Situated outside of the hustle of daily life, are ruins of the past life; but now you can drink some coffee betwixt these ruins, enjoy a freshly baked pastry or some sourdough pizza, and view the amazing artworks inspired by African artifacts.
In this post, I want to take you with me on this very interesting virtual journey.
I wish I could tell you that these ruins were 100 years old and were some special buildings, but I have no idea. I tried to find information on them, but they are most likely the buildings of some farm that got neglected and stood empty for many years.
In any case, these ruins make for stunning scenery in which you can enjoy a lazy weekend day. Mixed with all the artifacts and the art gallery, one can really enjoy the day here.
Without further ado, please come along with me on this journey!
Art Gallery
Before entering the coffee shop, you can quickly take an artistic detour. Today, the exhibition was contemporary photography; it made me really think that I should try and sell some of my art-photographs as well. But from here on, you can also begin to see the artifacts, which also decorate the gallery.
The smoking man greets one before one enters the gallery and the coffee shop. His face can tell you thousands of stories, I am sure.
Entering the Coffee Shop
One enters one of the ruins to get to the coffee shop.
The menu is written on a blackboard, you cannot download a pdf. When I worked at a bakery many moons ago, I also did this; we used to get fresh ingredients and this changed our menu.
When you place your order, you walk around the corner for collection. When you do this, you walk through more ruins with the amazing growth of wild plants covering the ruins. It feels so natural, almost as if this is what buildings should look like. I really enjoyed the overall feeling that this place gave off.
Whilst you sit and wait for your order, you can imagine yourself in a different world and time. Maybe sometime before our current hustle and bustle era, maybe one before the obsession with refinement.
The decor matches the ruins. One can either choose to sit here, betwixt the ruins with the smell of freshly baked bread in the air, or one can walk even further down the ruins into the open to appreciate the view one has.
The view is amazing. One can see the whole area from the slight elevation. The layout is perfect for bigger groups. One can also walk down the patio and sit on the grass below. There is really not a shortage of space.
We sat above and enjoyed freshly baked croissants with our coffee. It was really yummy and tasty, but the view just made everything better.
Artifacts Galore
There is no shortcoming when it comes to the many artifacts displayed between the ruins. I whish I could photograph every single one. But on this note, something interesting happened. When I stood there ordering coffee and taking photographs, the owner walked to me and asked me to stop taking photographs with my camera. It was fine if I took photographs with my iPhone, but the DSLR camera was not prohibited unless I paid the immense fee of R500.00 or $25.00 because they charge for "photoshoots". I have never heard of something like that in my life. I kindly abided by the rules. But here are some of the artifacts:
Buying Coffee and Pottery
The coffee can be bought but the mugs as well! They offer some really awesome-looking mugs, which I presume are made on-site or specifically made for them.
Postscriptum, A Video Tour
As has become an usual by now, I also took a video of the place and uploaded it to YouTube. Please follow along in the video, if you like to!
But in any case, I really hope that you enjoyed this post and virtual journey with me to a really unusual coffee shop betwixt the old ruins of a long-gone era. The growth of the wild plants on it just makes it even better! If you ever get to come to Gauteng South Africa, make this a priority stop!
Safe travels, and be well!
All of the photographs are my own, taken with my iPhone and Nikon D300. The musings are also my own. The video was taken with my iPhone.