Travel Posts
Banjoes + Mountain tops
WEDNESDAY 22 MAY, 2013 / COMMENTS [3]
This past weekend Dylan and I joined a small group of bloggers in Cape Town on an awesome weekend of hiking, eating and music, all brought together by Sedgwicks Old Brown sherry. We did a small part of the Hoerikwaggo trail. Starting at Silvermine and ending off on Table mountain. We hiked about 25 km!
Cape Town is beautiful, we all know that, but seeing it from those heights blew me away. Seeing the city and the ocean through the pine trees, and beyond that, the layers and layers of mountain ranges was something incredible! Such a different perspective and such raw beauty.
After our first day of hiking we settled in at the Orange Kloof tented camps, which were so comfortable and luxurious for camping style accomodation, and so beautiful (see pic below). After the sun dropped (along with the temperature) we all gathered around the fire place with amazing food and awesome folky tunes provided by the Black handed kites who are two lovely lads who are making some great music (listen here!). We had such a surreal camp fire night, sharing stories, singing songs - I felt like I was in American summer camp movie, but better.
Oh and an awesome video was made of our little adventure by Jacques Koudstaal - it's really beautiful and the music is great so have a watch!
The next day we soldiered on and finished off on Table mountain with an ice cream and a ride down the cable car ;)
Thank you Sedgwicks for an unforgettable weekend!
Ps. Our hiking guide was the amazing Binnie from the Ridgeway ramblers if you're looking for a guide to do something similar to what we did.
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Our weekend up north
WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL, 2013 / COMMENTS [6]
This last weekend Dylan and I shot a wedding in Mpumalanga at arguably one of the coolest venues in the country called The Cowshed. We took our newly engaged friends with us, so they could check it out and also to road trip up to Limpopo afterwards to go see another awesome spot we shot at in late December last year.
The weekend went by so quickly but we soaked up the pine fresh air and beautiful views of Mpumalanga and Limpopo as much as we could.
We ended off our trip in a beautiful sleepy little town called Haenertsburg where we stayed in a log cabin on a lake, ate local pizza and even managed to squeeze in a little shoot for our friends. We couldn't have done it in a better setting! I'm excited to share more of these pictures soon.
If you're interested, Haenertsburg is about 4 hours from Joburg and the placed we stayed at is called Stanford lake.
Babylonstoren
TUESDAY 27 NOVEMBER, 2012 / COMMENTS [2]
I can't wait to visit this place on my next trip to the Cape.
Babylonstoren seems like a place that belongs in a foreign country or even a movie. I want to go and drink tea in that incredible conservatory, wander around the gardens and pick fresh berries.
It looks like a nice place to get lost in.
below: a map of the complex gardens
Take me to Palm Springs
WEDNESDAY 10 OCTOBER, 2012 / COMMENTS [0]
I follow a lot of bloggers from California and they all seem to get away on the weekends to a magical place called Palm Springs. A place where all you have to do is apply tanning lotion and decide what fruity cocktail to order next. A place where the pool towels are pink and the doors are orange.
Palm Springs is a resort city in the desert within the Coachella Valley (Yup - Coachella), and it's officially on my bucket travel list.
Seems like my kinda place!
A Neil Roake kind of weekend
TUESDAY 19 JUNE, 2012 / COMMENTS [5]
Hello! I'm back from our semi long weekend in Durban. We went down to shoot a pretty awesome wedding and while we were there we stayed at Neil Roake's amazing Boutique Bungalows called The Concierge. We also ate at two of his restaurants, and bought 3 of his books we hadn't got yet so it just seemed fair to dedicate this whole post to him, i'll save the wedding stuff for later.
We had eaten at the Freedom Cafe before and own two of his books (Life is a beach cottage and Taste Freedom) and have always been impressed with the effort in the details, beautiful design and amazing colour. His hotel is no different. As soon as we checked into our room we left our bags outside and grabbed the camera before we destroyed anything. I loved this room so so much! I loved the cool Egg Design furniture, the wooden detail in the head board and the shower that feels like rain pouring down on your head. I loved the Colleen Eitzeen gown (from the Space - did you know that was his thing too?? he's one busy guy), and I especially loved the mini bar which has to be the best mini bar i've ever had the privilege of being tempted with (We totally ate the Wasabi Peanuts). Then of course the outside balcony which I wanted to steal and take home in my luggage - all the furniture and succulents and pot plants were magnificent! Take a look!
The night we arrived we went to one of his lovely Italian restaurants called Craft Trattoria. We met up with some friends there and had such a great evening, eating delicious spaghetti in a bag, risotto volcanos, and Bobs Your Uncle Wine, which is amazing inside and out, but slightly lethal if you drink it all yourself. (At the end the waitress told me she reads Emmajanenation! It was the cherry on the top of a good night, I love meeting readers, especially away from home. (Thanks for saying hi!)
A little bit of the Bobs Your Uncle influence seen above.
Lastly we had breakie with the same lovely friends Jade & Craig on Sunday morning at The Freedom Cafe, the boys got the fathers day special with "boerewors lollipops" - awesome!
