Walter Battiss Art Gallery

Situated just down the road from the Somerset East Museum in the Karoo town of Somerset East, one will find the Walter Battiss Art Gallery. Anybody involved in the South African art industry would know who Walter Battiss was. Walter Whall Battiss was born in Somerset East on 6 January 1906 (died 20 Aug 1982) and is generally considered as South Africa's foremost abstract painter. From 1938 Battiss paid several visits to Europe where he met various successful poets and painters. It was during this time that he forged a lasting friendship with non other than Pablo Picasso.

The gallery was opened by Battiss in 1981 and is housed in an English officers' mess which was built in the early days of Somerset, and once belonged to the Battiss family. The gallery houses the largest collection of Battiss' work in Africa, and was fully restored in 1999.

Somerset East Museum

Spending the weekend in Somerset East a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to explore a town which I didn't know very well. One of the main attractions in Somerset East is the Somerset East Museum, also known as The Old Parsonage Museum. The museum is situated just outside town on the slopes of the Boschberg Mountain .

Shortly after the establishment of the town of Somerset, 1825, land on the slopes of the mountain was given to the Wesleyan missionaries for a chapel and graveyard. The chapel was completed and consecrated in 1828, but a few years later the building and surrounding land were transferred to the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1835 the chapel was converted into a parsonage and during the 105 years the building was used as a parsonage, four ministers lived there. In 1971 this example of a Georgian manor house was made available as a museum which was inaugurated during the celebration of the town's 150th anniversary 1975.

Most of the museum's exhibits are recreations of rooms as it would have looked in the 1800's. Upstairs is an exhibit featuring the Slagternek hanging which I will feature within the next couple of days. During our visit Drama Princess was very interested in the Springbok and Blesbok skins used as mats in the kitchen and study.

For more information, visit the Somerset East Tourism website.

Sunrise swimmer

Last Sunday at the Ironman South Africa event here in Port Elizabeth I snapped this pic of one of the competitors who got to the start a couple of minutes late. All the other competitors were in the water on the swimming leg already when this guy came strolling by quite casually as he was putting on his goggles.

For more magnificent views of the sky, visit the Skywatch.

Angler and Antelope Guest House

A weekend or two ago we spent the weekend in Somerset East at the guest house of a friend. The Angler and Antelope is situated in the heart of this quaint Karoo town and is truly worthy of its 4 star status. The property consist of a seven room guesthouse as well as a self catering unit called Fisherman's Cottage. A unique feature on the property is the St Francis Culinary Centre which acts as the guest house's lounge, dining room, pub and kitchen. The centre is situated in Somerset East's first Roman Catholic Church which was built in 1906 and serves wholesome country cooking like Karoo lamb and freshly caught trout.

Each of the bedrooms were individually decorated in a tastefully yet practical way by owners Alan and Annabelle Hobson. The rooms are all fitted with air conditioning for the hot summers and are kitted with goosedown duvets and pillows along with mohair blankets for the chilly winters.

The old presbytery has been converted into the self-catering Fisherman's Cottage. The cottage can sleep 6 people in it's three bedrooms and has a fully equipped kitchen. We stayed in the cottage during our visit and it was ideal for us to enjoy the luxury of the guest house but to still have our own space with the Rugrats.

Alan is an accredited fly fishing guide and can take visitors into the surrounding area for fly fishing excursions. He has access to private dams and waters and will show you that there are more to the dry Karoo than fossil fish. Alan even has a fully stocked fly fishing shop set up in the old confessional in one of the vestries of the building. Unfortunately on the weekend we visited the Hobsons played host to a function in the St Francis and Alan was unable to show me the art of fly fishing. That will have to wait for my next visit and will be another story. A fishy one I hope.

Tsitsikamma coastline - 500th post

Late afternoon scene on the Tsitsikamma coast.

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Today is the 500th post on this blog. When I started the blog it was intended to just be a place to show off my photos and the place I live in. Since then it has evolved a little bit and has also become what I would like to call an unofficial photographic guide to South Africa, it's places and nature.

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Often I wonder if it is worth all the effort if I look at posts with only 2 or 3 comments, but if I check out Google Analytics I do find that the blog gets a lot more hits than the comments would suggest. It would be nice though to get a couple more comments. To my regular followers, thank you for your continued visits and support; and to those who stumble on this for the first time, I hope you will become a regular and pop in to say hi every now and then. Here is to the next 500 posts.

Spider lilies

Last year in March I excitedly posted about my White Spider Lilies flowering for the first time. This year the end of March came and there were no flowers. I traveled down the Garden Route at that time and found flowering spider lilies at Fancourt outside George. I was very disappointed that mine decided not to flower this year.

That was until last week when I noticed that they started to flower. I am really chuffed. Problem now is that I thing I should take them out the pot and put them in the ground. I'm just afraid that they may decide not to flower next year. I may just attempt it though.

Schoemanshoek

Schoemanshoek is a fertile valley just outside Oudtshoorn on the way to the Cango Caves. The area is mainly a farming area with ostriches and tobacco being farmed here historically. Even though most of the farmers in the valley still farm with ostriches and some crops, most have developed guest houses and restaurants on their properties.

The nice thing about staying in Schoemanshoek is that visitors are right out in farming are. Most establishments are decorated with antiques while visitors get real farming hospitality with just about all the establishments dishing up ostrich steak in the evenings, served by the owners themselves.