Vovo Telo in Cresta

Vovo Telo began as an artisan bakery in Richmond Hill, Port Elizabeth in 2007. The popularity of the small bakery led to the opening of a second and then another and another …

Luckily for me (because my own shop is located in the Cresta Shopping Centre), our mall is the location for the 6th store in Gauteng. I might just spend more time in there than in Tapenade!! I love everything about Vovo Telo – its food (working my way through their menu is an achievable new year’s resolution), its trendy décor, the friendly staff and above all the fact that a franchise manages to be so funky and contemporary. It does not feel like a replica.

Each type of bread (they prepare a huge variety of European style breads including brioche, baguette, rye, sourdough, croissants, pain au chocolat and more) is prepared from stone-ground flour and slow-fermented yeast. All are hand-shaped and baked fresh on the premises each day. You can watch the process from your table since the bakery is situated in a central position in the store.

 

 The coffee is gooood.

 Vovo Telo
Cresta Shopping Centre (near Pick & Pay entrance)
Shop U56
Tel: (011) 478 5440

You can like their Facebook page. Or click here and experience a website that captures the way the place is, rather than what it hopes to be.

Image credits: All photography by me

A Free State road trip

So…taking a road trip through small Free State towns on the 2nd of January, a public holiday in South-Africa, was perhaps not the best thought-out plan ever. Getting out of the air conditioned car into the 37 degrees hot dry air to look around towns that were essentially closed down for the holiday, was only slightly less exciting than planned :-). Still, it was interesting to learn more about the history of these towns and, as a bonus, the road back to Johannesburg from Britstown was quieter and less stressed.

The first stop was in Philipstown, where a school project to use car doors as art pieces decorated the outside of a garage building. It can’t help but put a smile on your face when you see it.

Outside Koffiefontein, we were lucky to see the unusual white springbok. By the way, the use of the springbok as the national rugby emblem of South Africa has quite an interesting background. In 1906, the first South African rugby team toured to Britain and visited the London Zoo. They were surprised to find a small herd of springbok there and some members suggested that they adopt the springbok as their teams’ nickname.

Today, Fauresmith is well known in equestrian circles for the annual National Equestrian Endurance Race, a 205km race over three days. But it is the history of the town that fascinated us. Not only is it the second oldest town in the Free State, but the first House of Assembly had to choose between Fauresmith and Bloemfontein as candidates for the capital of the Free State. The vote went to Bloemfontein with only a two-vote majority. It is also the only town in South Africa, and one of only three in the world, where the railway line runs down the centre of the main road. I loved the story of a local school teacher who promised his rugby team a “train trip” if they won. They did and the teacher then pulled the old steam locomotive train stationed in the centre of town off its tracks with his truck. Can you image the effort to get it back on its tracks!! A bit of welding was done to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself :-).

Jagersfontein is the oldest diamond-mining town of its kind in the world, and at one stage rivalled Kimberley in terms of importance. Mining was done by pick, shovel and dynamite and the mine is now the deepest hand-excavated hole in the world. Of the ten biggest diamonds ever found, two came from this mine. In 1893 a diamond of 972 carats was discovered and was called the Excelsior. Two years later another stone of 640 carats of similar quality was found and named the Reitz. Later this stone was named the Jubilee. During the mine’s lifespan it produced 9.625 million carats of diamonds mostly of jewel quality, but the amazing thing is that the experts say that a huge proportion of diamonds are still embedded there due to the inefficient mining methods used. 

In its heyday, the town had five big hotels, its own newspaper, a turf club and a social life unequalled in the rest of the Free State. I love the silver-painted lion-headed fire hydrants dotted around town - water used to be supplied with a unique system of coin-operated water pumps, using so-called Water Pennies.

Overall impressions? Maybe it is the fact that I was brought up in the Karoo, but the dilapidated state of especially Jagersfontein’s streets, filled me with a deep sadness. The interesting thing about finding everything closed was that it sort of forces you to judge a book by its cover (or, if you like, a coffee shop by its front door.) And so this was a sobering reminder that the things we build when things are going well, echo forward in time and must last when times are not so good. It was also a lesson: that towns are given life not by their streets and buildings, but by the people who live there, and if you haven’t stopped in a town, sat down and made small talk with a local, you really haven’t been there at all.

