Blog - Agape Apartments

Cape Flowers and Feathered Friends

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Cape sugarbirds love to feed on the sweet syrup of the proteas and the birds are endemic to this region. The males love to flaunt their stuff and during the breeding season (winter) they fly about in undulating flight, clapping their long tail feathers like streamers. Equally impressive, but to be distinguished, are the smaller, but noisy sunbirds with their beautiful jewel colours. The photo above, illustrates the difference in appearance of these two species; the sugarbird is on the left and lesser doublecollared sunbird on the right.

Sugarbirds, sunbirds and other species like canaries are seen not only in in places like The Helderberg Nature Reserve, which is 10 minutes away from Agape Apartments, but also in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Harold Porter (Bettie’s Bay, which is 30 min away) but often in suburbia. Other favourite birds like wagtails, acacia pied barbet, white eyes, waxbills, cape bulbuls and robins also occur in our garden.

There are two popular colonies of the endangered African Jackass penguins (it makes a noise like an ass); one is at Bettie’s Bay and the other at the beautiful Boulders Beach, in Simonstown.

Blue crane couple with two chicks: Photo by Cheryl Grobler.

The blue crane, which is South Africa’s national bird, is another endangered species. These birds fly with heads and necks outstretched and are quite vocal. They indulge in elaborate dancing displays with stretched wings when courting. The cranes are found in hilly grasslands (Overberg), farmlands, moist valleys and lakesides.

The Western Cape’s water birds include flamingoes and waders, some of which migrate here from Europe and other countries in summer over thousands of miles.

A dedicated program a few years ago saved the black oystercatchers from extinction. So now, when you visit the beaches like Strand (10 minutes away from Agape Apartments) and Blaauwberg, you will find them on the rocks, harvesting oysters of course. Look out for medium-sized black birds with longish red bills as well as red legs and toes. Along the shores there are seagulls, cormorants and a variety of terns. On the other hand, Serious twitchers get their thrills from going out to sea per boat on Pelagic trips in order to see seabirds like albatrosses!

The elusive Cape rockjumper only occurs in a narrow rocky and mountainous strip of the Western Cape. It often shares its habitat with the ground woodpecker. Furthermore, the skies are often graced by raptors like Verraux’s eagles, booted eagles, buzzards and yellow-billed kites, which can be observed from your patio at Agape Apartments. Or you may just be lucky and spot a magnificent male malachite sunbird! (Biodiversity Explorer).

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens is a must for any nature lover and a good place to start. Tip: If you don’t fancy walking, you can always hitch a ride on the golf-type carts for hire.

One never ceases to marvel at the wonders of nature and of the birds in South Africa!

Guest blog by Cheryl Grobler; a passionate nature-lover and bird-watcher, who offers accompanying tours with guests who wish to know more about South African bird-life and flowers. Cheryl is also a teacher of English and Afrikaans and can meet with you in the privacy of your apartment when staying at Agape or via Skype or Zoom. We would be delighted to put you in touch with Cheryl or arrange an accomanied tour for you when staying at Agape Apartments.

You could also contact Cheryl directly:- chergrobler@mweb.co.za or on her Cell No.: +27 79 285 4478.

Day 106 of Covid-19 Lockdown.

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Agape Apartments subscribe to the strictest Covi-19 protocol and have welcomed business travelers in the last month. With the apartments 15 M. apart, with our house-keeping staff member living on the premises with us permanently and being owner run and adhering to the highest level of sanitation and health specifications, potential health risks are absolutely minimized. Your, and our safety and security are of paramount importance to us in offering luxury self-catering accommodation to our guests in a tranquil setting. Going forward we will continue these protocols and are looking forward to welcoming holiday makers soon again!
So, what have we been doing in all this time of lockdown? Apart from working on the increase of our waistlines, Peter is building a model boat, writing a new novel and Vanessa has been gardening and of course her social responsibility towards our vulnerable communities in the Helderberg area has kept her very busy.
It is so imperative to work with reputable organizations in this field and therefore we are honored to partner with our local Methodist church. Vanessa has been part of a team sewing tracksuits and beanies for the under privileged. In total the following was donated last week:- Tracksuits - 145; Blankets - 17; Beanies - 228; Jerseys - 54; Teddies and other soft toys - 104; Booties & gloves - 7; Scarves - 23. Furthermore, 50 stuffed toys were also donated.

In addition, Vanessa has been cooking lunch for the Somerset West Street People, making soup for various Soup Kitchens on an on-going basis and has also tied up with Rise Against Hunger www. https://www.riseagainsthunger.org/ whereby the church has supplied 2180 meals for people in need last week too! This is a project which the Coronation Avenue Methodist church is committed to and where we are now supplying food parcels from RAH to the vulnerable areas whereby the local communities are trained to cook these meals themselves and serve their own people in need. This project is run and coordinated by Vanessa in conjunction with the Methodist Church.

Any donations towards this Rise Against Hunger food program is highly appreciated. Donations can be made to the following account, with the Reference RAH. 100% of this donation, with the Reference 'RAH' will go to feeding a person or people in need.

