Atelier

28/09/2020

EDIT: All fixed, apologies for any inconvenience ;)

Hello! Our emails are currently down as we have moved from Gsuites hosting, they should be up again within 24hrs. Please use add and use our alternate emails:

Bruce: [email protected]
Alex: [email protected]

Or: [email protected]

Thank you! 🌿

31/07/2020

We play this driving game where each bird of prey we spot is a certain number of points, the one with the highest score at the end of the drive is the winner and gets the prize.

And now with the easing off of the Covid-19 leisure travel rules, we're looking forward to raptor spotting again. Points or no points, it'll be so great to be flying on the open road once more.

31/07/2020

A lot of people forget how central Swellendam is in the Western Cape. Not only are we halfway between the popular Garden Route and Cape Town, but also within an hour's drive to beaches, wine routes, the Karoo, a number of pristine nature reserves and magnificent mountain ranges.

Here are some of our favourite weekend drives to the ocean, the weather this winter allowing for an all-year summer, it seems!

More reasons we live here on our website: www.livelocallovelocal.co.za

In celebration of the COVID-19 regulations that allow for intra-provincial leisure travel, we're sharing some of our favourite driving routes that take us to the ocean! 🐋

Whale season is arriving, and many travellers forget that some of the best spotting beaches are all within an hours drive from Swellendam, so next time you're here for a weekend be sure to include some sandy activities, what better way to spend a holiday in the Overberg, with Swellendam as your base! ⛱

Let us know what you would add to this list, or if you have some fun suggestions for us to feature in our next post.

Our TOP 5 lists are perfect for printing and sharing with guests, and they are all free to download, just let us know! 💜

Visit us at www.livelocallovelocal.co.za for more inspiration!

🇿🇦

29/07/2020

Some handy uses for our weekly "Top 5" lists of the best things to do in Swellendam!

Hit us up for more info - it's all free for local businesses to use :)

Our weekly "Top 5" lists feature all the best of what Swellendam has to offer, from food, drink, sights & sounds, but did you know they're all FREE to download & share with your guests?

We've ensured they'll look beautiful across any platform, from Instagram stories to handy printed DL leaflets, just contact us for your own collection!

We're open to suggestions on what to feature on these lists in future, be it superb wine farms, unusual activities, or other top quality local attractions, let us know, we're here to help! 🇿🇦🧡

🇿🇦

28/07/2020

This was a good day to be outside, we met up with Mischke who was staying at The Ecotreehouse in the Hermitage for the weekend and showed her around, we had a couple hours to walk the Duiwelsbos Waterfall and Kosie at Umshanti lent us his canoes for a paddle in the winter sun around the Buffeljags dam. Here are some photos from that trip, and a story that we published alongside it 🇿🇦

20/07/2020

Some stiff competition from our local tourism initiative that we started in June!

Business has moved online, and we've followed suite. Times have changed drastically in how brands communicate with their clients, and we're learning so much from this online community.

We're getting a lot of love from locals, with an audience growth of 32.22% on social media since we launched in June*. How are your clients responding to you?

Drop us a DM for more details, or visit us on our website to see what we can do for your business.

www.livelocallovelocal.co.za 🇿🇦

Share with someone that you know may need more exposure, or use to get featured on our Facebook and Instagram stories.

*SEMrush tracking against competitors since 01 June 2020.

17/07/2020

We're still working from home. But that doesn't mean we get to work through load shedding schedules, so now we use those as an excuse to get out and create awe-inspiring content to help show the world how beautiful our little town in the middle of the Overberg is...

Here are our Langeberg mountains carrying a dusting of snow after a weekend of mayhem, seems like a sleepless night or two from the winds resulted in something really magnificent to share with you all!

Follow more of our tourism work over at Love Local 🇿🇦

“Despite all I have seen and experienced, I still get the same simple thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow”.
~ Sir Edmund Hillary

Bright snow dusting the peaks of the Langeberg mountain range in Swellendam, after a massive two day storm hit South Africa and gale force winds whipped our sleepy little town.

See more reasons to love living local on our website
https://livelocallovelocal.co.za/

🇿🇦

10/07/2020

Alex and I met on a mountain many years ago. It's been the common ground for our entire friendship. A friendship built on following unknown trails into unknown hills.