Image credits: All photography by me

Victoria West

Victoria West is a small town situated on the N12 highway some 100km south of Britstown, my hometown, where we spent our Christmas holiday with our family (read about it here and here). We loaded Daniel and his “oupa” into the car for a daytrip to explore this flourishing Karoo town.

Interesting titbits about the town’s history is that it was founded in 1843, and named after Queen Victoria of England, though later amended to Victoria West to distinguish it from an Eastern Cape district. The second Standard Bank in South Africa (as in, the second one ever!) was opened in Victoria West in 1856. I was also amazed to learn that the town has a small airport that was used until the 1970’s by SAA as a refuelling stop between Cape Town and destinations to the north.

But enough of the history lesson. Most people who travel through the town will have noticed the Trading Post and the Mannetjies Roux Museum housing the rugby legends’ private collection of memorabilia and photos.

The town, however, has much more to offer. The first way in which it fools the traveller charging through in a hurry to someplace north or south is the way in which the main street lies at a right angle to the highway, which is unusual, and serves to ‘hide’ much of the town from the highway traffic. This makes the main street much quieter, and serves to make it more charming, but also gives the highway travellers completely the wrong first impression on the drive through.

It has a beautiful collection of Victorian-era houses, many now converted into guest accommodation. We loved the Apollo Theatre, the only remaining Art Deco cinema in Africa. The theatre, with its 1950’s feel and red velvet curtain is the venue for the yearly national Film Festival that takes place in September to showcase the best South African independent films. Our day in Victoria West ended at the lovely Karoo Deli, a coffee shop with a variety of gifts, and which seems to enfold the Kingswill Guest House, which has taken a number of small houses and turned them into the rooms of the inn. It’s a guest house with a whole town block to itself!

Many Karoo towns, sadly, are slowly crumbling away to dust in the heat. You can see what they were, driving through them, but all that remain now are ghosts. Victoria West is escaping this fate before our eyes. Maybe it’s close enough to Cape Town. Maybe it has just enough momentum and people and things to offer. Maybe its people are determined to keep its spirit and charm alive. Whatever it is, we all wish them well. 

Image credits: All photography by me

Transkaroo Country Lodge

As promised in yesterday’s post, I thought I’d share with you some holiday snaps of a different kind…

Thirty eight years ago my parents bought what was then the Central Hotel in Britstown, in the northern Cape. It’s a good place to have a hotel, because Britstown is to within about 30 km EXACTLY half-way between Cape Town and Johannesburg on the N12.

They changed the name of the hotel to the Transkaroo Country Lodge and then proceeded to turn it into one of the most charming hotels in the Karoo. I’ll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

As a result, for my family, coming home for Christmas to spend some time here is a totally different experience than just going home to mum. Is it not everyone's dream to go home and then have all the comforts of a hotel at their disposal? Lazy days by the pool, with cola tonics on tap, and with every meal ordered off the menu!

Transkaroo Country Lodge
13 Mark Street, Britstown
Tel: 053-672 0027
Email: tklodge@telkomsa.net

For more info about the hotel, visit their website here.

Image credits: All photography by me 

Happy new year

It is 2012!! I hope you’re having a great holiday! Tomorrow its "back to work" for a lot of people, but not yet for me. I am still spending time in the Karoo with my family at my parents’ hotel in Britstown (will post about it tomorrow). When I say ‘Karoo’, this may not conjure up ‘holiday’ for a lot of people, but a lot of time was spent at the swimming pool, drinking cola tonics, sunbathing and reading – it’s exactly like Hermanus with less traffic :-). During one of our days in Britstown, we took the car and went on a daytrip to neighbouring Victoria West, and, like much of the rest of the Karoo, this is a town that you see absolutely nothing of if you simply drive through there on the way south. Talking about trips, we’ve decided to take a bit of a road trip on our way back to Johannesburg, taking in a few interesting Freestate towns. So, for the next couple of days, I would like to share with you our holiday memories. 

According to the ancient Mayan calendar, by this time next year it will all have gone up in smoke. However, my wish for you all is that 2012 will be a year in which you love, learn, live it up, and in general have much to be thankful for!! Remember to wear sunscreen, to dream and to travel (even the daily school trip can be turned into a roadtrip!)

Image credits: Motherland Design