories, describe their uncanny sixth sense in gauging the proficiency of arriving riders before they go anywhere near a horse, and casually identify the precise location of lions roaring nearby.

You leave the Delta spoilt for life. A safari in the relative security of a sturdy mechanical box may be safer, but on horseback, you’re at one with the bush. Every one of your senses is heightened and every moment is lived in a montage of vivid sightings and a racing pulse. It’s the ultimate bush adventure. t

IT WAS COMING UP to the golden hour under clear skies at Lalibela Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape and the lions were on the move. The pictures on these pages do better than words to illustrate the glow of the setting sun on their coats and on our skin. The presiding king of the bushveld was looking for females from his pride, duly leading us to four- and 11-year-old siblings spotted in a particular area earlier that day. The only trouble was they wanted nothing to do with him – or us.

Undeterred, he advanced, as did we, secure in the protective height and bulk afforded by our open vehicle, favoured for 360-degree game viewing. I was working with acclaimed wildlife photographer and Panerai Friend of the Brand Marlon du Toit, watching him calmly direct field guide Siviwe ‘Sive’ Faku to position the Land Cruiser in their line of sight, so he could capture them gazing directly into the camera. First, this massive male, then the females, which meant, at some point, we were between them. Sensational.

Marlon was using a Sony 400mm f2.8 GM lens, a large aperture super-telephoto lens with a minimum focus distance of 2,7m, which dictated how far away we had to be from the subject – not far enough for my liking.

At one point, the 11-year-old turned to us, ferociously growling a warning before adopting the stalking position and charging. She repeated the procedure several times from about 10m away. ‘Don’t move,’ Marlon said, so I hid behind him, terrified, while he clicked away.

Shot In The Dark

WILDLIFE

PHOTOGRAPHY ISN’T ALL CREATIVITY AND PASSION. IT’S ALSO A DELICATE BALANCE OF BRAVERY AND ETHICS.

BY DEBBIE HATHWAY

Despite not knowing the reserve or these animals, his vast experience as a field guide (which led him to wildlife photography) gave him the confidence to believe she wouldn’t take the final leap. Likewise, Sive, a field guide for 11 years, knew he had to time moving the vehicle just right to avoid inspiring her to give chase. And so, we waited, holding our ground, barely breathing, until Sive suddenly yelled at her, exuding enough dominance to make her stop midstride.

Recounting the story later to friends and reading reactions to Marlon’s images on social media, I realised this wasn’t a unique occurrence. A fellow photographer in a similarly intimidating situation commented that she didn’t know whether to freeze or keep clicking. Marlon’s response? ‘Never stop shooting.’

That attitude and 20 years’ experience exploring, adventuring, and hosting photographic safaris gets him both the shot and the attention of publishers like National Geographic. He’s been a guest on The Martha Stewart Show, NBC’s Today and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, sharing stories with quiet aplomb – another sign of an accomplished field guide. Storytelling is integral to their success as a host, keeping clients coming back for more.

Given the circumstances he finds himself in as he travels the world leading groups, solo, or enjoying downtime with his young family, what won’t he do to get the picture?

‘I draw a line in the sand. It’s a very important question and it’s something every wildlife photographer should ask themselves. Fortunately, I’m first and foremost a lover of nature. I’ve worked as a South Africa-based field guide for many years. And I say that because it’s indoctrinated in us to be ethical and to look after the animals’ welfare. Many people who start off as photographers lack that training, knowledge and understanding of animal behaviour –knowing when an animal is stressed, when they’re not enjoying your company, when to back off, when you’re in danger, when you’re putting the animal or their babies in danger… Ethics are important in wildlife photography.

‘To answer your question, I don’t want to incite or get a reaction from an animal. Nine times out of 10, animals are

Under the cover of darkness, in

the rain, Marlon watched this leopard ambush and kill a duiker in South Africa’s Sabi Sand. He dragged it for over 500 metres to a suitable tree, hoisted it, and stared directly at him.

ANTICLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT

For Marlon, being on the road with his rig is ‘epic’; One of the male lions at Lalibela. Lions have limited colour vision, so the darker the mane, the better for intimidating other males; A buffalo bull photographed from an underground hide at Zimanga Private Game Reserve in Zululand; Marlon’s photograph published in Remembering Leopards, part of a fundraising book series.

fully aware of our presence, and most are habituated to humans and game-viewing vehicles. This allows us to step into that animal’s world and photograph them doing things they’d naturally do, whether we were there or not.

‘I don’t like situations when an animal has issued a warning and it’s ignored in favour of getting closer, trying another lens or sending up a drone. Everyone gets warnings or a charge, like how the lioness growled at us last night. We didn’t turn around, drive closer, push her or try to get her to do it again. We then decided to leave. You don’t push animals.

‘I’ve seen disgusting behaviour on safari where, you know, 10 000 wildebeest want to cross the Mara River, but they can’t because unethical guides block their path in their excitement to see them, not considering what lengths they have to go to to find another safe crossing. At that point, I’d rather leave and not even think of going back.’

It’s as critical as knowing where to go off-road to not affect sensitive soil types or destroy flora to get to another sighting, he explains.

Some of Marlon’s most spectacular photographs are of big cats in total darkness – leopard under a starry sky, jaguar on a beach –moments made all the more remarkable because of limited access and rarity of sightings. These opportunities are exciting and creatively challenging, but because animal behaviour differs at night, you need a deep understanding of camera settings and how to use different types of lighting to be successful. ‘Ethics come in here again. There’s an argument for red, green and normal white lights. Many places,

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EASTERN CAPE BUSHVELD: BEST-KEPT SECRET

There’s an element of bliss in the African bushveld, arguably unmatched because of what it brings in terms of sanctuary in protected lands coupled with a tranquillity only Mother Nature can deliver. Lalibela Game Reserve is an hour’s drive from Gqeberha after a short flight from Jo’burg (1h45) or Cape Town (1h15). It’s a 10 500-hectare conservation project that’s home to the Big Five (lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard) as well as other predators like cheetahs, hyenas, jackals and lynxes. The area features vast savannah grasslands, which support large herds of plains game such as zebra, impala, wildebeest, red hartebeest, blesbok and eland, thereby sustaining a high density of free-roaming lions. The management team’s primary focus is a long-term commitment to sustainability and the conservation of indigenous flora and fauna, integrating the local community. Expect a local version of the Serengeti by the topography and wildlife, no more than two vehicles per sighting and incredible value for money. lalibela.net

TOP FROM LEFT Marlon is seldom without his Panerai Submersible Marina Militare Carbotech, purpose-built for adventure; The lioness warning us off. A typical pride has three males, 12 females and their cubs, and is headed up by a female. The lionesses are related and stay together as a group throughout their lives.

including Lalibela, favour red lights to search for wildlife, but this is not conducive for night photography. It completely throws the colour spectrum, unless you do it in black and white, because it creates a weird effect and the camera can’t deal with it,’ he says.

Unlike national parks like Serengeti and Kruger, where sunset puts a gag on photographic endeavours, private reserves offer opportunities to capture wildlife after dark. In these instances, Marlon opts for a wide-angle lens for star photography, setting up his camera on a tripod or steady surface for long exposures. Sometimes, he’ll incorporate light painting to illuminate foreground subjects. Using spotlights creatively, he can highlight textures and moods, such as making a lion appear eerie or emphasising its breath on a cold night.

Budding photographers should have a good lens with a wide aperture (like F1.8 or F2.8) to let in sufficient light. Cameras that handle high ISO levels are crucial for maintaining image quality in low-light conditions.

‘You’ve got to know which settings suit different lighting situations. Early evening light allows for a mix of natural and artificial light, creating incredible effects. As it gets darker, positioning the spotlight becomes critical to avoid red-eye and you must know how to creatively use backlighting, side lighting and rim lighting to highlight the animals’ features and textures,’ Marlon explains. ‘It’s not easy photography, but it’s cool and definitely adds to your portfolio. It makes it interesting.’

A recent nighttime expedition that ticked all his photographic safari boxes was a solo meetup with Ricardo Casarin, a fellow naturalist guide and nature photographer in Costa Rica, to learn more about a small population of jaguars that lives along the coastline and dines on sea turtles.

One night, it was just Marlon and Ricardo, alone on the beach, unarmed, watching opportunistic jaguars wait for turtles to come ashore to lay eggs.