Banking Details:- Methodist Church of Southern Africa, First National Bank, Somerset West, Account No. 53681047214, Reference:- RAH (Rise Against Hunger)

COVID-19

Fri, 10 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0200

Als Eigentuemer von einem Gaeste-Establishment hat man aber auch Pflichten gegenueber seinen Gaesten: und so ist es auch gekommen dass wir darauf achten mussten dass unsere Gaeste sicher sind, es ihnen gut geht aber auch komfortabel untergebracht sind waehrend dieser Zeit, und dass sie alle verfuegbaren Service-Leistungen erhalten in dieser aussergewoehnlichen Situation.

Zum Gluck haben wir ein gutes High Speed Glasfaser Internet zur Verfuegung, wodurch unsere Gaeste jederzeit und immer mit ihre Familie und Freunden kontakt aufnehmen koennen. Es wurde auch sehr begruesst, dass wir noch Deutsches Fernsehen fuer die Apartment aktivieren konnten. Ausserdem steht unseren Gaesten ein weitlaufender Garten mit grossem Pool zur Verfuegung wo sich alle gut aufhalten, sonnen und erholen koennen. Also mehr als genug Platz um die vorgeschriebenen 1,5 bis 2,0 Meter Abstand von anderen zu halten!

Rosemarie und Petra sind gemeldet bei der Deutschen Botschaft und bekommen taeglich Informationen ueber die Evakuierungsfluege von Deutschen aus Sued Afrika. 2200 Deutsche sind schon aus Suedafrika evakuiert worden, aber seit gestern sind noch immer ueber 4000 auf der Liste die noch hier gestrandet sind. Die Leute waren aufgefordert geduldig zu sein. Aber wie wir alle wissen ist das Deutsche Auswaertige Amt in permanentem Kontakt mit Sued Afrika um die noch Gestrandeten so schnell wie moeglich zurueckzuholen. Bis dahin passen wir selbstverstaendlich gut auf unsere ganz speziellen Gaeste auf und freuen uns, dass wir diese sehr netten Damen noch fuer eine Zeit bei uns in den Agape Apartments betreuen durften.

Hierzu ein kurzer Bericht von unseren Gaesten:-

Vanessa und Peter sind perfekte Gastgeber auch in schwierigen Zeiten.

Wir wurden von unseren Gastgebern am Helderberg, einer wunderschönen Gegend von Somerset West, sehr nett und liebevoll empfangen. Unser Appartement mit direktem Zugang zum Pool und zum gepflegten Garten ist wunderschön, liebevoll eingerichtet und sehr geräumig. Der Blick von der Terasse auf den Ozean ist einfach fantastisch und unbeschreiblich schön. Auch der Service lässt nichts zu wünschen übrig.

Nach 12 wünderschönen und erlebnisreichen Urlaubstagen traf uns - wie alle hier- wegen der Coronakrise der Lockdown. Und jetzt erweist sich wahre, liebevolle und fürsorgliche Gastreundschaft. Besser kann man es sich nicht vorstellen und wünschen.

Vanessa war uns jeder Zeit und bei allen Problemen - großen und kleinen- behilflich und hat sich aufmunternd und fürsorglich um uns gekümmert.

Hier ist ein Ort, an dem man sich auch in schwierigen Situationen sehr wohl und geborgen fühlen kann, wir danken euch herzlich für alles, was ihr für uns getan habt. Wir kommen auf jeden Fall zurück.

In Dankbarkeit

Rosemarie und Petra

2019 Is here and so is Agape Apartments

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Who is talking of cooking? Of course it is great to stand in front of the induction stove and AEG hot air oven, but not for New Year! One of the fantastic pros when staying in a cosmopolitan town with loads of international influences and cuisines, you can simply pop out to the many deli's, restaurants, specialty stores or markets and collect some amazing food, whatever tickles your fancy, for the special event. Our choice was to enjoy delectable sushi, collected from Oceans 8 Seafood and Sushi Restaurant in Somerset West as well as from the Food Lover's Market. We prepared the salmon and tuna sashimi ourselves and enjoyed an outstanding dinner on our patio at Agape Apartments, watching the sun set over False Bay.

Lunch at the renowned Rust en Vrede Wine Estate, under the great oaks on Sunday, secured an excellent Jean Engelbrecht box of 6 bottles of 2018 Donkiesbaai Steen, which was perfectly paired to the sushi. I will leave it up to your imagination of how many bottles are left ....

A great bottle of Graham Beck MCC Brut Pinot Noir Chardonnay saw us into the New Year, whilst watching the display of fireworks over Strand and Gordon's Bay.

Whether it is a special occasion or whether one just wants to enjoy the freedom of staying in a luxury self-catering apartment, there are truly so many advantages of becoming one of the locals, shopping where it is the In Thing to do and to simply enjoy the good South African lifestyle. Of course we all love to go to the many outstanding restaurants which surround Agape Apartments, but it was really great, not quite foraging for our dinner, but choosing outstanding ingredients to be enjoyed in the most spectacular setting.