Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

A most bizarre media report was posted by Eye Witness News, in stating that Lianne Burton, the Marketing Manager and media spokesperson of Cape Town Tourism, the city’s tourism body, is happy that Cape Town is seeing fewer tourists this summer season, and that they are going to other more affordable cities such as Durban.

Burton told Eye Witness News that Cape Town Tourism is “…pleased high-end tourists were choosing to spend their festive season holidays in the Mother City”.   Burton also said that “the city needs so-called ‘quality tourists’ who spend more cash.”   The report continues: “Burton said Cape Town Tourism was not distressed thousands of local travellers apparently chose to flock to seemingly more affordable areas in KwaZulu-Natal and other parts of the country, instead of travelling to the Cape.”   Burton is reported to have said: “We can’t pack people in by the thousands.  I think Cape Town and Durban are slightly different, we certainly aren’t aiming for quantity”.   

What is interesting is the public reprimand Cape Town Tourism Board member Nils Heckscher, GM of the Winchester Mansions Hotel in Sea Point, has given Burton, who said that every prospective tourist is essential.  He is reported to have said:”To turn around and say,’We don’t want this tourist or that tourist’ is an arrogance that we can ill-afford”.

Cape Town Tourism has been appointed by the City of Cape Town to market Cape Town.   Both Belinda van Niekerk, the acting-CEO of Cape Town Tourism, and Burton, were unavailable for comment this morning, as they have given themselves and most of the Cape Town Tourism staff the day off, according to the switchboard, on this the busiest tourism day of the whole year!

See the report at www.eyewitnessnews.co.za

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Ivanka Trump, daughter of Donald and Ivana Trump, has been honeymooning in South Africa with her husband Jared Kushner.   Due to the power of social medium Twitter, her travels around Southern Africa are documented for all her 613 000 Twitter followers to read.  Fashion and celebrity blogs are following her trip too, creating exposure for South Africa which money could not buy.

Her first stop was in the Winelands :   “Wandering in the Paarl area of Cape Town.  Just visited the Backsberg vineyard.  A terrific afternoon…..”   She took a photograph of her  Winelands trip as well :   ”A gorgeous view of the vineyard http://tweetphoto.com/7015625”

She then went on a safari, and sent the following Tweet : “Our first day of safari and we’ve already spotted 2 lionesses, 10 hippos, 3 rhinos, 3 giraffes and a group of baboons! What an adventure!”   She also photographed a lioness: “A lioness as seen from our Jeep this morning. http://tweetphoto.com/7375944“.

Yesterday, she continued with her safari:  We were so close to this leopard on our morning game drive that I snapped this pic on my Blackberry camera! http://tweetphoto.com/7496963.  Her latest Tweet reflects that Ivanka and her husband are off to Mocambique. 

Ivanka Trump can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/IvankaTrump

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Being a great fan of the Grand Cafe and Rooms in Plettenberg Bay, and The Grand in Camps Bay, we felt lucky to be able to book a table for lunch at the new The Grand on the Beach, literally on its own private beach between the Water Club in Granger Bay and the V&A Waterfront, during the busy festive season.   The restaurant has a waiting list of up to 2 weeks for bookings for dinner, but it is a little easier to make a lunch booking.

The first impression is not very grand, when one drives down a dirt track, with huge mounds of soil just left there from some earthworks.  Being close to the Oceana Club launch area, the smell of fish greets you, adding to the unsavoury first impression.  If you are lucky enough to park inside the gates, everything changes, with multi-million Rand cars parked inside, and the familiar Grand branding being visible.  One can see the beach, with tables and chairs, and even couches, on it.

The restaurant is set inside a massive old warehouse, with no attempt made to touch it up outside.  Inside it has had a coat of paint, and has shelves near the bar area.   A long steel table, maybe seating 30 persons, dominates the main restaurant area, over which hangs a huge chandelier, shabby chic with its new-like-old dust.   Pinkish cane-style chairs dominate inside, and the interior comes together with little effort.   A side section of the building houses a shop selling towels, hats, dresses, bathroom products, etc.