‘We watched this cat patrol for hours on end. Seeing this behaviour in person was incredible! Although we never saw a hunt, we missed out on one by a matter of minutes. An olive ridley turtle had left the safety of the ocean to head up the beach to lay her eggs. Mission accomplished, she was on her way back when, in the distance, we saw the eyes of a jaguar approaching. Had she been five minutes later, that would have been the end.’ t

For The Greater Good

LALIBELA GAME RESERVE PLAYS TO ITS STRENGTHS. IT MEETS THE NEEDS OF TODAY’S TRAVELLERS AND HARNESSES THE POTENTIAL OF ITS COMMUNITY NEIGHBOURS.

BY LES AUPIAIS

In today’s modern age, the success of any meaningful conservation enterprise rests on community engagement. When the Heinz family invested in Lalibela in the Eastern Cape, it came with a strong sense of the demands of the modern traveller and that local community upliftment in the adjacent Seven Fountains informal settlement would be critical to its success.

Johann Lombard, CEO of Lalibela Game Reserve, touches on the vital connection between active community involvement and sourcing talent.

‘Because the reserve endeavours to only employ staff members with a matric base, this encourages community members to see to it that children complete their secondary school education. Earlier this year, we were involved in a transportation programme to help get children to school. As part of our involvement, we did ask parents to contribute to the taxi fares, and this buy-in and this partnership has been extremely successful.

‘From a NPO-owned sport centre nearby, our foundation offers soccer, netball and karate, and a soup kitchen that helps stretch family grants. This is critical. At the local primary school, not all 170 learners have parents who receive grants. Many children were not registered at birth and slip through the cracks.’

Women from the community come to volunteer to supervise activities and this link strengthens the bond with Lalibela.

‘One young man was seen as a scoundrel by the community because of his attitude and criminal behaviour. But we could see his potential and real desire to change – he just needed the opportunity,’ says Johann. When a professional chefs’ school in the Eastern Cape was looking for candidates, of the hundreds interviewed, six were chosen from Seven Fountains, and he was one of them.

The opportunity triggered a wave of creativity and determination – today, he has largely overcome the challenge

of dyslexia and is considered a miracle turnaround candidate from a community who now sings his praises.

‘It’s been a great catalyst for change,’ says Johann.

The foundation also connects with other organisations, constantly looking for ways to improve education and get their Grade 7s to high school in Makhanda. Tourists to the reserve are exposed to the various upliftment programmes and contribute towards visible, successful projects.

The reserve also employs several top woman field guides and, by doing so, recognises that diversity in all forms makes for a better experience.

Mark’s Camp at the reserve caters specifically for children under 12 years old in eight stone-and-thatch chalets, decorated in a relaxed Pan-African style. Between meals and open vehicle-based safaris, children have fun while enjoying educational activities. They can also enjoy and learn about nature on a safe guided walk in the reserve. The Soft Walking Safari allows guests to explore the flora and fauna of the reserve in a dedicated 2 000-hectare breeding area separate from the adjacent Big Five reserve.

Other camps attract multi-generation travellers or adults looking for more seclusion and sophistication on safari.

The strategy works. Not everyone wants the same safari experience and the various camps in Lalibela Game Reserve meet the needs of honeymooners, couples and friends, who prefer to book out a camp such as Mills Manor or Inzolo Lodge.

Today’s eco-tourism demands a bespoke, luxury experience – and more. Well-heeled international travellers are conscious of the positive impact they can make and want to be part of the change. This is one reserve that opens the way.

The Habits Of A Highly Successful Traveller

IF YOU SUFFER FROM DIGITAL WHIPLASH AND BRAND BLUR WHEN IT COMES TO TRAVELLING IN THE FAST LANE, SLOW DOWN, PARK YOURSELF OFF AND LET ADVENTURE FIND YOU.

BY LESLEY STONES

WHEN I LOOKED at my holiday photos from Vietnam, I struggled to remember where each picture was taken. Was that quaint town Hôi An or was it Hue? And did I prefer Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi? I couldn’t remember.

I’d spent two weeks touring Vietnam but it was all a blur as one place merged into the next. Changing cities every two days gave none of them enough time to make a real impression. It was the same with Cambodia and Sri Lanka, where I saw all the highlights but missed the intricate details that make each place unique. Maybe I’m a slow learner but it finally dawned on me that I was spending too much time travelling and not enough time enjoying the stay.

For me, the beauty of slow travel is that you really get a feel for a place instead of just skimming the surface. Ever since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by the idea that after I visit a place, life continues there without my brief presence having made the slightest difference. But once you start living there too, the dynamics change.

I find the best local bakery and soon the people working the counter begin to recognise me. Some evenings I eat in a bar or restaurant and take a book for company. I make an effort to befriend the staff because conversations make the evening more entertaining. Sometimes, after a day of exploring, I prepare my own dinner, building in some downtime.

At first, I was apprehensive about running out of things to do, but doing things isn’t the goal. The key is the quality, not the quantity. I still draw up a list of potential activities, but I don’t micromanage the days. If you’re used to a full agenda, it can feel weird to wake up with an empty day ahead. But think of all the delicious ways to fill it. Jump on a bus and see where it goes. Getting lost is half the fun, leading to unexpected finds. And Google Maps is brilliant in places with public transport, telling you exactly which bus to catch to get home again. Or set off into town and follow your nose down the side streets. Stroll in the park and people-watch for a while.

This kind of travel is valuable in strengthening your skills and resilience too, since there’s no tour guide or strict itinerary to rely on. No one will remind you to pick up the keys, get to the station on time, face up to danger or think quickly when plans go awry.

Living in different countries has taught me to treat each problem as a challenge to overcome rather than a reason to give up, and a holiday can involve similar hiccups that test your wits and flexibility. But hopefully – and probably, if you plan well and don’t take silly risks – everything will be wonderful. You’ll become your own best friend and tour guide, you’ll enjoy new experiences and you’ll connect with a culture and a place in a way you could never achieve from the window of a plane or the bubble of a tour bus. You’ll have laughs, moments of awe and, perhaps, some tears and fears. What a fabulous adventure!

Strategies for successful slow travel

If you’re spending an extended time in one place, pick a place that feeds your soul: a vibrant city, a tiny country village or a beach resort with endless water sports.

Make yourself at home You’ll quickly feel restless in the 30m² of your average hotel room, so opt for an apartment with a fridge, a hob and microwave, perhaps a washing machine, a lounge and a balcony. Or, if you prefer instant company, try a hostel.

Wheels, not wings If you’re travelling between different destinations, make the move part of the journey and admire the scenery. Buses and trains are excellent in some countries, with the bonus of avoiding stressful airports. If there’s a public bike service, download the app and pedal around.

Avoid the crowds If you’ve given yourself more time to play and explore, you can enjoy the must-see sights during quieter (and often cheaper) off-peak hours. Madrid’s Museo Nacional del Prado, for example, offers free admission for two hours before closing. Personally, I often prefer lesser-known attractions to their more famous counterparts. Vienna’s House of Music is one such gem, letting you try your hand at conducting an orchestra in front of a video screen. Hilarious but not necessarily something you’d think to fit in on a ‘highlights of Austria’ tour.

Relaxation as an experience Budapest has some fabulous thermal baths where you can easily spend several hours floating away your worries. There are a handful to tempt you, from the pricey and ultra-smart Gellért Baths with indoor hot pools and an outdoor heated wave pool, to the sprawling and picturesque Széchenyi Thermal Baths, one of the largest and most famous

Biking around Budapest: journalist Lesley Stones in front of Hungary’s impressive parliament buildings. Giving yourself time to see how life is lived in other places is much more enriching than ticking boxes and moving on.

I’ve had some great dates with people visiting Santiago, my new home. It hasn’t led to love, but it’s fun to meet other people, show them around and chat in my own language. Just be careful, since stories are emerging in some countries about men who have been drugged and robbed by local ladies. InterNations is an expat community platform designed to help people make friends when they move to a new country. It’s useful if you’re based somewhere for a while, since you can join events such as bar nights, wine tastings and hikes.

Eat like a local For me, a downside of travelling alone can be the solitary ‘table for one’ every evening. But eating alone no longer attracts the pitying glances that it used to.

thermal bath complexes in Europe. Anyone seeing Budapest in a hurry would have to skip them all, but my slow travels gave me time to wallow in three different thermal spas.

Chat to strangers I had a wonderful evening watching a graduation show by Cirque du Soleil students in Quebec. The best part was chatting to the man next to me during the interval. He told me he was a tour operator and by the end of the evening, we’d arranged to meet the next day so he could drive me to a First Nations hotel on a reserve. Natural wariness did make me wonder if getting into a car with a stranger and driving into a forest was wise, but it was the best day of the holiday. We visited a maple sugar farm and then I explored a First Nations museum – with a canoe and a genuine teepee tent – while my host met the hotel owners.

