Welcome to a brand new year and to carry you into 2026, a newsletter full of heart and love.

Inspired by our German guests who often describe our guesthouse as ‘from the heart’ (‘es kommt vom Herzen’), we thought to take note of this unique compliment and ride the writing wave with all the heart and love we can dish up.

Before we launch into hearty tidings,thank you to all our past, current, future, and returning guests who encourage our guesthouse heart, experience our guesthouse heart, and keep our guesthouse heart beating its passionate pulse.

We love what we do and if that carries across to each guest experience, we will happily keep doing it with vigorous heart.

Love and heartfelt wishes for a fantastic new year,
Albert, Inga, and the DKG Team to include Ferdinand and Ella

xxx

Certainly hefty heartfelt thanks to the team full of heart that give up precious time with their families during the festive season to keep the guesthouse gears grinding gracefully. We love our A-Team and are indebted to them for their constant good-nature and spirited hard work.

These owlets have absolutely stolen our hearts, three  downy fluff-puffs gracing the guesthouse grounds and keeping our guests enthralled. Looking at the image you might ask if we are mathematically challenged as only two are pictured – the newsletter scribe can certainly answer affirmative to being numerically backward, but to three she can count. The problem comes in when trying to get three owlets to pose perfectly above the Dennehof Karoo Guesthouse sign, firstly because owlets do not pose, and secondly because owlet number three is a bit of a loner.

Heart and soul went into getting four of our staff accredited with their NQF Level 4 in Service Excellence Training, firstly from the four who all scored 80% and higher, and secondly from the proprietors who spent a few weeks being put through their waitering paces. Proud of these four, and relieved we can hand the breakfast service back to the experts!

Our guests are loving recent upgrades in two of our guestroom bathrooms. Each fitting, each tile, each decor item chosen with heartfelt consideration to ensure guest comfort and pleasure is just so. Our Patio Room (pictured) and Wagon Shed Suite are receiving many compliments on their marvelous make overs, book one of these beautiful spaces to inspect our handiwork.

This semi-desert that is the Great Karoo has captured our hearts, and even while waiting for much needed rain there is always beauty to be found in the extreme dryness.

In contrast to the dry beauty that surrounds us, we have a few spots in the guesthouse gardens where we splurge on a little watering. What joy our Clivia patch delivers when in bloom!

We love peak hour traffic in Prince Albert, this scene playing out from the relaxing position of one of our pool deck loungers. Book your stay and observe traffic Karoo style.

So much love and heart in this image, our dear Ferdinand getting particularly festive this season. We had a similar image of Ella but her obvious dislike for silly festive headgear was made very clear – not an image we thought to add to our newsletter full of love and heart.

A weekend of love with Melissa and Dean who did some serious knot-tying in Prince Albert. We are always thankful for the spirit and heart that wedding parties bring to the Grand Old Dame and love that these happy occasions add to the already colourful and eventful history of our beautiful Dennehof Karoo Guesthouse.

On the topic of the Grand Old Dame, she too was shown much love with a brand new coat of paint. Jack and Moses spent almost a year with us covering every inch of her walls, roof, decks, and furniture items, ploughing through almost 600 liters of paint.

What is not to love and make your heart beat happily with summer scenes like this. Our grounds have many beautiful seating areas ideal for nights out on the deck sipping a glass of wine and taking in the nothingness of the Karoo accompanied by owl hoots, insect chirps and the gently gurgling lei water.

Some more wedding love as we hosted beautiful bride Laura and her dapper groom Oscar along with their family and friends. The love was tangible, the happiness infectious – wishing you a fabulous future together Mr & Mrs O, and we are holding you to your promise of return visits for anniversaries!

We leave you with a final image of the Prince Albert Vastrappers to set the tone for 2026 – may it be a year full of love, full of heart, full of dust-kicking good times, and of course full of visits to Prince Albert and Dennehof Karoo Guesthouse. Book your stay with us and come experience what we do from the heart.

We hope you feel fuzzy and full of love after reading Dennehof Diaries “Summer Scrawlings”

Please stick around for our  “Autumn Oracles” and any tidbits in between.

Thank you for your support, please come visit us soon.