First prize in eating at the Grand on the Beach is to book a table outside, either on the terrace, or even better, on the beach itself.   Justin, the Manager, organised us such a table with umbrella - he was previously at the Camps Bay branch, and is a lovely helpful Manager who makes magic happen.   The owner Suzie Main was also there, and attracted a lot of attention from Justin.   He did make time to check on our table regularly.

Dax Villanueva (RelaxWithDax) was our guest and told us more about himself.   He grew up in Port Elizabeth, where his mother runs a guest house.   He studied in Durban and a lucky job offer brought him to Cape Town 10 years ago.   Dax started a newsletter nine years ago, about restaurants to eat at and things to do in Cape Town.   He is also a Blogger and a Twitterer (www.relax-with-dax.co.za). He does not like the question about his favourite restaurants, and sidesteps it neatly, saying that he has different favourites for different occasions.

The private beach of The Grand is about 200 meters wide, and has some tables and chairs, a collection of white couches (for the owner and her friends), a pink “kiss” couch, 2 porta pools, and some showers.  While it looks inviting to swim, one cannot get into the water, as ‘dolosse’ and barbed wire cover the length of the beach, without one seeing it from the tables. 

It took an unreasonably long time to get the table set up outside and to serve the drinks, with a waiter change taking place too.   One of the problems is that the waiters did not seem to know which brands of beer they stock - we got the full list of Castle, Amstel, Black Lable, Jack Black, and Corona, but every beer we chose was out of stock.  In the end, it appeared that they only stock Corona and Jack Black, but that they were fresh out of Jack Black, so that we could have any beer we liked, as long as it was a Corona!   Once our waitress took over, things moved a little faster, and given the beach setting, the slow service seemed less of an irritation than at a restaurant where one expected to leave more quickly.   In fact we lost track of time, sittting on the beach for 3,5 hours.     

The menu of the restaurant is the same as at The Grand in Camps Bay. The first choice starter of Avocado Ritz (R 75) could not be ordered, as the restaurant had run out of avocado.   The Caprese Buffalo salad was lovely, exactly how it should be served, slices of mozarella on slices of tomato, and some basil, drizzled with olive oil.   Dax’s Waldorf salad with bacon was served in a slice of lettuce, an attractive presentation.  Both salads cost R65.   Alex loved his grilled chicken breast with yoghurt dressing (R 85), Dax his Steak Bearnaise (R 130), and I the grilled calamari (R 80).    Other mains are entrecote (R 140), mussels and chips (R 80), line fish (R 120), sugar salmon (R145), grilled crayfish (R240), LM prawns (R 200), “Grand crayfish pasta” (R 200) and a seafood platter for 2 at R 695.    Shrimp tempura (R 75), prego roll (R 75) and caviar (SQ) can also be ordered.   Unlike its other Grand sisters, The Grand on the Beach has a pizza oven, and serves a large margarita at R 90 and a margarita + anchovies and artichokes at R 120.  We were not offered the pizza options.    The Affogato (R28), an espresso poured over ice cream, went down well. 

We are charged for a green salad that was meant to come with the calamari, but which we did not receive.  We missed the trademark excellent music compilation which is played at strong volume at The Grand in Plettenberg Bay.

Despite all the hiccups, the service was attentive, and the food good, so it was an overall enjoyable experience.   The beer stocking and supply needs to be addressed however.

The cost of 3 Coronas, a glass of house wine, two salads, the steak, the chicken and calamari, as well as one dessert was R 602.

The Grand on the Beach, off Beach Road between Water Club and V&A Waterfront,  tel 021 425 0551. www.thegrand.co.za

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

The tourism industry in Hermanus and related towns is up in arms about the new Cape Whale Coast Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO), a body which was formed more than a year ago to market the whale coast from Rooi Els to Gansbaai.  

Whilst the mandate of the DMO is to market the Whale Coast, with monies supplied from the Overstrand municipality, generated from rates/taxes/levies on tourism businesses, according to its constitution, the DMO now is opening up an information kiosk in Hermanus, from which they will be taking bookings.  To receive such bookings, members of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau, and other bureaux along the coast, must become members of the DMO as well, at an additional R 600 annual membership fee.

