Dear Friends,

It’s been some time since our last newsletter and much has happened during our last busy season that ended a few short months ago in May! The beginning of our busy season in September 2007 was celebrated with the early arrival of a new addition to our Blue Waters family. Ntsiki (or “Smiley” as she is fondly referred to by guests), one of our housekeeping staff, gave birth to a baby boy called Asenathi (pronounced “Us-en-arty” meaning “Be with us”). Asenathi was born 2 months prematurely on 7 September and weighed in at 1.1 kilograms (a featherweight 3.3lbs). We are happy to say that he is now a healthy little boy, nearly a year old and fast becoming a “lightweight” contender.

Christmas at Blue Waters was busy as usual and guests enjoyed Christmas morning with the usual sumptuous breakfast spread of the finest fruits and cereals accompanied by Christmas Crackers, Party Hats and Mimosa’s (champagne and orange juice) to start off the day. In addition, each guest was treated to our annual tradition of a surprise gift to remember their stay by.

Christmas morning at Blue Waters		Marika's Greek Restaurant festively decorated for New Year's Eve
Bakoven and Blue Waters from Table Mountain (guest photo)		Ntsiki and our new Blue Waters family addition, Asenathi

We rang in the New Year at Marika’s Restaurant, the ever popular Greek restaurant two doors down from Blue Waters. Along with Marika, Frank, their families and a few of the local neighbours, the Blue Waters party at the festivities included three of our guests, Les (visiting from the USA) and a lovely couple from Ireland. Prior to Les coming out to stay with us, we assisted in planning his Southern African trip to Savanna Lodge in the Sabi Sands and the Zambian side of the Victoria Falls, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world - a must see!  

The start of the “Silly Season” (as we in the hospitality business fondly refer to the summer months in Cape Town) brought with it a number of new restaurants to the Camps Bay strip. For the coffee lovers we have a Vida e Caffè with their very addictive Estrela Blend 100% Arabica coffees available in regular, decaf and now also organic. For the best pizza in Cape Town try Col’Cacchio Pizzeria an Italian restaurant that offers 46 different pizzas (available on gluten- and wheat-free bases), 20 sumptuous salads that are a meal in themselves and an array of pastas. Kauai Health Food & Juices is popular for nutritious, healthy and satisfying breakfast, lunch or dinner. Kauai serves a selection of freshly made fruit smoothies, wraps, salads, sandwiches and burgers.

For those that know the Camps Bay restaurant scene, Theo’s Grill was replaced by Wang Thai, an outstanding choice for Thai food. Winner of the Thai Prime Minister's Select Award for Best Service Provider 2005 and Thai Cuisine 2007 and consistently voted one of South Africa's best Thai restaurants since 1993, Wang Thai offers the finest Royal Thai cuisine. Made from only the freshest ingredients and spices imported directly from its exclusive suppliers in Thailand, you are guaranteed an extraordinary culinary experience. Guests can feast their eyes indoors as they watch Thai chefs prepare to spoil with their masterful creations through their dramatic exhibition kitchen.

The Cattle Baron Steak Ranch has been replaced by multiple award winning Hussar Grill, which with 44 years of history and experience, embodies the very finest of Grillroom traditions. Their reputation for excellence stems from a real passion and commitment to serving only the very finest, carefully aged cuts of beef and game available in South Africa in a refined yet warm ambience. They have a pretty impressive wine list, but guests are welcome to take their own wine and there is no corkage charge.

Other firm favourites such as The Sandbar, Tuscany Beach, Summerville, Blues and The Codfather continue to deliver great food and service to all Camps Bay patrons.

The start to the season also presented the perfect time to re-landscape the garden. Carol and her team from Earth Time did a wonderful job of creating the perfect peaceful setting around the pool, with the calming and relaxing scent of lavender on the breeze interspersed with our fledgling olive trees and Solanum bushes.

The 2008 Argus Cycle Tour was held in March and, as usual, we were well positioned to watch all the action as the cyclists whizzed past Blue Waters along Victoria Drive with 8km’s to go until the finish. Spectacular wins and shattered records marked the event, when 35,000 cyclists from around the world gathered once again to participate in the world’s largest timed cycling event. Perfect weather conditions graced the race the entire day of the event and made for a fun day for participants and spectators alike. While the day initially started warm and became hotter as the morning progressed, the fog started to roll in after lunch to provide welcome relief to the back-markers on the route. The action started early in the morning when Barloworld’s Robert Hunter outsprinted the elite men’s breakaway bunch in the last few metres to the finish, taking his second consecutive Cycle Tour win in a time of 2h27’30” – breaking the current route record by approximately 5 minutes. Some twenty minutes later, 18-year-old Cherise Taylor became the youngest female in Cycle Tour history to take an elite women’s category win in a time of 2h50’52”. Lynette Burger took second place, while race favourite (Anriette Schoeman) finished in third position.

