The Summer holidays are almost over – slight chill in the air! Not sure why Reddam has different school holidays to the rest of the Western Cape – probably some reason, but we are happy, as still full this week! We hope that all our guests enjoyed their stay at Frog Mountain – now for general maintenance to ensure that all the facilities are in good shape – they take a pounding from all the kids, and adults that think they are kids!

We have had a few accidents, from a few guests that injured themselves on the foefie slide, to a child that was bitten by a scorpion – no snake problems, although we have sighted quite a few of our regular visitors this summer – Puff Adder/Boomslang/Cape Cobra. Do not panic, as these snakes have never hurt anyone in the area – they are really beautiful to look at. The gentleman, that injured himself quite badly on the foefiie, still had his sense of humour, as he asked to be taken to the nearest pub rather than the hospital – he recovered well and we have offered the relevant family a free stay at Frog Mountain to compensate them for their shortened stay – they look forward to taking up our offer.

Myself and Sam went on holiday to St Lucia/Kosi Bay/Ponta Do Ouro – I have mentioned in previous posts about our beautiful country. We had never been to Northern Kwazulu Natal/Mozambique before and can honestly say that it was an incredible experience – we did not realize how beautiful and wild this area actually is. In St Lucia, the Hippo’s walk down the main road and eat the grass in people’s gardens – not joking! From St Lucia, you can take a short 30 min drive through the Isimangeliso Wetlands Park to Cape Vidal – an incredible bush/beach experience – you actually drive through the game reserve and arrive at a magnificent beach with awesome snorkeling in the calm of the reef – what more do you want! Capetonians seem to prefer to go elsewhere – Mauritius etc, but I urge all of you to give this area a try – you will not be disappointed.

Having said all of the above, please still continue to support Frog Mountain for your shorter getaways. Our fishing dam is proving very popular, and this will be great during the winter months when it is too cold to swim – although, for those of you that enjoy walking/hiking, this is the perfect time of the year to visit us – not to mention the red wine round a roaring fire (free firewood)!

See you all in the next few months – special winter rates from 01 May to 20 Sept – only R650 per rondavel per night.

Until next time….

Farmer Pete

The Tilapia (Bream) have arrived – dam looking beautiful and hopefully the fish make a nice home and produce lots of babies! Frog Mountain is always progressing, and it seems that each year we add something a little extra to our guest experience.

Starting to cool down a little in our valley – 35+ degrees for most of the past 6 weeks – guests have loved the waterfall/river, as water more refreshing than the pool. Calves are growing nicely and we have one particular young male that is magnificent, and definitely destined to be a perfect Bull specimen!

We bought a 2nd hand golf cart from the liquidated “Pinnacle Point Golf Estate”, so our staff are very happy driving around the farm doing their daily chores. We also managed to buy a small electric scooter called an Evo 800, which is perfect to hop on if one (Mom/wife) needs to pop down to the cottages – this is besides the familiar sight of my father gliding past the cottages on his beloved “Segway”. We bought the Segway 6 years ago, and it has not given any trouble at all – a great invention and ideal for our purpose – they are now regularly seen at airports and golf estates.

The whole farm is looking great at the moment, as we have access to “first water” from the mountain – fields nice and lush, fish hungry, and foefie slide ready for action.

Remember to book for May-Aug – lovely time of the year to just ponder and reflect on one’s life over a bottle of wine – perhaps you will also be able to catch a Tilapia or 2!

Until next time….

Farmer Pete

A new calf, then another, then another 4 – six new beautiful Nguni calves in 1 week – our Bull (that since died) did actually perform! The moms are all looking very proud, and are being quite aggressive when going anywhere near their offspring – I was charged by one mother and had to grab it by the horns to try and push it out of the way – Pamplona has nothing on Frog Mountain!

Thanks for all your messages with regards to the 7 day fire that engulfed the Langeberg Mountains above Swellendam – luckily we were not in any danger, but lots of thick smoke and the odd piece of ash found floating in the pool. Fire is one of our biggest fears, especially with the rondavels all having thatch. Been very hot for the past 2 weeks – mostly around the mid to late 30′s – still hot and muggy at midnight – thank god for Aircon!

We have just heard exciting news from the son of the previous owner of our farm – he found Bushman paintings about 10 yrs ago – now to get him here to show us where! We would love to add this to the many varied walks on offer at Frog Mountain.I have been reading about people complaining about the use of the word,” Bushman” – we should be calling them the Koisan!