Such encounters can be the golden moments of slow journeys. You meet people you wouldn’t meet on a tour, and you’re more open to encounters because it’s human nature to connect. It might be a conversation at the bus stop, a laugh with the barman in your new favourite wine bar or a chat in a theatre that leads to a day in the Canadian wilderness. Embrace the opportunities!

Heads app There’s a difference between being alone and feeling lonely, and unexpected conversations can be a travel highlight. Two potential resources for meeting people are dating apps and an organisation called InterNations. Dating apps can be risky, especially for women, so I never use one when I’m travelling. But

On a longer-stay holiday, you have time to find a bar, café or restaurant that you like and work your way through the menu. If you’re based in a residential area, there should be several spots where the locals go, and the food will probably be better and cheaper than in the tourist areas. They’ll appreciate your business more too.

Near Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple, you’ll find a cluster of large restaurants serving buffet meals to endless coachloads of visitors. Terrible places! But if you walk a few hundred metres away from the tourist traps, there are two or three basic cafés where the locals eat. One smiling woman waved encouragingly as I dithered near the entrance to her small café. She bustled me to a bench at a table and shooed away some chickens that were clucking around. I pointed at some spring rolls in the glass display and she fired up the wok to cook a fresh batch. Then she came to sit by me while I ate and we tried to chat. Neither of us spoke the other’s language but we could rustle up a few words of French between us. To be honest, it was more sign language and laughter than actual sentences, but we learnt a little about each other’s lives and both enjoyed the encounter. When I left, she wrapped up some extra spring rolls and pressed the bag into my hand.

Contemplate the future Spending time alone in a different place presents a unique opportunity to reevaluate your life and contemplate a different future. The charm of your new surroundings might spark a niggling feeling that life could be better. Sit with that thought for a while. Maybe your slow travels will trigger a permanent change of pace, job or even country. t

Earthly Delights

WHY RUSH YOUR VISIT? AT BABYLONSTOREN, THE CONNECTION BETWEEN LAND AND LIFE IS PALPABLE, INVITING YOU TO STAY LONGER, EXPLORE DEEPER AND LEARN THE LANGUAGE OF NATURE. BY

MARLI VAN SCHALKWYK

IT’S EARLY on a crisp winter morning that masquerades as summer and I find myself alone in the expansive gardens of Babylonstoren.

The five-hectare farm is quiet, the silence punctuated only by birdsong and the satisfying crunch of peach pits beneath my boots. These early mornings are a gift to those who choose to stay over at the Babylonstoren Hotel.

While an extended farm stay, say four to five nights, might initially sound too extensive for a single visit, boredom is an impossibility here. Guests can stroll through acres of orchards, take a guided hike up Babylonstoren koppie, fish, canoe, cycle or drive up the slopes of Simonsberg to picturesque picnic spot ‘In die Wolke’ where an unforgettable sunset, enjoyed with a glass of wine, awaits.

Ideal for families, Babylonstoren Hotel is the perfect home base to explore not only the farm but also the surrounding valley. However, you may find the many activities the farm offers more than enough to fill your days.

Central to everything that takes place at Babylonstoren is the garden, a living mosaic of abundant fruit orchards, vegetable patches, farm animals and a macrocosm of pollinators. The garden’s Puff Adder walkway plays host to unique seasonal exhibitions and collections, telling stories through fascinating botanical and archaeological treasures.

Dining here means eating fresh every day. Menus are dictated by the daily harvest, ranging from breakfast in a converted cowshed Babel (included for hotel guests) to lunches under ancient oaks at the

stay for a while

OPPOSITE Hotel guests are free to explore the farm on complimentary mountain bikes. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT The Greenhouse Restaurant is the perfect refreshment station after a garden walk; Hotel guests can enjoy bass fishing, guided fly fishing or canoeing on the dam; Orchard and vineyard views from the Fynbos Family House; The meandering 70-metre Puff Adder walkway.

for a while

Rejuvenate!

The ritual begins almost unexpectedly. Clothed in little more than dense steam and lying on a slab of cool, white marble, a sudden cascade of warm water catches your senses off guard. The shock is startling and soothing in equal measure and is followed by skilled hands in traditional kese starting their choreography of exfoliation, aromatic soaping and more generous outpourings of warm water.

In this misty cocoon, you're not just cleansing your body, you're plugging into a centuries-old tradition, the hammam. It's a cultural relic that has weathered the test of time, inviting you to shed more than just surface impurities and to rejuvenate both mind and body.

The Babylonstoren Garden Spa offers a variety of treatments in a setting of bamboo, tranquil greenery and anchored by a hot vitality tub, all-weather pools, a sauna and a salt room – a holistic retreat designed to harmonise and heal.

Greenhouse. The garden’s yield shapes what you eat, sprinkled with delightful seasonal surprises and marrying nostalgia with innovation. In the evenings, the Old Bakery Restaurant serves communal dining with Italian nights and meat feasts featuring the prestigious Chianina beef. Accordion music, fine wines and a stroll back to your room through the evening air cap off perfect days.

For those in search of a bite between meals, dedicated rooms offer gelato, coffee, speciality sweets, treats, fresh juices and homebaked goods.

Babylonstoren also engages guests not just as visitors but as learners. Participate in daily farm tours and workshops led by master gardeners, chefs and experts. Trace the origins of winemaking, learn to make your own soap, find out how using meat can change the way you cook, bake biscuits, construct garden features or become skilled at distilling natural oils.

Babylonstoren is more than a destination, it’s an experience that reconnects you with the earth while imparting a timeless language. t

TOP Besides being a beautiful spot to enjoy tea or lunch, the domed ceiling and tall glass panels of the Greenhouse Restaurant are characteristic of an actual greenhouse. True to its name, plants are also nurtured here.

RIGHT Treatments in the Garden Spa’s Turkish hammam include traditional Turkish cleansing rituals.

YOUR LIFE, LIVED WELL

OVER 25 HECTARES ALLOCATED TO GREEN SPACES

A PLACE FOR FAMILIES TO FLOURISH

PAARL VALLEIJ LIFESTYLE ESTATE & FARM IS LOCATED IN THE NORTHERN PART OF PAARL, BRINGING ITS RESIDENTS THE YEAR-ROUND SPLENDOUR OF THE CAPE WINELANDS.

Out Of This World

THERE ARE SPA TREATMENTS THAT ARE SENSATIONAL. THEY RELAX AND REJUVENATE. BUT RARELY DO THEY TOUCH ON EUPHORIA AND HEALING.

BY LES AUPIAIS

NOW AND AGAIN. A treat. A mood booster. ‘Indulging’ in a face or body treatment used to be just that. But after 120 minutes of a bespoke spa ritual by Hildegard Carstens, Delaire Graff Estate’s spa manager, you are in a different realm. It’s transformative.

The custom-made fragrance, created for the Estate, surrounds you in a subtle cloud. Your brain responds, connecting molecules to memory and emotion. You’re warm. Safe. The light is low and diffuse. As Hildegard explains, you must learn to let go, take a leap of faith and let the therapists do what they are trained to do: focus entirely on designing something unique to your needs.

But the Delaire Graff Estate wellness experience is not simply for the body. It’s a holistic and curated journey dedicated to therapeutic treatment that taps into your senses.

It begins with a sense of arriving at a destination discrete from the lodges. On this chilly day, the gardens are shrouded in a cool mist that has settled on the Helshoogte Pass. Trees are ghostly shapes and sound is muted. It’s otherworldly.

It’s impossible not to notice the striking art collection at Delaire Graff Estate. If you request and book an art meander, you may be guided by Linsey Samuels, the Winelands art specialist from Artroute based

at the Estate. She has a wonderful, ebullient energy and shares intriguing details about the artists’ techniques and inspiration. All of the works are from Laurence Graff’s personal collection and many of them contribute to an impression of a greater Cape Winelands art experience: Fred Schimmel, André Stead, Kendell Geers and many more. If you haven’t yet seen works by Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi, get ready to enter a realm of spiritual symbolism and new dimensions. Ngqinambi finds his inspiration in film, theatre and real life, and his ethereal characters appear to drift between dimensions. Deborah Bell is one of South Africa’s most acclaimed artists, a sculptor, painter, printmaker and collaborator. Between the foyer and the treatment rooms, Bell’s tall, angular sculptures stand with their feet in a water feature. They seem like guardians of the spa, sentinels who watch over our wellbeing.

Explore the art with Linsey first and let the images remain vivid in your mind while you surrender care of your body to the therapists. You will have made a creative leap away from the clamour of your usual day before your ritual even begins.

