Tag Archives: Twelve Apostles Hotel

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 24 January

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Malaysian journalist David Bowden visited Cape Town late last year, when our mountains were snow capped, and he enthused about the city, documenting his journey as ‘Cape capers’.  He was accommodated at the Twelve Apostles hotel, and was shown Hout Bay, Chapman’s Peak, Klein Constantia, Steenberg, Boulders’ Beach, and Bo-Kaap.

*   Meryl Streep has waxed lyrical about her time in South Africa, both in Cape Town whilst shooting ‘The Giver‘ and on holiday with her family in an unnamed game reserve, in an interview on the Ellen Degeneres Show, which has 3 – 4 million viewers.   A ‘highlight’ for her was being in South Africa when Nelson Mandela passed away, and experiencing the happiness and grief all in one.

*   The MyCiTi Bus route expands to include Hout Bay (with Hangberg and Imizamo Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 17 January

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Cape Town will see the opening of a new chefs school in February, the Sense of Taste Culinary Arts Cooking School being set up by chefs Peter Ayub and Angie Boyd.  They plan to become the leading cookery school in Africa in the next five years, and want to prepare their students for the hard-working, non-glamorous, non-MasterChef SA side of being a chef.

*   SAA has increased its business class and economy class fares to the UK and Germany by between 2 – 10%.

*   ‘Ordinary Love’, the U2 song for the movie ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom‘ has received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, the only nomination for the movie.  It won a Golden Globe for the same category earlier this week.   The movie cost $35 million to produce, and is South Africa’s highest grossing movie at R20 million to date.

*   Brenaissance has opened a new Wine Deck for wine tasting in its plum orchard Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 2 – 5 January

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*  The Daily Mail journalist Gary Edwards visited Cape Town just at the beginning of December, to tie in with the launch of the movie ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom‘, his first visit in 10 years. He found that little has changed in Cape Town, although the exchange rate was not as favourable as when he visited in 2003, despite being attractive now.   He praises the sunshine, and highlights his experiences of visiting Table Mountain, Cape Point, Bungalow in Clifton, Cellars-Hohenhort, the Twelve Apostles Hotel, the V&A Waterfront, the Coffeebean Route, Robben Island, and other ‘Seven Wonders of Cape Town‘, a name he made up.   He gives the beach at Camps Bay a mention too, but uses a photograph of Clifton!

*   OR Thambo airport was the largest port of entry into South Africa during December, and the airport, Beitbridge, Lebombo, Maseru Bridge, Ficksburg, and Oshoek had more persons crossing the border than arrived at Cape Town International airport. International arrivals were from the UK, the USA, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, France, India, China, Nigeria, Sweden, and Canada. In total there were 4 million border crossings, roughly half entering and leaving the country.

*   Retail outlets selling alcohol will have to offer free condoms and water too, if Continue reading →

Mother Nature hits Mother City and Winelands, floods affect Tourism!

Chapman's PeakMother Nature hit the Mother City and Winelands with a vengeance on Friday evening, with torrents of rain causing flooding and massive damage to tourist areas, which are closed for repair. More than 100 mm of rain was measured in most affected towns.

Accompanied by thunderstorms, the heavy downpours went on for hours, and the accumulated waters caused flood damage to many homes and businesses. Somerset West was worst hit, as the Lourens River burst its banks, flooding nearby houses, and the town received 200 mm of rain.  The 125 patients in the Vergelegen Mediclinic had to be evacuated when water reached knee-height, the patients being sent to its Stellenbosch and Panorama branches.  The N2 highway in the Somerset West area was closed on Friday evening, but has since been re-opened.  In Strand Beach Road was closed due to flooding, and many home and apartment owners were stuck in Medi Clinic Somerset Westgarages during power outages.  The X-ray unit of Strand Hospital caught fire due to an electrical short.  The scenic coastal road between Gordon’s Bay and Betty’s Bay has been closed due to rockfalls.  In Hermanus the local supermarkets were all flooded due to the volumes of rain.  Whale Cottage Hermanus had water come in under the door, the volume of water not able to run off quickly enough.   The road between Hermanus and Stanford is closed, as is the road to Creation wine estate*.  Our Whale Cottage Franschhoek has a river running through it, and thankfully it did not break its banks Continue reading →