Sea storm viewed from our balcony in April		Aerial photo of Victoria Falls, Zambia (guest photo)
Proteas (SA National flower) growing wild on Table Mountain		Our USA 'SA Adenture' Tour Group at Cape Point (guest photo)

In April, we had a large group of visitors from the USA who booked out the entire Guest House. For most of the party, this was their very first trip to Africa and they fell in love with South Africa as soon as they arrived. After using Blue Waters as a stopover to catch up on sleep and acclimatize after the long flights, the group headed to the Sabi Sands for a week.

The group spent time at 2 game lodges being completely spoiled. The time at Savanna Lodge (see their link on our website) viewing the Big 5 was a highlight of their Safari, energetically discussed over countless bottles of wine on their return. The group returned to Cape Town and Blue Waters for a full second week and visited Cape Point, the Cape Winelands (to stock up on local wine to aid discussions), Robben Island, Table Mountain and the V&A Waterfront. The group really liked having the house completely to themselves and enjoyed breakfast in their ’jammies’ most days.

We continue to receive excellent reviews from you, our guests, which we publish to our website periodically. Thank you for all your great comments and feedback. Keep them coming. For those of you with wonderful memories of Cape Town and the pictures to match, please consider emailing them to us as we’d like to continue showing photos taken by our guests on our website and on the screensaver on the computer in the nook upstairs. There are some great amateur photographers among our guests. All posters and photographs displayed in the rooms and guest areas are by amateur photographers known to us, and we’ll continue this theme as we update our décor from time to time. In addition, we’d be happy to have poster copies made and mailed for those wanting memories of their visit. We are now prominently featured on Trip Advisor http://www.tripadvisor.com and are currently rated as second out of 20 B&B’s (Guest Houses) in Camps Bay, which is absolutely fantastic! We take your feedback seriously and continue to make improvements to the rooms and the Guest House. On the home improvements front, we have been very busy updating various items in time for the upcoming busy southern hemisphere Spring and Summer and here are a few highlights:

• All bathrooms have been re-tiled and re-grouted to remove the build-up that is so common when living at the Ocean.  Further bathroom improvements planned this year include the fitting of curved shower rails, with fabric shower curtains, to contain the water spray from the large shower heads.  We are also fitting larger opening vents in the bathrooms to help with the removal of moist air and to improve general air circulation.  
• As mentioned above, we have completely redone the garden and it’s now starting to grow and develop into a lovely tranquil and fragrant space for the use of our guests relaxing at the pool.  The garden is now known to attract “other” guests, including praying mantis, wagtails and a resident Hadeda Ibis couple who arrive most mornings to “debug” our lawn.
• We have fitted a new stainless steel spiral staircase from the upstairs balcony down to the pool.  There is also a new stainless steel handrail on the stairs above the carved Hippo’s, to match the new door handles on the front door.
• Our outside balcony features a new table and chairs set, allowing for up to 6 guests to enjoy breakfast and sundowners/evening cocktails, shaded by a large umbrella for those cloudless sunny days that we experience so often.
• All curtaining and hanging curtains/blinds that provide blackout in the bedrooms have been replaced with the very best quality materials.  Although not a problem during the shorter winter days, some guests would like to sleep in during summer and not be woken by the sunlight streaming in. 
• The rain finally let up long enough in October to provide a window for us to repaint the entire exterior of Blue Waters. The house now sports a new coat of “Diamond White” that, depending on the time of day, reflects either a brilliant white or hues of light blue as the sun passes over the house from sunrise to sunset.

Leopard sighting at Savanna Lodge, Sabi Sands		New 'Sundowner' furniture on the Blue Waters upstairs balcony
Our new 'hint of blue' paint and lavendar scented garden		Blue Waters sunsets just keep on getting better and better!

For those planning Southern Hemisphere summer breaks, please let us know if you’d like to include the private game parks or the wine region outside Cape Town in your plans, and we’ll be happy to assist you with arrangements. A photo safari is a must if you haven’t had the opportunity to experience this yet. We also work closely with a few local travel agents in South Africa, specializing in exclusive, tailor made holidays for the discerning traveller. These travel agents are able to assist with local flights and other arrangements as needed for your stay in Africa. If you have been to South Africa before, consider our neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique, and also Zambia for a different perspective on Southern Africa.

If you own an Apple iPod, bring it with you and you will be able to wake to music of your choice from your iPod collection, as all rooms are fitted with iHomes into which you can dock your iPod. The iHomes also contain an alarm feature.

Our temperature controlled wine fridge continues to provide sun protection for our favourite red wines from Knorhoek and Napier, while the larger ‘honesty bar’ fridge keeps the white wines cool.

We look forward to seeing you again.  Please do also let us know if you have friends or family visiting and we’ll be sure to say a special hello to them on your behalf.  For the more adventurous, if you have any surprises of your own that you’d like us to spring on their arrival (champagne and strawberries please?), please send us an email and we’d be happy to oblige and send you the pictures to prove it…

Please remember that you can check availability and make reservation requests directly on the ‘Accommodation’ page of our website: www.bluewaters.co.za.  Please send an email to me at info@bluewaters.co.za if I can help with any questions you may have.

Take care, hope to see you soon!

Phaedra and the Blue Waters Staff