Hildegard asks that her team come to these quiet sanctuaries with something of an empty mind. ‘I want my therapists to “read”

their clients, not simply go through the robotic motions of a treatment.’ She believes this subjugation to a client’s needs is key to how effective the treatment will be. The whole team has been taught to heal with intent.

First, they ask what you would like the outcome of the treatment to be and how you want to feel. Relaxed? Energised? Stress-free? What follows is much like improvised but expert choreography – there’s nothing predictable or mechanical about the experience.

Hildegard senses my tension. I’m body shy and abandoning control is difficult for me. I’m vulnerable. She can feel it and responds. In a flurry of rapid patterning followed by firm, deft strokes and powerful manoeuvring that stimulates your lymph nodes and follows muscle lines, you are never quite sure of what sensation will follow in the treatment she has chosen. It’s not disconcerting though, this absence of pattern. Rather, it’s pleasurably unexpected. You slowly let go. And that’s the beginning of a therapy that disconnects your body from its grounded form. If you’ve ever dreamt of flying, this is the woken equivalent. I feel the luxurious sensation of heated oil and the whisper of light fabric barely touching my skin. It results in a sensation of weightlessness, levitation. ‘I am just a conduit of energy connected to source to release what you’re holding back,’ she says. ‘Often, what happens in your life causes a stagnation of energy in your body.’

I had forgotten to tell Hildegard that I’d fallen and hurt my right arm some months back, now almost healed but still tender. Or the exact nature of a grave illness I suffered a year ago. But she knew instinctively. I ask if this powerful healing energy runs in her family and, perhaps a little reluctantly, she tells me of a great-grandmother with these skills. These are the women in a community who seem to intuitively sense malaise or distress. Centuries ago, they might have been cast out, or worse, put to death. Today, we seek out these seers, rare creatures who know the power of touch and the value in ‘reading’ your body’s deficiencies.

Hildegard was recently invited to a masterclass at a wellness retreat in Thailand, facilitated by alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra. She has found that his teachings profoundly influence her desire to embrace holistic healing on a deeper level. ‘You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible,’ says Chopra. ‘In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself. It will be a permanent Self, rooted in awareness and creativity. Once you have captured this, you have captured the world.’

From a transformative mind-body treatment to tastes that ignite pleasure… We lunch on contemporary Japanese cuisine at the Estate’s restaurant, H ō seki. I’m serene from the experience and perhaps this is how we should respectfully approach how

we eat. The chefs deserve your full commitment. The four courses focus on our fifth taste type, celebrating ‘umami’ with series of deliciously light and sensational dishes. The greens are seasonal and grown on the Estate, the fish sustainable. Textures and tastes are designed to gently evoke subtle flavours that we may miss in our everyday cuisine. Our conversation drifts to Dr Masaru Emoto’s book The Secret of Water and his belief that thoughts and words have a direct effect on the crystal formation of water and, as we are 60 percent water, what we articulate –positively and negatively – can have a profound influence on us and our surrounding world.

Someone once asked Hildegard what she might do with $5 million. What would her immediate quest be? Her answer is surprising and yet not… She would lobby for a change in school curriculum here and introduce the concept of quietening the mind. ‘All we do today is keep children busy. There’s no break for them to disconnect, to be in the moment.’

Ah, the lure and benefit of boredom. A lovely, lazy drift of the mind. Silence. No digital distractions. A mind on a sabbatical. If you cannot accomplish this every day, then seek it out in purposeful moments. Commit to a day at Delaire Graff Spa and begin the journey. t

For more information, visit delaire.co.za or email info.spa@delaire.co.za.

The Delaire Graff Spa goes a step further than delivering a relaxing, pleasurable experience. It is rejuvenating in all ways. Book for a curated art experience and a deliciously balanced lunch at Hoseki for contemporary Japanese cuisine.

And The Heavens Opened

WALKING IN THE KALAHARI WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MOSTLY HEAT AND DUST, UNTIL AN UNSEASONABLE STORM CHANGED THE GAME...

BY IAN GLENN

THIS PAGE Some of the bare necessities of trail life: boots, water bottles, backpack, bivvy bag – and lightweight collapsible chair. OPPOSITE Lightning show and rain or not, the fire had to be tended.

THE KALAHARI walking wilderness experience my son and I signed up for is not the version most people know from Kruger of a base camp with daily sorties but is, instead, a four-day carry-allyou-need, sleep-in-the-open kind of gig. Walking the dog desultorily in the temperate Overberg may not be quite enough to manage a 15kg backpack and Kalahari heat. Off to the gym, walk with a loaded backpack, swim, repeat. I’m the elder in the group and have no intention of lagging and being left for lion fodder.

The Lowveld Trails website has some enigmatic instructions like ‘bring a chair, you’ll thank us if you do’. Cyclists and hikers worry about what every piece of equipment weighs, so after lots of testing camping chairs in the local shops and realising that they’re either too heavy or too flimsy, I find a lightweight chair online. Tick box.

The trip is planned for early April, after the rainy season in the Kalahari, which lasts from December to mid-March. The day before we arrive, Joël Roerig, trip organiser, sends out a message that we’re likely to have quite a rainy start to our trip but noting that luckily, we’ll have bivvy bags to protect our sleeping bags. Joël has assembled an eclectic lot: mainly Dutch with an English professor in biosciences and some locals.

I ask the visitors who have come from afar why they’re doing this and they say that adventure expeditions are increasingly common in Dutch society. Some trips are for team-building or corporate evaluations

or to mark crucial life stages. Jurrien jokes that this is his ‘mid-life crisis’ trip. Between them, they’ve been to a vast range of adventure destinations, many involving snow and ice. We ask if there’s anywhere in the Netherlands where one can stand and not see any sign of human presence. After some thought, the Dutch say thoughtfully, ‘No.’

The first afternoon walk, under the guidance of Brenden Pienaar and Nick Philipson of Lowveld Trails, is a gentle five kilometres or so. Now, the sensible thing to do with heavy rain forecast would surely be to head off to a decent clump of trees, and this part of the Kalahari has lots of camelthorn and shepherd trees. But sleeping under trees, even with a ground sheet and bivvy bag, is apparently not an option. And when we stop for a break and sit in the shade, we see why – and why we were advised to bring chairs… Aroused by the carbon dioxide we emit, sand tampans, a pretty nasty form of tick, come out of the shady soil where they live, looking for prey. Early settlers lost stock when they tied them up in the shade of trees. So, we find our shelter in an open area.

We get set for the night with ground sheets, sleeping bags and air mattresses in the bivvy bags. I even have a sleeping bag liner in the sleeping bag. The Jetboils produce boiling water in a surprisingly short time and we eat our reconstituted freeze-dried meals. Then the lightning show starts. Above us, the stars are shining brightly, but on the horizon, the electrical storm moves from left to right and then

goes clockwise around us. The sky darkens completely and it rains. It pours. It buckets. Melle, the Zen Dutch guy whose wife teaches yoga, has managed to set up his bivvy bag and sleeping sarcophagus so well that he, exasperatingly, sleeps through the whole thing. Maybe it’s a yoga position that escaped us.

Meanwhile, Brenden and Nick have done the Iron John trick of lighting a fire by rubbing wood on wood. Part of the tradition of the wilderness trail is that each participant keeps watch alone next to the fire for one hour during the night. They have also rigged two pieces of canvas forming a triangular shelter from the wind and rain blowing in from one direction.

My own set-up lasts a few minutes before a change in the wind direction, coupled with a gap left in my bivvy-body bag (thanks, claustrophobia), brings a stream of unpleasantly cold water into my warm cocoon. Brenden’s advice was to keep one’s sleeping bag dry and so I leap up, trying to enclose things in the bivvy bag, and look for shelter in the sail-tent, where several bedraggled others are also sitting.

There’s a mad exhilaration at how bad things are, with sardonic comments on ‘the desert experience’. I slug down a tot of Scotch added to our rations, reminding the others of the Titanic cook who lived because he downed a few of bottles of Scotch and survived the icy waters that killed others. They seem not to find this helpful information.

OPPOSITE, FROM TOP The trail provides the modern comfort of rapidly boiled water and the atavistic pleasure of fire from rubbing wood; The guides are there to share and provoke wonder at all the elements of the wilderness. THIS PAGE The trail provides both time for individual reflection but also group bonding.

