This was the first question I was faced with recently at the breakfast table. Guests wanted to buy Sheshwe cloth to take home to Germany. With its German origins they felt a particular connection to this indigo blue cloth which has become so synonymous with South African traditional fabric.
MUST- SEE JOZI SITE – CRADLE OF HUMANKIND Guests who stayed at Liz at Lancaster recently visited Origins Museum and Sterkfontein out in the Cradle and came back full of excitement about our rich hominid history. I told them how I am constantly amazed at the opportunities we have in South Africa to explore our […]
RAINS TRANSFORM THE PILANESBERG NATIONAL PARK Having not been to the Pilanesberg National Park for several years, I was lucky enough at the end of last year to visit twice in 3 months – in October – when it was still quite brown, dry and dusty and again in December when it was transformed into […]
SA’s brilliant local Consol solar-powered light jar Whether its load shedding, power failure or un-notified “scheduled” maintenance, unexpected ‘lights out’ can happen on occasions. This gives us an added challenge here at Liz at Lancaster Guesthouse with some foreign guests not always able to follow written directions in English and others just annoyed by the […]
What’s the connection? What do these countries have in common with South Africa? Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Canada, Fiji, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Mauritius, Namibia, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Singapore, Swaziland, UAE, United Kingdom, Zambia, Zimbabwe ….. ……… they all have a Nando’s presence. Nando’s : a uniquely South African brand Recently I had a sudden […]
Who decides what makes a ‘World Class African City’? And on what basis? There has been recent controversy around Joburg using the line ‘ A World Class African City’ in its advertising and marketing. I came across Michael Clark’s article– brief but interesting – around what it might mean to be a “world class city” […]
The Shosoloza Express between Johannesburg and Cape Town We have had a number of guests at Liz at Lancaster Guesthouse who travel by rail either from Cape Town or down to Cape town. A recent guest wrote a review about the Shosholoza Premier Classe on Tripadvisor. She writes of booking through an excellent 3rd party website which is good […]
Midlands Meander, KZN I was lucky enough to have a few days break a couple of weeks ago – my locum was free to step in here at Liz at Lancaster and friends in Southbroom down on the South Coast had agreed to have me to stay for a few days. So I set off […]
Stories about and encounters with our guests One of the best things about running a guesthouse is all the interesting people we meet from all over the world. Cultural Explorer One such person is Pat Walker who runs Cultural Explorer. http://theculturalexplorer.com/ Pat, a remarkable woman with boundless energy and a wonderful sense of humour, runs tours to […]
Missing the point of representation: the controversy around Brett Murray’s Spear of the Nation I’m not going to go into the background to this work – there is lots available on-line . I have currently not had time and focus to follow this debate in any depth but […]