I have started running every morning at 6h00 – not easy, but once you get past the first 5 mins, it is the most beautiful time to run – I have seen snakes, bushbuck, frogs, dogs, babies screaming, dad’s pushing prams, and even the odd man ( Kosie from Unshanti nearby ) flying above me in his microlight – what a great start to the day!

See you all soon.

Until next time…

Farmer Pete

Is it better to have seen more of the world, or more of your own country? This is has been worrying me of late, as I have been lucky enough to have been to many different places around the world, but have seen little or nothing of SA.

You often see “bucket lists” that have been compiled by fancy overseas publications, but what about your own “top 10″ bucket list within South Africa. Please let me have your thoughts and suggestions – I do not expect Frog Mountain to be on your list, but please make us number 11!

We have eventually finished our “fishing dam” – looks great, but only problem is that it is too late to start breeding Bass for this season, so we will need to stock it ourselves to begin with. Any idea where we can buy adult Bass in the Western Cape? My fishing skills are non-existent, so please do not ask me to come and catch them in your dam! My brother, Andrew, just got back from a 2 week serious fishing adventure off the coast of Mozambique – I will send him and his son!

What is going on with the weather – almost the end of November, and still no sun! I see that we are due for another heavy downpour this week – are we in for a heatwave in Dec – I hope not!

Until next time…

Peter

We have all heard of Frank Zappa’s children, Dweezil and Moon Unit – it intrigues me as to what/why babies get certain names! Our children’s names, Julia and Charlotte, have absolutely nothing to do with any family connections, or anything else, they are just names that we liked. My parents, however, have got original family names – my father is officially Cecil Ernest Brian Kilpin, and my Mom is Janet Winifred Ione Kilpin – why oh why!

We come across very strange names (to us English folk) here in the country – it is very common to name your baby after a combination of the parents names – such as Chrishanda ( combination of Chris and Ayanda – very weird! We have a guy who works in the Roads Department here in Swellendam, and his name is Reivilo – any guesses as to how he got this name?? His parents were going to call him Olivier, but at registration the name was spelt the wrong way round, so OLIVIER became REIVELO – they just accepted this, and he was known as Reivelo from then onwards – this could not happen anywhere else!

I have just had 2 friends come to stay with us for the weekend, Doug and Sam Van Der Merwe ( Sam prefers Strover ), and Andrew and Jackie Koch. Not sure how 2 people with surnames of KOCH and BUSCH got married – there must have been a few jokes at the wedding! Now, they have both named their boys after certain characters – Doug is a fanatical “Gladiators” fan, so his son is Max, and Andrew is/was a Bob Marley fan, so his son is Marley.

Where did Frog Mountain come from – well, it just happened to be a name of a place in a children’s book that my niece, Sarah, was reading at the time that we bought the farm – it has been a great name for marketing purposes – besides the fact that we do have lots of frogs and a beautiful mountain!

Until next time…

Farmer Pete

For those of you that think I do nothing all day, this is a typical day in my life:

6h30: wake up call to help get Julia ready for school – no time to wash!

7h00: leave for school, as Julia needs to be there at 7h30, and it is a 25 min drive from Frog Mountain to Swellendam.

7h45: collect all our staff ( 4 guys and 3 girls ) from their houses on the way back from dropping off Julia.

8h00: arrive back at Frog Mountain, and then settle down to my computor for an hour to catch up on e-mails etc.

9h00: 30 min tea time for the staff. A chance to nip into the house for a sh.t, shower and shave!

9h30: back at desk, and follow up on all the different Cape Town businesses, besides the farm – this takes up most of the morning!

13h00: check up on all Frog Mountain bookings, and anything else that needs to be done – broken foefie slide/water pipes etc – I am good at delegating!

14h00: I told you that I was very busy, so each afternoon I have the difficult task of deciding whether to play golf, play with the kids, sleep, browse the internet, or just chill at the pool!

17h00: feed kids, bath kids, read to kids, put kids to bed!

20h00: adults time – tv,read, or do some work in my office.

22h00: bed

until next time…

Farmer Pete

It always amazes me when I see that self-catering places charge for wood – they sometimes offer the first bag for free and then charge for any extra. I do not understand the logic – a bag of wood (about 20 pieces) costs about R5 in the country, so even if the relevant family uses lots of wood, say 2 full bags per night, then the total cost of this is only R10 out of the average nightly charge of about R900!

If you add the irritation factor to the pleasure factor of having to pay/not having to pay, it makes a huge difference in the guests overall perception of their stay. It is incredible how little things (that cost very little) make such a big difference.