We have run into – or provoked? – the worst storm and heaviest rainfall in the area for decades. The storm eventually eases and my son, who was on first watch and hadn’t got drenched, offers me his dry sleeping bag liner. I gratefully accept, manage to grab a small section of the shelter of the sail-tent for my head, look at Bill, the science professor, trying to get some sleep between two of the miniature chairs, hear somebody tease him about it looking as though he is a passenger on British Rail, and then sleep wonderfully.

Until, of course, it’s my turn to take my hour of watch. I’m told that there have been black-maned lions roaring wetly in the background, but I’m on a philosophical roll here. This should be a time for reflection on the meaning of life, on being re-grounded in nature, on the infinite stars above and our trivial concerns below. I, however, am having a kind of near-death experience – the kind where a drowning man sees his whole life pass before his eyes. But my flashback is through primal memories, ancestral DNA, the feeling of vulnerability to the rain, the comfort of the fire. King Lear on the heath has nothing

on me. I contemplate not just my own life but all of human history, reverse-engineering human progress through time.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau blamed agriculture for man’s decline into property and social inequality, but I go further.

I imagine the first humans exposed to a night like this, deciding that they need a better shelter and a better way of preserving fire and having food and water available. So, a series of clever ancestors diligently set about removing us from the precarity and danger of the elements.

Cue mansions with multiple fireplaces, stoves, fridges, aircon, SUVs and, yes, global warming – the full catastrophe for humans who, I understand in my nocturnal revelation, have been too clever by half, cursed by our own ingenuity.

The next day, we dry out and continue our quest. The land of the great thirst has drunk and shows few signs of a hangover. We see a spider lily and other wonderful plants. Brenden points out tracks that suggest a drama – a bat-eared fox tracks with a leopard tracking behind it. The birders in the group find everything from penduline tits to eagles. On the last evening, we sleep on a pan with a wonderful array of local game: gemsbok, eland, hartebeest, springbuck, giraffe, bateared foxes. As we walk, Brenden and Nick nudge us into a natural recalibration, suggesting lessons we should take into our daily lives from the experiences of hundreds of generations of our ancestors.

Our group, not forged in fire but reconstituted by the rain, departs with resolutions to stay in touch, all of us affected, altered, washed clean. t lowveldtrails.co.za

A dramatic view of one of St Helena’s 21 ‘Post Box’ nature trails, each trail featuring a post box containing a unique stamp to use and a souvenir book to sign. BELOW Whale sharks and shipwrecks are two of St Helena’s best underwater attractions. Waters are temperate year-round, with an average visibility of 25m.

ABOVE

Open For Exploration

ST HELENA PUNCHES ABOVE ITS WEIGHT AS A LITTLE ATLANTIC ROCK. FAMOUS PRISONERS, AN ANCIENT INHABITANT, WHALE SHARKS, BIRDS AND A RICH HISTORY… STAY FOR A WEEK AND EXPLORE.

BY RICHARD HOLMES

‘OH, WHAT A SPECK IN THE SEA!’

When Joshua Slocum inked those words in his journal on an April evening in 1898, he was 32 kilometres south of the island of Saint Helena, tacking his 37-foot yacht, Spray, into safe harbour. Slocum was on a journey home to Massachusetts and into history as the first man to sail single-handed around the world.

Even if my perspective was a little different, Slocum was certainly right about the island being but a rocky ‘speck’ in the Atlantic, as our Embraer jet dropped through the clouds and banked sharply left to line up with Runway 19.

Out of my starboard window, the seas were choppy below the peak known as The Barn, and the infamous winds that buffet this runway put the pilots through their paces. As the plane thumped down on the tarmac, the passengers gave the pilots a round of applause. Hard landings aside, that I could leave South Africa after breakfast and be on St Helena in time for lunch is nothing short of remarkable.

For centuries, the island – a British outpost adrift in the Atlantic halfway between Angola and Brazil – could only be reached by sea. That changed in 2017 when the island’s airport was built, and St Helena truly opened up to tourism.

A 30-minute drive from the airport delivers me to the doorstep of the Mantis St Helena, the smartest hotel on the island and my home for the week. Set in the heart of Jamestown, the island’s main settlement, this was once the officers’ barracks of

the East India Company. The bricks may date back to 1774 but a sensitive restoration has transformed the building into a delightful boutique hotel. The terrace bar has the best wine list in town and the in-house restaurant offers a delicious take on traditional island fish cakes.

The hotel’s 30 rooms and suites combine a subtle sense of island history with contemporary mod-cons, and while an extension offers bright, modern rooms at more affordable rates, rather splash out on one of the Heritage Suites in the original building. High ceilings and sash windows offer historic charm and lovely views across to the Castle Gardens.

Just a short walk from the quay where Slocum stepped ashore, and alongside the government offices in the historic castle, the gardens are a shady oasis on a summer’s day, with a soundtrack of fairy terns and red-billed tropicbirds crying and wheeling overhead. Visiting yachties love the terrace of Anne’s Place – a buzzy restaurant with a reliably good menu of fresh fish – while locals will pick out a park bench for a good natter. They’re a friendly bunch, the Saints, and always eager for a talk with visitors, so expect strangers to stop for a chat and ask about your stay in their lilting island patois.

Having explained myself to a pair of local kids (‘Tom? The hiking guide? Yeah, he’s me dad,’ said one), I went looking for a piece of island history.

There, past the plaque commemorating Slocum’s visit, I found it: a towering column and engraved marble memorial to the HMS Waterwitch . It’s a little-known nugget of Atlantic history that over three decades in the mid-1800s, the ships of the Royal Navy’s West African Squadron sailed out of Jamestown, capturing dozens of slaving ships and rescuing thousands of enslaved.

It’s just one chapter in St Helena’s colourful history, and though the island may be small – just 122km² – it has played an outsized role in world history.

To discover more, I wandered across Castle Square – past St James’ Church, built in 1774 and the oldest Anglican church in the southern hemisphere – to the delightful St Helena Museum, where a series of exhibits unpacks the rich history of the island.

This ancient volcanic outcrop was uninhabited when Portuguese sailors first discovered it in 1502, naming it for the mother of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, but it was the British East India Company who first settled and developed the island. From the 1700s, it was a crucial stop on trade routes to the Far East and became heavily fortified against attack.

Alongside cannons recovered from shipwrecks in James Bay and centuries-old manuscripts from the earliest days of settlement, the museum highlights many of the island’s most famous visitors. Explorer Captain James Cook stopped here, as

did Edmund Halley, discoverer of the eponymous comet, and Captain William Bligh, the infamous skipper of the HMS Bounty

But the most famous visitor to call the island ‘home’ was Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor exiled here in 1815 after losing the Battle of Waterloo.

‘Like a dank cellar,’ Napoleon is said to have grumbled when he saw the renovated farmhouse at Longwood House where he was to spend his days.

Today, Longwood is one of three Napoleonic properties owned and managed by the French government, and a must-see for most visitors to the island. It’s maintained much as it would have been in Napoleon’s day, from the billiards table with original ivory to the deep copper bath and iron bedstead.

Napoleon lasted six years on the island, comforted by sweet wines from Constantia, before he breathed his last on 5 May 1821. He was buried in the nearby Sane Valley, where he lay for nearly 20 years before being exhumed and interred at Les Invalides in Paris.

Napoleon may have left the island but his tomb remains a tranquil corner well worth visiting.

Bonaparte wasn’t the only political prisoner on St Helena though. In 1889, King Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo was exiled here for almost a decade, while more than 5 000 Boer prisoners of war were sent

to sprawling camps on Deadwood Plain. Many are still buried in the sombre Boer Cemetery near the St Paul’s Cathedral.

While history draws many travellers to St Helena, it’s equally an island rich in outdoor attractions and natural beauty.

E-bike tours and a running festival are popular, and for keen hikers, the island boasts a network of 21 ‘Post Box’ trails (so named for the post box at the summit of each walk) that are as varied as they are challenging. At Sandy Bay, a rocky path leads to the famous tidal pools of Lot’s Wife’s Ponds, while at lonely South West Point, you’ll find a lovely wander through the meadows ending with memorable views over sheer cliffs to Sperry Island. On your way back, be sure to stop at Wranghams for a taste of St Helena coffee: beans arrived here from Yemen in 1732, and today the island produces some of the world’s most prized coffee beans.

Visitors can also take a gentle amble through the George Benjamin Arboretum, where fairy terns dive through the boughs of towering Cape yew trees. The path up and over Diana’s Peak, tracing the ridgeline of the ancient volcanoes that formed the island, is the most famous track on St Helena. Not sure where to start? Be sure to book a day or two with hiking guide Tom Wortley.