The irony is that the Hermanus Tourism Bureau had to send out the e-mail to its members, inviting membership of the DMO, offering such benefits as a discounted cost to distribute members’ marketing material at trade shows and for marketing and advertising projects, free listing on the Whale Coast website, and free brochure and collage display at the new Market Square Info kiosk, in competition to itself.   These should be standard benefits to members of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau.

The criteria for membership state that one must pay the DMO a commission of 12 % (this is an unusually high rate, as 10 % is the norm. Cape Town Tourism charges 11 %) ; that one must be a member of a tourism bureau in the Cape Whale Coast area; and that one’s property must have a departure or zoning.

This means that all existing tourism bureau members, paying a membership fee to the Hermanus Tourism Bureau of R 520 for a medium-sized guesthouse/B&B must now pay another R 600 to the DMO to receive bookings from the new kiosk, in competition to the Tourism Bureau’s offices in Mitchell Street!   The Overstrand tourism bureaux receive a small grant from the DMO, out of its annual budget of R 2,5 million, and they are therefore reliant on making up the rest of their funding from the commission they receive for bookings made.  This is a serious threat to their funding, in Hermanus in particular, as the tourism bureau is not close to the whale watching spots.

According to the Constitution of the Cape Whale Coast DMO, all business owners paying rates and taxes are automatically members:  “Member” means a registered owner of an erf on which assessment rates are payable due to business which may, or is being conducted on that erf and such rates have been paid to the Municipality for the previous municipal financial year (or current financial year for 2007/8), and/or a person who is paying rental on that erf”.  This means that all ratepayers are members automatically, and cannot therefore be double-charged!

The DMO Constitution lists 21 objectives that the DMO must meet, and one of them says: “to maintain effective tourism bureaus in the region”.  It does not have an objective to create its own tourism bureaus, or to be booking agent, according to its Constitution.  Its role is a Marketing one predominantly. 

If the Cape Whale Coast DMO is modelled on Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the provincial marketing body, which is also a destination marketing organisation, then it is making a mistake!  Cape Town Routes Unlimited does not have members, and does not take bookings - it leaves this to Cape Town Tourism and all other tourism bureaux in the province.   It is a marketing body and focuses on marketing the Western Cape province.  This is what the Cape Whale Coast DMO should be doing too.

A further gripe is that the Whale Coast DMO spends too much of its budget on publications and advertising, and too little on web-driven marketing.    One of the DMO’s stated objectives is to “develop and maintain a world-class website” - this objective has not been met, as the website can not be called world class.

Of even greater concern is that Clinton Lerm, of the Misty Waves Hotel in Hermanus, is the Chairman of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau, and of the Cape Whale Coast DMO, which means that any concerns that members of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau have about this or any other arrangement relating to the DMO cannot be fairly dealt with, due to the conflict of interests.  Lerm and his mother Maxie put up a strong fight to be elected to the board of the DMO, which raised many hackles at the time.  Maxie Lerm is in charge of the Public Relations of the DMO, which should not be handled by Board members.  The promise that a full-time CEO would manage the DMO, as per the Constitution, within a year of establishment of the DMO, has not been met.

The Cape Whale Coast website www.whalecoast.info shows another conflict of interest, in that the Lerm’s Misty Waves Hotel is featured in an ad on the Hermanus page, and is listed on the right hand side of the page as well.   Further ads for Misty Waves Hotel appear on the Home page, the Resources page, the News page and the About page.   At no stage since its inception has the DMO offered members of the Tourism Bureaux the opportunity to place ads on the website.  All other accommodation properties are listed by name over 4 pages, with a street address and telephone number, if one clicks onto a general Accommodation page. 

The Cape Whale Coast proudly lists Fernkloof Nature Reserve as the first of its “Resources” - the nature reserve has seen four bad attacks on hikers in the past few months, and the one on a Canadian couple, who are ex-South Africans, earlier this week has been communicated around the world, not being to the PR benefit of Hermanus at all!