Boeri Lollipops!
Cup & Cake Barcelona
FRIDAY 26 APRIL, 2013 / COMMENTS [7]
We're going to Barcelona for a whole week in July so i'm slowly putting together a list of places I want to go to. I Spotted this cute cake shop on Jelanie yesterday that is definitely on the list! How sweet is the branding and interiors? Looks like a nice place to have tea and rest your legs.
If you have any other awesome recommendations for Barcelona let me know : ) My friend Casey has already referred me to an amazing alternative guide to Barcelona called Le Cool which i've already download. It has a lot of very cool spots and things to do where you can avoid the tourists. I also saw that Bri from Design Love Fest has also just posted her own city guide to Barcelona. So many places to fit into one week!
Happy.
THURSDAY 3 JANUARY, 2013 / COMMENTS [2]
Hello. Happy New year and seasons greetings!
Hope you all had a fantastic break and are ready for two thousand and thirteen. I sure am. I love the feeling of a fresh blank page, and you can do anything with it!
We were working most of December but managed to squeeze in a bit of break while we were up in Limpopo for a wedding and it was seriously lovely up there. It reminded me a lot of Elgin in the Cape. Endless roads surrounded by forests of pine trees, beautiful lakes and valleys. We stayed in a little log cabin in the Magoesbaskloof Valley and drove around a lot, seeing tea plantations and picking rasberries. It was a short but nice break.
There's a lot in store for 2013, and travel is on the cards! On christmas eve we booked plane tickets! One flying into Amsterdam at the beginning of July and one flying out of Barcelona at the end. We're still planning the countries in between but we're excited! Winter is kind of dead in terms of weddings so we thought why not spend it overseas in summer?
Do you guy's have any big plans for 2013?
Image 1, Image 2: Mine
Taste Freedom
WEDNESDAY 31 OCTOBER, 2012 / COMMENTS [1]
While i've been rearranging things in the house I came across all our beautiful cook books. We love to buy cook books but besides for one or two recipes we never use them. They sit pretty on our shelves, and gather dust. So i've decided i'm not buying any new ones until I fully make use of the one's we have.
So on sunday I paged through a few and picked out some things I felt like making (and eating). I ended up making:
and
They were both full of flavour and complimented each other so nicely.
We have a lot of Neil Roake's cook books. They are bright and beautifully put together from the photographs, to the quirky illustrations and quotes. The recipes are also unique and scrumptious. The two above meals were from Taste Freedom (food from the freedom cafe).
Here are my slightly adapted recipes - make and enjoy.
Roasted Tomato & Mozarella salad
You need:
4 Vine ripened tomatoes
2 Tsp Caster sugar
1 Tbs Thyme leaves
1 Tbs Olive oil
Black pepper
8 or more slices of Pancetta
1 or two Large pieces of soft Mozarella (they suggest Buffalo Mozarella)
1/2 Garlic clove, crushed
Pinch salt
Large assorted lettuce leaves
Instructions
Heat oven to 180 degrees. Slap tomatoes on baking tray. Sprinkle with sugar and thyme leaves. Drizzle with Olive oil. Grind a bit of pepper.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile slice mozzarella into small balls/pieces and wrap nice and tight in Pancetta. Remove tomatoes after 20 mins, and swap in the wrapped mozarella for 10 mins (don't let the cheese ooze out too much)
Now lay out the lettuce leaves, and drop in the tomato and wrapped Mozarella.
This goes really nicely with the Flat bread.
For the flatbread I just bought some already made dough from the local pizzeria. I spread out two long rectangular pieces, rubbed it with olive oil and a healthy dose of garlic. Add some grated Mozzarella and anything else you want. I added some peeled zucchini slices. Bake for 10 mins.
Maropeng escape
FRIDAY 7 SEPTEMBER, 2012 / COMMENTS [0]
Last weekend we decided we needed a bit of an escape and decided to go to Maropeng which is only about 40 mins outside of Joburg.
All the balcony's and room's look out onto pretty much nothing - just endless gorge's, hills and Magaliesburg mountains. It's a nice place to relax, but there are also some cultural things you can go do. You get access to the Sterkfontein caves, the cradle of humankind and all the exhibitions at Maropeng (all housed in that awesome building covered in grass).
Where do you guy's like to escape to on the weekends?
I want to go to Dough
TUESDAY 17 APRIL, 2012 / COMMENTS [0]
If I ever find myself in Perth Australia, I will most definitely make a stop at dough! I love the whole vibe of this place. I love the rawness of the bare bricks and cement floors, and how the pops of colour complement it oh so nicely. I love the pink hand made typography on the dough sign and bright yellow high chairs. When I look at places like this I think I'd love to be an interior designer. It would be so awesome to come up with a concept and then sourcing all the lovely things to be put together. My dream is to design the inside of a trailer of the Grand Daddy Hotel/Old Mac daddy airstram trailers : ). You think they'll call for a redesign soon?? I'll be first in line!
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