About the author
Stephen Chapman
Founder of Make Travel Fair and Editor-in-Chief. I never need too much persuasion to up sticks and explore a new part of the world, although getting engaged last year means that it's not necessarily all about me anymore. My personal Blog can be found at stephen-chapman.com.

South Africa Day 7 – Project: Exposure content collection begins

Our day began with a cooked breakfast at Sani Manor.  This small 3-room B&B run by Jenny and Kobus on the main Himeville road, is a delightful place to stay, a real home from home and just steps away from a couple of the other properties on our list for the week – The Himeville Arms Hotel and Albizia House.

Wild Sky paragliding Bulwer

Wild Sky lodge, Bulwer / Photo by Stephen Chapman

In need of some internet time before starting the day, Jan and I drove a few minutes back along the road towards Underberg and picked up some WiFi at The Grind Cafe.  A great little print shop in the same complex meant that I could get all the remaining Project: Exposure documents printed out for the week which was a bit of a relief.  I made a couple of calls to confirm the scheduled times for our appointments that day and we headed off on our way.

Himeville Arms

Property number one was the Himeville Arms Hotel, a prominent establishment in Himeville.  We’d met the manager, Francis, briefly last night when Jan shot a quick pano in the bar.  All the cottages and rooms were opened for us this morning and we were allowed to wander freely through the grounds in the sunshine.  It was a nice start to our weeks work.  I made copies of some press releases and news articles that Francis had dug out about the Hotel to add to my content.  Jan and I explored the property independently, Jan shooting the photos and me writing descriptions of room types and facilities.  Many of the rooms have wood burning fireplaces which adds a fantastic smell of authenticity to compliment the smart antique, old english, country style furnishings.  We ate lunch in the popular pub that’s attached to the hotel.  Popular is an understatement, this is THE place to gather for some friendly beers in area, and the food is fantastic.  Their ‘famous deboned trout’ was my choice for lunch.


Himeville Arms in South Africa

Aard Lui

After lunch we drove the 35km back to Bulwer to visit Lauretta who runs a small 2-room B&B and takeaway in the town.  The property was built in 1895 and was home to the first school in Bulwer.  There is a fantastic dining area that Lauretta opens up occasionally as an private restaurant – a practice that has proved incredibly popular and successful just through word of mouth.  One look at the extensive vegetable patch behind the house makes it clear that good, fresh food is a central part of life at Aard Lui.  From the front of the house you can watch paragliders descending from nearby craggy peaks of the Drakensberg.


Aard Lui, Bulwer in South Africa

Wild Sky

Another of the properties on our list, Wild Sky, is just across the road from Aard Lui so we made a quick stop on our way back to Himeville to see whether we could complete some of the work today.  Wild Sky is run by national paragliding champion Hans Fokkens and is a paragliding school and lodge perched on a grassy hillside below the same craggy peaks that we’d seen from Aard Lui.  Unfortunately nobody was home and we couldn’t reach anyone on the phone so we took a few exterior shots and called it a day.

The evening was spent back at Himeville Arms sampling some more delights from the menu and consuming a few pints of the pale ale.

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