A further oddity is that the Hermanus Tourism Bureau does not have one conglomerate website, but has various websites for accommodation, restaurants, activities, and arts, e.g. www.hermanusaccommodation.com, www.hermanusrestaurants.com.   The Bureau says it is working on building one website for all its separate parts, which would give it far greater search engine optimisation.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio : www.whalecottage.com

Salt Deli, a sister coffee shop to the Salt restaurant at the Ambassador Hotel on Victoria Road in Bantry Bay, operated on its second day to total shambles, not being able to cope with being full.   It is a bad reflection on the Salt and Ambassador Hotel brands. 

The Deli upset most of its clients who were not served for up to half an hour, and who sat at tables with dirty dishes.  To make a point, two clients got up and played “waiter”, clearing the outside tables.  Other clients went inside to fetch their orders themselves.  Some just left without being served!

When the Assistant Manager came to take the order, she informed us at 12h00 that the deli had run out of food, and that they were only taking beverage orders.   She was able to organise a croissant with cheese and ham, according to the menu, but it came “deconstructed”, without butter, in that one had to make it up oneself (costing R35!).  The cheese slices looked a few days old and dry.   While we were sitting there, we saw the Rosa’s Bakery van doing a delivery, spoiling the illusion that everything is prepared and baked at Salt Restaurant across the road.

A further disappointment was that no cooked breakfasts are served at Salt Deli at all, as they have no proper kitchen, it just being a “satellite kitchen” to the restaurant, the Assistant Manager explained.

For the amount of money that the Ambassador Hotel must have put into the renovation of the Deli, previously Carlucci’s, in appointing Stefan Antoni as the architect and interior design company, it is a shame that they were so badly understaffed and understocked.   The interior design quirks (a pile of wood with a top is the desk, the flooring is made up of a mixture of slate, wood and tile, and the ceiling in part has a wooden crate look) pale into insignificance when one experiences such chaos and poor service.  No management was visible from the Ambassador Hotel, to assist the obviously new staff in coping with the full Deli.

The menu is disappointing, given that Eat Out Top 10 chef Jacques de Jager from Grande Provence will be joining Salt next month.   Breakfast options are yoghurt and berries, bagel and cream cheese (with or without salmon), muffin and preserve, and smoked ham and gouda croissant (as described above).

Salads range from R 45 - R 65, and include nicoise, caesar, caprese, chicken and salmon.   Three types of wraps are offered, as are three types of unexciting sandwiches, three basic pasta dishes, soup (in summer!), a tart, tapas (including oysters, olives, parma ham and melon, smoked salmon) and cheese, meat and Mediterranean platters.  It was good that the planned oyster and champagne bar upstairs has not yet opened, as this would have caused even greater problems.

The management of Salt Deli should close it until they can train their staff properly, can appoint more staff, and have a better supply of ingredients needed to make the dishes they offer on their menu.   The overall experience as well as menu was a disappointment, relative to the pre-opening hype.   One may say that a new restaurant should not be judged in its opening days, but it should not open if it is not ready to do so.  The opening day had been delayed a number of times in the past 2 weeks.

Response from Neil Markovitz, MD of Newmark Hotels, owner of the Ambassador Hotel, and Salt restaurant and deli: “Thanks for the mail yesterday. Clearly a disaster as you have described. I am told that the lunch service went a bit smoother and a complete post mortem of the days disaster was discussed and analysed in full. Opening on boxing day was clearly not the best idea, but then again opening on in December was always going to put us under tremendous pressure.   Absolutely no excuse though and I apologise for the experience. We will get it right.   There is a problem on the that side of the road with extraction at the moment and the hence no cooked breakfast. This is something we are working on but a bigger problem to solve.”

Salt Deli, Victoria Road, Bantry Bay, tel 021 439 7528.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

A 2010 World Cup advertising issue has kicked up a huge controversy.

According to an article in the Cape Times earlier this week, the City of Cape Town is selling advertising space on Table Mountain, by means of night-time illumination, for the 2010 World Cup, at R 150 000 per month, for an 8-month period.   The City has to offer FIFA sponsors “first right of refusal” for all public advertising media options.

It appears that a City of Cape Town 2010 World Cup branding document offers Table Mountain as a branding opportunity, and that S A National Parks has agreed to the branding, but the body is denying this.