This Covid-19 trip is probably the most unknown trail that we have walked so far. The two of us have been working from our homes for 106 days today. We still meet via video call each morning, over a shared virtual coffee, to chat about what we have planned for the day. Brainstorming the new jobs, (that we're grateful to have in this time) and crafting new story ideas for Love Local, our minds both immersed in the innumerable experiences that our town of Swellendam holds and our ideas on how to share those stories with the world.

We do miss our beautiful studio and our friendly neighbours at the Carlton Mall, we miss the daily "to-the-death" table tennis matches and the morning ritual coffees together, we miss the walks to work and the constant stream of nonsense studio banter. (We don't miss the scooby snacks though - we both live with bakers) 😉

But I think we've both missed the mountain most of all. So when Marloth Nature Reserve opened it's gates again, we were there, opening morning, first in line, rattling the gates calling Henry to let us in. Bert from CLOCK PEAKS Coffee Swellendam gracefully gave us a bag of the finest local coffee and a hand grinder and we hit the Plaat trail.

Making Clock Peaks coffee, using fresh mountain water from the clock peaks themselves, in the middle of winter, is one of those things that you can't really share in a social media post. You have to experience it for yourself.

Man, after two mocha pots we basically skipped around that mountain. ⛰

-----------------

More reasons to love Swellendam on our website: https://livelocallovelocal.co.za/

To get on our Love Local platform, give us a call 028 514 1429 🌿

🇿🇦

10/07/2020

Mountain biking is definitly one of our biggest local attractions here in Swellendam, now even more so with the new Swellendam Trails that are currently being built on the slopes of the Langeberg!

🧡

Visit Love Local for to see why we chose to move away from the city :)

www.livelocallovelocal.co.za 🇿🇦

It's a really good time for mountain bikers, not only those visiting Swellendam, but especially for the locals that have been celebrating the news of our very own Swellendam Trails that are being coordinated and built by Rohan Germishuys, Fleur Van Eeden and the team at PETRICHOR ADVENTURES 🇿🇦

You can read more about the project, and how you can get involved here: https://tinyurl.com/yb9fm33y 🍃

In keeping with this good news, we'd like to share our Top 5 mountain mountain bike destinations, as curated by avid cycling enthusiast Hiryu Nel on the The Good Life in Swellendam website.

Mountain bike trails and routes we've mentioned in this post:

- Our very own Swellendam Trails
- Dirt tracks and animals around Bontebok Park Bontebok National Park - SANParks
- Ride past blooming Canola fields Swellendam Tourism
- The gruelling 202km Double Centry road route Double Century
- Pristine forests and pro single-track routes at Grootvadersbosch Conservancy

For detailed, up to date information of the trails mentioned here, along with route maps and contact details click here: https://www.visitswellendam.co.za/mountain-bike

For those interested, there is a "virtual" Around the Pot event coming up in 8 days. Visit Chas Everitt Around the Pot - Overberg 100Miler - Presented by SEESA or click here for tickets: https://www.entryninja.com/events/71482-around-the-pot-virtual-event

All images and information from The Good Life in Swellendam https://www.visitswellendam.co.za/

🇿🇦

Visit us at www.livelocallovelocal.co.za for more reasons to love Swellendam.

Let us know if you have any ideas for our next Top 5 list, we're here to share what makes our town awesome! 🧡

26/06/2020

Look at this work of art that Simone Norton created for us!

26/06/2020

Our favourite Sunday drive routes around the Overberg, all within an hour's drive from Swellendam 🌿

🇿🇦

The weekends may not always play along with the weather, so that lazy Sunday drive out into a fresh Winter afternoon is all you need to cap off a weekend in the countryside. Here’s our top 5 drives that offer something unique along the way, drop us a line for more information on each route.

Mentioned in this post:

- De Mond Nature Reserve (between Struisbaai and Arniston) https://www.capenature.co.za/reserves/de-mond-nature-reserve/ or message CapeNature

- Bontebok Park in Swellendam https://www.sanparks.org/parks/bontebok/ or message South African National Parks

Visit us at www.livelocallovellocal.co.za for more reasons to love Swellendam!

Send us a message if you have a suggestion for our Top 5 list ✌️

🇿🇦

26/06/2020

Something special up on our Love Local page today. People sometimes forget the historical aspect of what our town has to offer, the subtle, gentle evening strolls around Swellendam on a Sunday cannot be described, but should be experienced 🧡

🇿🇦