Elgin

Friday. A fat frothy haze hanging off a warming Elgin afternoon. Just enough dusted farm track at the end of the journey to make you feel like you’re doing a roadtrip. I pasted the Tom Tom on the windscreen just incase. A collection of vintage airstreams perched on the pined slopes reeking of design. I want to use words like considered, crafted, trend. The scandinavian Grolsch Bar, an expanse of light, air and exposed steel that fell from the feature pages of the MARK Architectural. Joroleman styled letterbox flags raised as signposts leading you to cabins dubbed Digit, Metalmorphasis, A Yellow Submarine, The Secret Lives of Plants, and maybe even a wrestling adventure in Dirkie Sanchez. The blend and balance of straw bails, apple stacks, mountain bike racks and lumper jack long sleeves. Even something a simple as re-stacking the firewood from a wheel barrow becomes part of the aesthetic.

Elgin is a small corner of the Cape that was left untended, unnoticed. Elgin to most people was the Farmstore you stopped off to get snacks on the way up to Plett or Hermanus. A previously liquidated farm turned into opportunity by the business and design savy Duo that brought you Grand Daddy, Old Biscuit Mill and Daddy Long Legs. They’re connecting a piece of forest with some of cape town finest creatives, wielding some strong ideas on environmental design and micro-business in the process. It’s a subtle but slick operation. I didn’t want to leave. Sitting back on the pool deck, sipping an ice cold Grolsch swingtop and watching the afternoon soak up the last of the week. Feeling like I’ve tasted another slice of Cape Town heaven.