In a joint statement on 22 December, both the City of Cape Town and S A National Parks declared that “No 2010 branding or any other advertising or promotional event of a commercial nature would be allowed on Table Mountain”, reports the Cape Times.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

In the spirit of Christmas, we will only award a Sweet Service Award this week.  The winner is the SA Reserve Bank, which decreased interest rates by 5 percentage points in the last twelve months.  Without this decrease, most business and property owners would not have survived the rough past year.   While the interest rates are still very high relative to other countries, and the interest rate decreases may not have been a boost to the economy as such, they certainly prevented a collapse of the economy.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

Tourism and travel in 2010 will remain depressed, but travellers will demand more individualised holidays, and will be seeking value for money, in the form of good rates, travelling to countries that offer good exchange rates, and joining clubs that offer exclusive discounts, according to the website www.mrandmrssmith.com, reports The Star.

Stark minimalist hotels will be replaced with homely “granny-chic” ones, which are comfortable and “homey”.   “Green” travel becomes more important, with travellers checking out the “green credentials” of their destinations.

The Top 10 specific travel and tourism trends highlighted by the website are the following:

1.   “Cheap-chic holiday houses and apartments”, opening up more self-catering accommodation with higher levels of service and presentation

2.   Guest Houses and B&B’s will become “Boutique”, as have their hotel counterparts, to give them “come-hither sexiness”

3.   All-inclusive packages, with no hidden service charges or extras

4.   Hotels are increasingly becoming environmentally independent, to lower their carbon emissions - water from a local spring, solar energy, saving seabirds,  etc.

5.   “Bleisure” travel will increase, whereby business and leisure travel are combined, with business travellers wanting their corporate travel needs met, but within a leisure environment, or adding on extra time to a business trip, to which they invite their partner.

6.   Mexico, and surrounding countries, have increased in attractiveness as a luxury travel destination

7.   “Traincations”  will increase, with high-speed train travel across Europe.

8.   “Flashpacking” is backpacking with a higher budget and more style, closer to 5-star accommodation than youth hostels

9.   “Granny chic” is a move away from “look-don’t-touch minimalist” to “traditional-with-a-twist homey comforts” hotels.

10.   “Hip hotels” that are family friendly - they not only “tolerate” children, but welcome them and make the family holiday an enjoyable one.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

“Cape Town tourism plummets” was the dramatic headline of EyeWitnessNews yesterday, reflecting the decline in tourism this season so far, particularly in the Western Cape interior.

The report quotes Cape Town Routes Unlimited, which it mistakenly refers to as “Cape Town’s official tourism marketing body”, as admitting that “the Mother City is experiencing a dismal year, with the number of visitors significantly lower than in previous years.”   According to the report, Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO Calvyn Gilfellan has visited Western Cape tourism districts, and received feedback of varying tourism numbers, especially along the Garden Route.

The Whale Cottage Portfolio can also confirm this scenario, with November being a poor month in Franschhoek (32 % occupancy - normally this month is close to fully booked), in Hermanus (66 % occupancy - usually close to fully booked), and in Plettenberg Bay (28 %).   Only Whale Cottage Camps Bay in Cape Town held its own with an occupancy in November of 88%, yet down from 96 % last year.

The festive season period is almost fully booked at the Whale Cottages in Camps Bay and in Plettenberg Bay, the cricket match in Cape Town in early January being a big boost for Camps Bay bookings.   Hermanus is seeing the poorest bookings over the festive season, despite the area having a new Destination Marketing Organisation, but which is just not bringing in the bookings.

South African Tourism’s Global Manager: Product, Hanneli Slabber, states in her Christmas message that this “..has been one of the industry’s toughest years”.  She encourages emphasis on Service Excellence, in that it is the little touches that makes visitors return to a destination and a tourism product.  “What our visitors want in 2010 is something their money can’t buy.  It’s called Service Excellence - and it comes from being professional at what you do, competent in how you do it, and treating people with genuine warmth and respect when you do it” she writes.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Cape Town and its surrounding towns are seeing a flood of restaurant openings and relaunches, to such an extent that one wonders how they, and all the existing restaurants, will be full when the Festive Season is over.