On a morning exploring the island’s rocky eastern reaches, Tom and I stood looking down at the Atlantic below The Barn, and I could just

TRAVEL PLANNER

GETTING THERE Airlink offers weekly (Tuesdays) flights from Johannesburg to St Helena. From December 2024 to March 2025, Airlink will also fly an additional weekly flight (Saturdays) between Cape Town and St Helena. flyairlink.com

MONEY The island uses British sterling as well as the St Helena pound, which can be purchased at the bank in Jamestown. The Bank of St Helena virtual prepaid cash card is accepted at more than 90 merchants on the island. sainthelenabank.com

VISAS South African passport holders are issued a short-term permit (£20) on arrival. Valid travel insurance (minimum R5 million) is essential and will be checked before departure and on arrival. sthelenaairport.com

For more information or to plan your trip further, visit sthelenatourism.com.

THIS PAGE St Helena is a tranquil place, its landscape dotted with small homes rather than dominated by large-scale developments.

OPPOSITE A hike through the island’s densely vegetated interior; The small Georgian buildings of the island’s capital, Jamestown; Plantation House is the residence of the governor of St Helena but most visitors come to see Jonathan, the Aldabra giant tortoise. He arrived on St Helena in 1882 and is today recognised as the world’s oldest known living land animal.

make out the bay where I had previously seen a whale shark for the first time. St Helena is one of the best places on Earth to swim with Rhincodon typus , and between December and March, dozens of whale sharks congregate in the warm, clear waters that fringe the island.

You can see whale sharks while snorkelling, but the island’s northern coastline offers fantastic scuba diving too. With a mixture of historic wrecks, dramatic underwater topography and warm waters teeming with life, it’s perhaps no surprise that local dive guide Craig Yon is booked solid in the late summer.

Happily, Craig has a morning free to take me out fishing, and aboard his classic motor cruiser, Égalité , we speed out into the deep waters off Lemon Valley. Lines out, I keep myself busy scanning the skies. In minutes, I’ve ticked off Cape gannets and masked boobies, red-billed tropicbirds and dainty Madeiran storm petrels. Ahead of the bow, the seas suddenly erupt with the splashes and acrobatics of the pantropical spotted dolphins that are resident here.

But that marks the end of my reverie. Before long, the line screams and a yellowfin tuna is soon reeled in. Another follows, before a fivefoot wahoo is landed and quickly turned into lunch on board as we turn the bow for home.

That evening, there’s more fish on the menu as I wander down from the hotel to the St Helena Yacht Club, where plastic tables are scattered across the quayside and pans sizzle with fried tuna and conger eel. I chat with some of the locals I’ve met and gaze west at the sun setting across the Atlantic. Kids leap off the quay for one last swim and yachts tug gently at their bowlines. It’s a scene that feels little changed since Slocum dropped anchor here. But happily, it’s now a whole lot easier to drop in and explore the myriad charms of the island of Saints. t

Running The Risk

THE OTTER TRAIL IS THE PERFECT BLEND OF WILDERNESS AND HUMAN ENDEAVOUR – A TRAIL SO INTEGRATED WITH THE TERRAIN THAT IT SEEMS AS THOUGH NATURE COULD RECLAIM IT AT ANY MOMENT.

BY MARLI VAN SCHALKWYK

A LOW-HANGING, twisted tree branch forces me to stoop, and as I do, a Knysna loerie perches on it, its crimson-rimmed eyes momentarily inquisitive about this intruder. I had hoped to catch a glimpse of these magnificent and famously shy birds on my first Otter Trail experience and I count myself lucky. I see no sign of the Cape clawless otter after which the trail is named, but that’s entirely my bad luck. Typically, hikers would have five days to look out for these elusive creatures; I have only 11 hours. You see, I’m not hiking South Africa’s oldest and most iconic trail, I’m running it. I’ll sidestep the details of arduous training regimes, preparation, nutritional strategies and mental fortitude required to conquer 42 kilometres and scale over 2 600 metres of elevation in a single day. But to place it in context, it’s equivalent to climbing up and down Table Mountain twice over. Few dare to take on such a challenge, akin to the Comrades Marathon but off-road and a great deal wilder. However, experiencing this iconic trail in swift strides allows you to give it your all while taking it all in.

There’s no room for conversation with fellow runners on this gruelling route. Instead, I tune in to the sounds of crashing waves that synchronise with my breathing and thoughts. The landscape changes quickly between fragrant milkwood forests, bouldered beaches, waterfalls, ancient hard rock covered in fynbos and powdery soft sand. Navigating sinewy, slippery roots and ducking beneath branches, feeling the tug of the tide crossing the mighty Bloukrans and enduring the impact on my legs for over 12 000 manmade steps, I think of the original creators of this trail with its dizzying descents that end in coastal cliffs and, at high tide, a roaring ocean. Tough enough with a daypack but unimaginable trekking heavy timber for steps and bridges through thick undergrowth while balancing on rocky ledges.

Days after completing the race, nursing sore joints and fatigued muscles, I learn that a team of 10 created this trail. They followed routes once trodden by fishermen, mostly above the high tide mark and then returning to sea level, on which they constructed

the path. They were committed to building a trail that would stand the test of time, precisely measuring, painstakingly retracing steps on each completed section and imagining the footsteps of future adventurers. They camped out beside the coast and on the site of trails, often for months at a time, where they could continuously work towards completing the route. This was the late 1960s and the terrain demanded manpower and sheer grit. There were no shortcuts.

I imagine how this team would get on with their task, perhaps not talking much but focusing intently on the job at hand. They would push their bodies to the limit, at the mercy of the weather, and try not to think about the consequences of a fall. They would eat what they brought with them and drink fresh water tinged with tannins from upstream. The ocean waves were their constant soundtrack while the creatures of the Tsitsikamma forest looked on, most obscured by the thick vegetation. Beyond the physical challenges and triumphs of completing this trail, whether on foot or by building it, there’s a constant interplay between humans and the natural world. It’s this delicate, sustained balance that makes the route so special. From your first steps to your last, running or hiking, the Otter Trail will change your life. t

SURF AND TURF

There are several websites and social media groups dedicated to all things Otter Trail, offering tips on preparation, what to pack, where you can stay in overnight chalets, timing the river crossings and more. Starting at the Storms River Mouth Rest Camp and ending at Nature's Valley in the De Vasselot section of the park, the trail is regarded as one of the finest multiday hikes in the world and is booked a year in advance. The Otter Trail should not be underestimated and is technically difficult at some of the river crossings. Miscalculate your Bloukrans crossing and you could find yourself swimming – or worse, watching your backpack swept out to sea. sanparks.co.za

WHEN THE ‘OTTER’ SHOWS ITS TEETH

Once a year, the African Otter Trail Run, dubbed the ‘Grail of Trail’, attracts runners from all over the world to test their grit while the trail is closed to hikers. It’s unquestionably one of Mother Nature’s most gorgeous and most challenging outdoor playgrounds. There are only a few hundred entries available each year and they usually sell out within the first few minutes of becoming available. Not for the faint-hearted or the semi-fit. otter.run

High & Mighty

A QUEST FOR THE DARKEST

CORNER OF SOUTH AFRICA

IN A RANGE

ROVER EVOQUE

WILL INVARIABLY TAKE YOU TO THE KAROO HIGHLANDS FOR GHOSTS AND BIKERS AND OTHER NIGHT CREATURES.

BY PETER FROST

THE DARKEST PLACE in the world is down a lava tunnel beneath the active Piton de la Fournaise volcano on Reunion Island. Or, at least, it should be. Down there, guides play tricks on already nervous clients. Headlamps turn off and the blackness is suddenly so complete that you lose sense of yourself in space. Where you end, where the darkness begins… it’s Kipling lost in the jungle, pure panic, up is down, ghosts and terrors as real as the shallowness of your breathing. But darkness can also be a way of seeing. In the deepest black, nature’s most brilliant of light shows is revealed. That was my aim – and for that, you need to head to the high deserts of the world, away from careless light pollution. Topping the global hit list is the sparsely populated Atacama Desert in Chile at 2 500m above

sea level. Too far for a road trip from Cape Town, sadly, but happily, the Karoo Highlands Route is in my backyard. At a height of roughly 1 800m, with less than one person per kilometre, it ticks all the boxes. So, Highlands it is. The surprise transport choice is Land Rover’s Range Rover Evoque, that most urban of Landies – as useful out here, you might think, as Sarah Jessica Parker chasing grizzlies in Did You Hear About the Morgans? Except beneath the Sandton trust fund vestments, Evoque is every bit the capable SUV 4×4, supported by Land Rover’s armoury of off-road aids, including an electronically monitored chassis and suspension system, selectable drive modes, wading ability and hill descent control. In plain English, that means the ability to keep going when the tar ends – a common occurrence up in the high Karoo.