Frog Mountain is nestled right up against the mountain, and is a 15 min drive along a dirt road to the nearest garage shop – not a trip that a guest wants to make when here for a weekend. I read the Weekend Argus every Sat, so why not spend the extra R12 to buy one for each family – we do this, and you will not believe what an impression this small gesture makes. So, together with free wood for 2 nights (R20) and a relaxing newspaper (R12), we have spent R32 out of the weekend rate of R1800 – a very small price to pay for great word-of-mouth marketing!

The same applies to retail outlets – free wrapping costs such a little, but makes such a difference to the purchaser – again, we offer this service at Present Time in Constantia. Another thing that really irritates and amazes me with regards to pricing, is when certain shops etc charge in cents – what the hell is R154.45 – this is a ridiculous price – what is wrong with R155!! I even see certain companies charging even higher amounts, such as R6 456.32 – are they mad!

Value for money is very important in these tough recessionary times, and we, at Frog Mountain, will continue to offer more and more to our valued guests. We are in the process of finishing our new large Fishing Dam – it is costing a lot of money, but we know that this will generate business for many years to come – a great investment!

Until next time….

Farmer Pete

Isn’t it strange how people have preconceived perceptions about people/products/services etc – we seem to be unable to look at things in isolation and judge accordingly!

I am involved in a number of businesses ( not all making a fortune – what is that saying about what is the quickest way to make a million – start with 2 million! ), and I come across the same comments time and time again from potential customers – “oh, I didn’t realise that you would be cheaper”,or “oh, I didn’t realise that you would have been able to help”. Why do we not just do the simple thing and just ASK – it is not that difficult!

I know that men, by nature, are known not to want/need to ask for help/assistance, so I am relying on the women of the world to go forth and ASK – you will be surprised by what you can achieve/gain.

The above is specifically angled at my potential Travel Agency customers – “we will match any written quote and guarantee the lowest price on any flight or package” – do people actually digest this information or does it just go in one ear … I am not trying to punt any particular business that I am involved in, but please…

- if you are in need of a gift, go to “Present Time” in Constantia Village

- if you are in need of any flights/travel packages etc, go to Charlene at Sure Bishops Travel on 021 685 0560 – www.surebishopstravel.co.za

- if you are in need of a relaxing weekend getaway, go to Frog Mountain Getaway – www.frogmountain.co.za.

- if you are in need of anything else – ladies, keep it clean – then I am not able to help!

Until next time….

Farmer Pete

Anybody still got any? The rand being hit heavily over the past few days – economically SA is still very sound, but unfortunately that cannot be said for certain European countries! On a positive not, it seems quite likely that Greece will default on its loans and probably end up going back to the Drachma – which will result in our rand buying a lot more in Greece – so I will see you all on Santorini Island sipping cocktails and downing the odd Sambuca – unless there are some of you out there that would prefer to be naked on one of the many nudist beaches in Mykonos – good views too!

Frog Mountain luckily falls into the value for money category when it comes to family holidays – a week of skiing will cost R100 000, a week in Mauritius R60 000, a week in Plett R30 000, a week in the Transkei R20 000 and a week in Frog Mountain under R10 000! The bottom line is that any overseas holiday is going to be very expensive with the rand at over 8 to the dollar, and anyway, how much of South Africa have you actually seen?

I am pathetic – I have been around the world, but have not even been to Kruger National Park, let alone other great spots north and south of Durban! I think that I will be planning my next holiday with the above in mind – only problem is the petrol price – with the oil price still sitting stubbornly around $110/barrel, and the rand at 8.20 to the dollar, we will yet again see the petrol price above R10 to the litre very soon. This means that it will cost – in petrol alone, excluding wear and tear – a whopping R4000 to get to Northern Kwazulu-Natal and back – perhaps we will just rather hop on the new Airline Taxi that is taking to the skies shortly.

The Taxi industry is also thinking of launching a ship that will travel from Cpt to Durban – personally I think that this is a great idea – I have always thought back to the old days when our parents set sail on the ships to Southampton with all the streamers etc – 2 weeks of partying and naughty behaviour – must have been great fun! No more low-cost airlines – here comes low-cost shipping!

Enjoy planning your next holiday – one must always be planning a holiday, otherwise it is not worth working – great to have something to look forward to, especially if the destination is Frog Mountain – you can get off the low-cost taxi ship at Infanta and hitch to us!

Until next time…

Farmer Pete