As bubbly corks fly like popcorn in celebration of a new year, it seems the perfect time to reflect on what has been and what is to come.

Over 5700 guests have passed through our doors since we became the custodians of Dennehof Karoo Guesthouse in May 2021. That is a staggering number of names and faces to remember, and an even more staggering 11 400 eggs we have poached, scrambled, fried and boiled over the past 48 months, not to mention the almost 200kg of coffee beans that have been ground and brewed, and the almost 800 sourdough loaves that have been lovingly baked!

Thank you to all our guests for helping us achieve these staggering numbers, we look forward to the next 5700 faces to include many returning and new ones.

Wishing you all the happiest New Year, may 2025 be filled with terrific travels and awesome adventures!

Love and Best wishes,
Albert, Inga, and the DKG Team to include Ferdinand and Ella
xxx

Speaking of staggering numbers, the past year saw almost 200mm of manna from heaven make their way into our rain gauge and surrounding Karoo earth, even giving our Grand Old Dame something to reflect on and in. This is in happy contradiction to the 138mm annual average.

All the ‘staggeringness’ would not have been possible without these wonderful souls, our super duper Team Dennehof. As our occupancy figures have increased by 25% since take-over, our team has grown and are working harder than ever to keep the Dennehof Karoo Guesthouse quality and cleanliness flag flying high.

Biscuit production line is in full swing, the oven is working overtime during peak season, our oat and cranberry welcome biscuits are as popular as ever. At a quick calculation, we have sent out about 6500 of these heavenly bites.

With all the talk of increased occupancy, thousands of breakfast eggs, rigorous room turn-around, and countless feet passing through our doors, we fortunately still have breathers where we can just sit, be, and savour the beauty around us.

PS: as reflections is one of our newsletter themes, we thought it apt to point out the Grand Old Dame once again doing her reflecting in the conservatory glass.

The above mentioned numbers do not happen by chance. Every business needs a calm, level-headed captain at the helm with an endless job description: guest liaison, head of maintenance, financial brain, barista, human resources, sommelier, nice guy.

We think we caught us a pretty good all-rounder, thank you Albert!

We often wonder how many mice our resident owl has processed in the last 48 months, if only he could talk. Thank you for all the hoots and guest entertainment, Dr Who!

Finally flourishing after many years of nurturing, our Karoo quadrant garden is showing happiness after the abundant rains. We also like to think our tender loving care had something to with the beautiful display we now get to behold.

These two never tire of welcoming and entertaining   guests and having rambunctious play time with each other.

We would be fascinated to survey the number of visitors who book at Dennehof Karoo Guesthouse just to experience the antics of Ella and Ferdinand, the galumphing (as stated by the Wall Street Journal Off Duty Travel article) Ridgebacks.

Our pool is certainly not Olympic size, but has definitely cooled and refreshed many travel-weary guests arriving on hot Karoo days. The background sauna maybe more sought-after in winter months, but also a great guest draw-card.

The proud baker (or ‘sourdough sister’ as Accidental Baker recently declared) showing off six of the above-mentioned 800 loaves. As challenging as it is baking in these extreme Karoo temperatures, we enthusiastically keep churning out these delicious labours of love.

Another activity done in great quantities, but we promise over many, many years and all for the sake of keeping our pot plants looking pretty and keeping the moisture in the soil. Here’s to 2025 being a year of more cork collecting, for the sake of our plants of course!

We do like to keep evolving and changing our room decor for when the 5700 guests return to give them  new and interesting things to discover.

When we cut back the ‘kooigoed’, of course we must rescue the off cuts for bunches of Karoo-style decor.

The Khoikhoi used the leaves and flowers as bedding, hence the name ‘kooigoed’ translating to ‘bedding stuff’ – we are happy we can still bring this character-full Karoo plant back into the bedroom in a different form.

To end, the view of our favourite drive in the Karoo, the road to Weltevrede Fig Farm.

We encourage every one of guests to experience this magical wonderland, the cherry, er, fig on top being the incredible oasis at the end of the 26km drive where mouth watering fig tarts and fresh figs beckon.

We hope you enjoyed reading Dennehof Diaries abundance and reflections “Summer Scrawlings” as much as we enjoyed tapping them out.
Please stick around for our  “Autumn Oracles” and any other tidbits in between
Thank you for your support, please come visit us soon.