From Cape Town, a drive into the Highlands usually means a trek up the N1 to Matjiesfontein and then a sharp left up Verlatenkloof to Sutherland. But there’s another way, more fun and certainly less truckinfested. Power up the N7, turn off at Vanrhynsdorp, wind up Vanrhyns Pass and presto: high, empty, very much adored. There’s another reason to choose this route. It’s the quickest way to reach Stuurmansfontein, Charmaine and Pieter Botha’s cottage near Carnarvon.

This is no ordinary cottage though; the 200-year-old corbelled house is made entirely of stone, one of only a few left in the Northern Cape. Imagine yourself at the mercy of a Karoo winter back in the mid-1800s. You’d use all you could find to create shelter. And if wood was scarce, stone would have to do. These whitewashed igloos dotted along the R63 stand testament to the can-do attitude of a resourceful bunch of mad-as-monkeys mavericks. And Stuurmansfontein is one of the best. Charmaine’s design sense is less farm stay, more farm chic – found objects, period furniture and heirlooms, off the grid yet elegant. There’s gas for baths, fridges and a stove, and candles for everything else. It’s hard to describe Stuurmansfontein’s silence. Sarah Jessica Parker again: ‘You can hear your own cells dividing.’ And that darkness. As the sun sets behind the cottage, a quiet and darkness older than us

conspires to transport you back millions of years, before fire, before reason. The gloaming lasts only a few minutes. Stars in their trillions pinprick the sky, creating jaw-dropping light show impossible to describe. Make food, pop out to check on the display. Loo, outside. Book, quick peek. Each time, the spectacle is that much more advanced. By midnight, before moonrise, Antonio Pigafetta’s Large Magellanic Cloud, that eerie white ghosting in the night sky, is vivid spilt milk. The dwarf galaxy and satellite of our Milky Way is so dense that it overwhelms other features of the southern sky. And no lights needed outside, shadows cast just from the stars. Stand. Marvel. Smile.

After three days at Stuurmansfontein, anywhere is going to be overcrowded, even Sutherland, the remote stargazing capital of the country. From Carnarvon, the Evoque tracked a southwesterly routing through Williston and Fraserburg, by turns dodgy tar and challenging dirt. It’s here that it shed its Camps Bay heels and donned its Timberlands. Rock solid, always confident, it offered a masterclass in backroad efficiency, the 4×4 system set on auto, sending power and traction wherever it was needed, no fuss and certainly no locking of differentials or other last-century mucking around. Inside, the effect was of watching an Attenborough biopic – plenty going on but nothing disturbing the Zen comfort of your seat. It’s eerily quiet, cosseting and refined. That all this composure and ability comes from a tiny 1 500cc engine – albeit turbocharged and supplemented with a largish battery pack – is remarkable. I’ve said it a hundred times but it bears repeating: the internal combustion engine is at its very best right now.

In Sutherland, the evening sky portended snow. Two things happen in Sutherland when snow is expected. It gets warm and red OK bags full of groceries from Koos du Plessis’ shop start heading to the township.

Over at the Sutherland Hotel, that other Du Plessis money-spinner, it was dinnertime. The hotel, an institution in the region, boasts one of the largest sprung dance floors in the country. Farmers from across the Hoogland region gathered in the 1950s and ’60s to dance the

Stuurmansfontein corbelled cottage is arguably the best place in the country to get away from light, noise and neighbours. Land Rover’s Evoque is a fine way of getting there.

The Northern Cape’s appeal is manifest: excellent tar and dirt roads, time spent in fields as ancient as time and history around every corner. There’s Stuurmansfontein corbelled house near Carnarvon, the Victorian village of Matjiesfontein and Sutherland’s cultural smorgasbord.

‘Leave now or it’ll be a week. Fancy car, I see, but not fancy enough. Or can it fly?’ It can’t, not in the conventional sense, so down Verlatenkloof the Evoque headed, chased by Ullr, Thor’s snow tempest stepson.

I wasn’t ready to head home though. Down in the valley between the Roggekloof and Witteberg Mountains, Matjiesfontein, that middle-ofnowhere Victorian oddity, was also waiting for the snow. On the ramparts of the Lord Milner Hotel, the Union Jack agitated against the tempest. It’s a curious sight, all that Victoriana against such an arid backdrop.

Matjiesfontein was the regional British headquarters during the South African War and saw 10 000 soldiers camped in and around James Logan’s once popular spa town. Logan died before he could properly restore his dream after the war, a challenge taken up 45 years later by another maverick, David Rawdon. Fresh from his success with Lanzerac, which he’d bought for a cool R36 000 and turned into a goldmine, Rawdon restored the sophisticated weekend-away ambience of the hotel and rehabilitated the entire settlement into the bargain.

weekend away. Bosman-esque stories of matches made and loves lost are legend. Dances still happen today, but tonight it’s all about Scattered Links, a 50-strong biker crew intent on a weekend of brandy and bravado rather than ballroom. The hotel staff know them well. Ten years ago, the group was snowed in and it took four days to clear. There wasn’t a drop of alcohol to be had in the town, not for love or money.

The other group in the hotel is an excitement of UCT students just back from the Southern African Large Telescope. They’re going back after dinner for the evening tour and a bit of galaxy hunting, though the purple-bruised blanket overhead is likely to have something to say about that. There are, in fact, four large optical telescopes in the area: SALT, Lesedi, the one-metre and the 1,9-metre scopes. Public tours focus on SALT, 18km outside of town – they can be booked online and cost R120.

The next day at breakfast, Monica Bothma from the hotel is worried about me getting down the pass before the snow arrives.

He did a splendid job. Saturday night and the historic hotel is booked solid. Eavesdropping down the mahogany staircase, Marplelike, I realise Logan’s raison de faire all those years ago – to provide a fashionable bolthole for the leisure classes – remains true today. Two couples, four cars, quick check-ins and up the stairs. Snow is unlikely to darken these moods. It’s good to see both Logan and Rawdon’s dream still going strong all these years later.

That evening, darker even than the high Karoo thanks to the snow clouds, Matjiesfontein delivered up an impromptu concert. Somewhere across the railway tracks, Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto was playing full bore, drowning out the bass thumpers in their Corolla RSi’s. At breakfast the next morning, I asked about the music.

‘There’s no one playing that music over there, Mr Frost. We play jazz here, since Mr Rawdon passed. Mr Rawdon liked the classics though.’

It’s in moments like that that legends are born. t carnarvon.co.za, sutherlandhotel.co.za, matjiesfontein.co.za

HEADED, CHASED BY ULLR, THOR’S SNOW TEMPEST STEPSON.

Luxury living redefined on Val de Vie Estate

This exquisite home, situated amidst the scenic landscape of the Valentia Farm on Val de Vie Estate, blends timeless elegance with contemporary comfort. The modern design features clean lines and a sophisticated palette of neutral tones ideal for those who appreciate beauty and functionality. Expansive glass windows and sliding doors frame unparalleled views of the surrounding farmland and the majestic Simonsberg mountain.

The home boasts four spacious en-suite bedrooms, each designed as a private retreat. The primary suite features a private terrace with serene views, while additional bedrooms offer luxury finishes and en-suite bathrooms. Outdoor living is equally impressive with an expansive entertainment area, including a covered lounge, retractable awnings, a built-in pizza oven and a dining area overlooking a swimming pool, making it ideal for hosting events or simply unwinding in style.

Additional amenities include a home office, a three-car garage with extensive storage and a two-bedroom cottage with independent access for guests or extended family. This modern farmhouse overlooking Valentia Farm offers a sanctuary where nature’s beauty meets upscale living.

Timeless north-facing four-bedroom home in a well-established area on Val de

Vie Estate

This timeless north-facing four-bedroom home on Val de Vie Estate is situated amidst an olive grove and framed by inviting mountain vistas, features a warm palette of ochres and weathered stone. The house boasts well-tended gardens and a charming courtyard that beckons you through double doors and multiple patios, effortlessly merging indoor and outdoor living. Step inside to find three distinct living areas bathed in natural light from expansive windows and double doors, creating an open and welcoming atmosphere. The heart of the home is its traditional Italian kitchen, exuding a cosy, inviting ambience while featuring modern appliances discreetly integrated to preserve its old-world charm.

The ground floor features a luxurious en-suite primary bedroom, complemented by a fitted study with courtyard access. The first floor boasts three spacious bedrooms, including one en-suite and a large pyjama lounge with sweeping mountain views. This home also has eco-friendly features, including 22 solar panels with an inverter and lithium batteries, alongside a central vacuum system.