New restaurants that have opened recently are the following:

*   Kuzina is a Greek restaurant in the Cape Quarter, which opened last weekend

*   Salt Deli opens later this week, in the space that was Carlucci’s in Bantry Bay, across the road from the Ambassador Hotel and its Salt restaurant.   Its interior is Stefan Antoni designed, with an eclectic flooring mix of slate, wood and tiles, and an eyecatching desk which looks like a pile of wood.  It has a staircase to an upper level, and the deli will serve oysters and bubbly.  

*   Eight has just opened at Spier outside Stellenbosch

*   Waterkloof restaurant opened 2 weeks ago at Waterkloof wine estate in Somerset West - read our review here

*   Vaudeville opened as a supper club in the city center a week ago - its show is outstanding, but it needs work on the menu and food preparation - read our review here

*  The Grand on the Beach has only recently received its liquor licence, and is fully booked for dinners 2 weeks ahead.  Lunch bookings can be made more quickly.  The newest of the three Grand Cafe’s, it is located on the beach between the Water Club in Granger Bay and the V&A Waterfront.

*  Truth.coffeecult is a new coffee shop and roastery, and has opened in the hard-to-find Prestwich Memorial center on the corner of Somerset and Buitengracht Streets, owned by David Donde

*   Warwick’s gourmet picnics, designed by chef Bruce Robertson, opened at the beginning of the month on Warwick wine estate outside Stellenbosch

*   Jardine at Jordan opened on the Jordan wine estate outside Stellenbosch at the end of last month

*   Camil’s opened in the Cape Royale Luxury Hotel in Green Point last month - read the review here

*   DeliCATessen has opened at Tokara wine estate in the Helshoogte Pass, and is owned by Tokara owner GT Ferreira’s daughter

*   Cafe Chic is a new French-style restaurant in a beautifully renovated and chic building on Breda Street in Gardens. Read the review here 

*   Bistro 1682 has opened at Steenberg wine estate in Constantia.

Restaurant relaunches include the following:

*   Sapphire is a new bar serving snacks, redecorated and renamed from the previous Baraza, next to Blues in Camps Bay

*   St Yves is the new nightclub in the place of Ignite in Camps Bay, above Pepper Club on the Beach

*   Pepper Club on the Beach is the new restaurant previously called Summerville in Camps Bay, above Paranga.   It is linked to the Pepper Club, a hotel/apartment block opening in the city centre (on Pepper Street) in February. It will offer Pepper Club hotel clients changing rooms, when they return from the Camps Bay beach.  Dinner Dance ”in the tradition of grand Old Hollywood” is offered on Friday and Saturday evenings.  The Group Executive Chef is Michelin-starred Carsten Kocke, who has 30 years of experience in Germany.   The menu contains a selection of starters such as Avocado Ritz (R 79) and Lobster Cocktail (R 98); crayfish, prawn and avocado, and Caesar salads; seafood dishes such as salmon, calamari, and prawns; steaks at around R 120 for 200 grams - R 165 for the beef fillet, as well as ostrich game, curry, and duck; pasta dishes ranging from R 70 - R 189; and desserts.  

*   The Raj in Camps Bay has taken over from where the Gateway to India restaurant was in The Promenade in Camps Bay, taking over the furnishings of the restaurant as well.  The Raj has sister restaurants in Johannesburg.

Other restaurant news is the following:

*  Top 10 Eat Out chef Jacques de Jager is moving to Salt restaurant at the Ambassador Hotel in January, leaving Grand Provence just 2 months after winning the Top 10 accolade.  This is the second time that a chef has left Grande Provence soon after winning the Top 10 award - Peter Tempelhoff left even sooner after his win in 2007, joining the McGrath Hotel Collection.

*   Table 13, a lovely breakfast and lunch venue inside the T & Co furniture and deco shop across the road from the Green Point Traffic department, is offering a 3-course dinner and a glass of bubbly for R 170, for the first time, tonight and tomorrow night.  They serve all day breakfasts, and lovely home-made lunches. Tel 021 418-0739

*   Overture has started its Le Piqnique picnics at Hidden Valley wine estate outside Stellenbosch.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com