I love Somerset West

 I moved to the Cape at the end of October 2020 and now reside in the beautiful town of Somerset West. 

In just over a month I have fallen in love with this town and its' surroundings. I lived at Hartbeespoort Dam for 13 years and enjoyed the majestic landscape. What was challenging was shopping and buying supplies. Until recently most shopping expeditions meant planning for at least a 50 km drive around the dam or a trip to Johannesburg. In Somerset West nothing is more than 10 minutes away and whatever one needs is available. It feels so easy.

Somerset West is less than an hour from Cape Town, 25 minutes from the airport and close to winelands, beaches and beautiful mountains. There are good hospitals and services in the area and the Province is run efficiently. 

I love navigating my way around my new surroundings. I have joined a number of Facebook Groups supporting the area and enjoy learning from fellow online members. This is always the best way to learn about the best places to go. I asked my friends in the area for recommendations.

I have enjoyed having a number of visitors already in my home and plan to navigate some of the beautiful small towns over the holiday season.

The butcher I have found is called Douvoordag and the organic meat comes from the Karoo. My first visit to the hairdresser was a delight. Fresh strawberries, blueberries and cherries from Lourensford Market and an extravagant Coffee Shop and restaurant called Pajamas and Jam Eatery.

One of my experiments for this year is to test the weather and how I enjoy a completely different weather pattern to what I have been used to. The Dam has extreme heat and cold and beautiful big blue sky days and majestic thunderstorms. In this first month I am learning to understand the wind and to my surprise enjoying a much more temperate climate. 

Each place under the sun has special characteristics. This place I think has been blessed in abundance with beauty and many different aspects to enjoy and navigate. In time I will share more of these with you along my journey.