The perfect family home on Val de Vie Estate

This large north-facing home in the La Vue neighbourhood on Val de Vie Estate perfectly fits a large family. It features multiple living spaces, four garages and a large office with a mini kitchenette and toilet. The kitchen is well-equipped with fine finishes and boasts a built-in pizza oven and a wine cellar. Three en-suite bedrooms and a sizable family pyjama lounge are located on the first floor and accessible via two grand staircases. The fourth guest bedroom is located on the ground floor.

Additional elements include a sunroom, numerous wood-burning fireplaces, a bar, an outside patio and a private garden with a swimming pool and braai pit. A separate flatlet with its own entrance features an en-suite bathroom and an outside shower and toilet.

The house has impressive eco-friendly features like a water filtration system, a 6 KW inverter with 20 KWh Lithium-Ion batteries and 24 solar panels providing backup power.

Luxurious north-facing four-bedroom home in La Vue on Val de Vie Estate

Upon entering this stunning home, you’re greeted by a flowing open-concept living area that seamlessly connects the pristine kitchen, cozy lounge and entertainment room. The kitchen’s soft teal accents create an inviting ambiance, while the entertainment room features a built-in braai and bar area. A striking double-sided fireplace ties these spaces together, adding warmth and charm.

This home also includes a dedicated office, built-in cabinetry, air conditioning and four well-appointed bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bathroom. All the bedrooms are thoughtfully positioned on the right wing of the house, with the main bedroom boasting dual basins, separate showers and an outdoor shower for those perfect summer days. The property’s north-facing orientation ensures privacy, while its location near a greenbelt offers stunning views of the surrounding vineyards. Sliding doors open to the pool area, with a covered patio perfect for year-round entertaining.

Three-bedroom contemporary home in Le Domaine area on Val de Vie Estate

You’ll find a spacious open-plan living and dining area that flows seamlessly into the enclosed patio as you step inside.

The three generously sized bedrooms each have en-suite bathrooms and ample built-in closets. Glass stacking doors invite abundant natural light year-round, while the living area features both a combustion fireplace and air conditioning for comfort in all seasons.

The kitchen is thoughtfully designed with a sleek, modern aesthetic that offers plentiful storage, a breakfast bar and a separate scullery for added convenience.

Find your peace of mind at this lakeside home on Pearl Valley Estate

This beautifully designed four-bedroom home, set along the lake with exceptional views of the Simonsberg mountains, offers a harmonious blend of modern architecture and serene landscapes.

The ground floor features two expansive, open-plan entertainment areas that flow seamlessly through glass stacking and recess doors onto a patio at the water’s edge. The dining room leads into an open-plan, fully integrated kitchen with a separate scullery and laundry areas, with direct access to the three automated garages. The main bedroom with a private bathroom overlooks the lake.

On the first floor, two generously sized en-suite bedrooms are accompanied by a spacious pyjama lounge. Large sliding glass doors frame the beautiful mountain and lakeside views. Thoughtfully equipped for load-shedding, the property includes an inverter, battery backup and 17 solar panels, ensuring uninterrupted comfort year-round.

Beautiful five-bedroom home in Pearl Valley Estate

The stunning landscape surrounding the home creates a sense of privacy and a connection to nature. A spacious foyer features glass panels that showcase picturesque views of the garden, pool area and mountains beyond.

The entrance hall elegantly divides the home into two distinct wings. To the right, discover a modern open-plan kitchen, dining area and living space, seamlessly connecting to an enclosed barbecue room featuring a wine cellar and bar—perfect for family gatherings and entertaining guests. This wing also includes a utility room, a cozy bedroom with an en-suite bathroom and a guest toilet.

The left wing offers a spacious family living room, providing a serene space for relaxation and entertainment, along with an additional bedroom complete with an en-suite bathroom. On the first floor, you’ll find four luxurious en-suite bedrooms, including a generously proportioned primary suite, featuring ample space in the bedroom, dressing areas and bathroom.

Two-bedroom Ambrosia apartment in the newly developed Polo Village Apartments II on Val de Vie Estate

This elegant two-bedroom ground-floor apartment, located in the heart of Val de Vie Estate, boasts high-end finishes, including SMEG appliances and inviting engineered oak floors. A guest bathroom adds convenience, while the primary suite is complete with a functional dressing area and a modern en-suite bathroom. The versatile second bedroom can be used as a children’s room, guest room or home office.

The open-plan kitchen, dining and living spaces create a seamless flow, extending to a charming garden that offers a perfect indoor-outdoor living experience.

Additional features include a UPS system, a wireless sound system and one designated open parking space.

R6 600 000

A Mad House

RESEARCH SHOWS THAT OWNING A PET CAN LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE AND REDUCE STRESS. WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL THAT TO MY BENGALS?

BY LES AUPIAIS

WE ADOPTED a brace of pedigree Bengals. They’d not settled in at their first home, and we thought they sounded grand, exotic, classy. Hubris, on our part, as it turned out.

Twilight, a black-and-gold striped mite whose real name was Purrissimo Princess Tigah Lily, and her brother, Christmas, alias Purrissimo Raja Blue Snowcloud, a snow lynx with crossed eyes the colour of Arctic ice, could not have weighed more than a kilogram each. In no way or form could I see myself calling them ‘Twilight’ and ‘Christmas’ without people thinking I was a little odd. They became Tigah and Blue.

They were strangely silent on their way home in their transport crate, but the moment the wire cage door was opened, they shot out and up the Roman blinds in the living room. Like a pair of hunting Velociraptor , they clung to the fabric at ceiling height and, accompanied by the cracking sound of unpeeling Velcro, the blinds fell. This was followed shortly by their next targets: a line of wine glasses (naturally, they chose the Riedels) and a delicate porcelain vase. We swept up the shards and put their behaviour down to teething problems.

They then took offence at their déclassé stainless steel water bowl and regularly tipped it so that the floor was awash. I slipped, fell backwards, a large lump forming at the back of my head. The Bengals looked smug and entertained. We were beginning to think of an insurance policy – for household goods and personal medical emergencies.

Blue took to stealing bread rolls, which ended up with us sending several deeply apologetic neighbourhood WhatsApp messages with offers of compensation. The local baker’s business boomed. Blue’s last known theft was a wallet, which we could return only because of the credit cards inside.

Someone quipped that the SAPS could use him for finding nicked cellphones.

We decided a pedigree labrador might counteract the feline terrorism. We found what was advertised as a gentle, sweet-natured one-year-old black female longing for a good home. Her name was Madelaine.

The pup presented with the perfect facial features of a young labrador. She raised her paw to my lap, eyes turned up with just enough white showing to appear both vulnerable and adorable. Game over. She would be our new spirit, our guardian, our faithful companion and all-round best friend. Plus, she might tame the two little savages. Theoretically, so far, so good…

In the first hour at home, Madelaine spotted Blue and lunged. Chairs toppled and a hat stand fell. The Bengal stalked off with revenge in his eyes.

A dog trainer, we thought. Solution to the disharmony. She was ferocious. Her first command was ‘sit!’ and we both complied hastily. Mads remained standing and just stared at her, puzzled. ‘It is the owners who need training,’ she said, spotting how feeble we were. She came armed with treats and indeed the hound was riveted, attentive, obedient. She sat. She redirected her gaze away from the offended Bengal, her eyes and nose now fixated on the treat. ‘Above all,’ warned the trainer, ‘never, ever let her on your furniture. Dogs must learn who’s boss.’

The trainer left. Dog lunged at cat. I retired to lie full-length on the bed.

Trainer 2.0 was from South America, darkly handsome and charming. In a Spanish drawl, he suggested we mark the ground with firm scraping movements, sniff the air loudly as we walked with her and show her that we own the territory. Sort of matador-ish but without capes and swords. The dog stared, and did I imagine that she gave a shake of her head?

And then something curious happened. A former breeder of pedigree dogs watched Madelaine drool long streams of saliva and remarked that she had a good smattering of rottweiler in her. It was her raised paw, erect head and straight tail that provided the next clue: pointer genes somewhere. On the six-month mark, she began to grow noticeably longer. From behind, her midsection swayed like an articulated trailer.

Perhaps it was because the cats sensed Mad’s humble mixed parentage, noblesse oblige and all that, but they began to tolerate her. Blue took over the dog basket and assumed the role of boss. Tigah relocated herself to an indulgent neighbour and visited us, her staff, now and then.

We bought ourselves a bigger bed. The labra-something settled down nicely. t