It all started with a dream.
We planned the move from Johannesburg to the beauty of the Magaliesberg for 10 years. In Chris’ case it was a 30 year dream. He grew up in Johannesburg, but had lots of memories of holidays spent on his grandfather’s farm in the Kalahari. Annatjie grew up on a Free State farm and shortly after starting to work in Johannesburg decided to get away from the city again as soon as possible. It took only 18 years.
Frequent drives were taken on weekends over a 10 year period to explore the Magaliesberg area and dream. Finally in 2005 when we saw Saamrus (then called Keenan’s Creek), we decided, come hell or high water, we would jump in, swim and finally leave the city behind. With the help of family and friends and lots of courage and vision, it became possible.
The name change rests on two family farms.
From
Keenan's Creek to Saamrus in 2006, the name change not only represents our
'rest from the rest' philosophy, but also reflects our farm memories - (for
foreign guests) saam is the Afrikaans word for 'together' (half of the title
of Chris' original family farm, Saamwerk) and rus means 'rest' in Afrikaans
(half of the title of Annatjie's original family farm, Ellasrus). So, Saamrus
awaits you and your pets for a well deserved rest
together.
From a dream came a vision and then blood, sweat and tears to make it happen.
Keenan’s Creek had 3 successful operational cottages when we took over at the end of August 2005. The two rondawels Tarentaal and Kiewiet, as well as Suikerbos on the hill, had already built up some return business since the Pet-friendly Guest Farm was started in 1999. After making some improvements to decor, improving privacy and replacing mattresses in the existing cottages, the bigger vision had to be realised. More cottages had to be added as soon as possible.
From an unattractive store-room to a beautiful and very charming cottage.
Hoephoep was created from a large, flat roofed existing storeroom on the farm. Annatjie’s brother started the renovation on the building in early 2006 and put up the beautiful new standing roof. We, Chris and Annatjie, our reliable building team and trusted staff then took over to complete it before a deadline which was set for early August 2007. The work was started shortly after Easter, and continued though a freezing cold winter. To meet the deadline (the cottage was booked and a deposit paid), we worked late into freezing cold nights and through many weekends to get the cottage finished on time. The fence was put up by Lackson and Isaiah (loyal staff) from Poplar wood cut at the river. This was done two nights before deadline, mostly after dark by light supplied by a bed lamp on an extension cord. Meanwhile curtain rails and blinds were hung by us, Chris and Annatjie, inside the cottage while cooking pap, gravy and boerewors to sustain everyone in the cold along with an ample supply of beer for Lackson, Isaiah and Chris. We still joke about the confidence Isaiah gained from all the beer.
There was only veld and rock with a stunning view.
Meanwhile
Akasia was being built on the hill
between the grass and the rocks. Most of the bricks and other material were
taken up the hill with our bakkie, Swartvark (because he is the answer to
everything and of course he is dirty most of the time). Another almost impossible
deadline followed to have Akasia finished 6 weeks after Hoephoep for the
long weekend coming up in Sept 2007. Once again work was done into
the nights and every weekend with hardly a day’s break in between
to finish the cottage on time for guests that had paid a deposit and were
looking forward to a relaxing break.
After having battled for and days doing the plumbing at Hoephoep, we felt almost like experts when doing all the plumbing for Akasia as well. It just became more creative. Even the kitchens were custom-built by us (Chris and Annatjie). Lackson, who had to figure out how to do the ceilings with bamboo reeds cut at the river for Hoephoep, was now almost an expert at putting in a reed ceiling at Akasia as well. Isaiah proved to be an excellent painter under difficult conditions and always stayed patient while searching for tools lost by other people.
“Lack of money breeds great creativity” is one of Annatjie’s favourite slogans.
As
you move further up the ridge the view becomes even more wide and beautiful.
While taking brief breaks in between finishing Hoephoep and Akasia, two
more or less level spots between the rocks on the hill were chosen for Karee
and Olienhout and the building team could carry on. They just moved the
position of the foundations here and there when a rock too big to move interfered
with the building work.
The basic structures of Karee and Olienhout were both finished in Sept 2007. They were going to be open-plan romantic cottages for two. Because funds were depleted and energy was running dangerously low, it took until Sept 2008 to complete Karee. Once again, all the work was done with the skills and resources available on the farm. We even learned how to build a septic tank from old truck tires!
Olienhout,
our newest cottage, was finally finished in June 2009.
Leonard, always with a smile a positive attitude.
Through
all the chaos and stress of finishing the cottages, our favourite and
only son, Leonard patiently blended
into the background. He kept himself busy by reading books, watching television,
lending a helping hand where he could and always keeping a smile on his
face and almost never complaining.
Leonard knows how to be friendly, helpful and professional towards guests. He would make an excellent guest farm owner one day.
The secret of success at Saamrus lies in our loyal, friendly and always willing and hard working staff.
Like busy bees from early till late, never absent from work. More reliable and friendly is impossible to find. From fighting raging veld fires on the hill in the middle of the night, digging and pushing cars out of the mud on the road in the dark and pouring rain, carrying loads of guest luggage and other stuff up and down the hill, cleaning and preparing cottages, gardening, building fences, maintaining paths, fixing the road and whatever else needs to be done at Saamrus. Ever willing and helpful, they do everything with a smile while their families are waiting far away in Malawi and Zimbabwe for some money to be sent home.
Lackson
and Isaiah have been on the farm
since the previous owners of Keenan’s Creek. Sadly Isaiah left us
at the end of April 2010 to further his career elsewhere. We will never
forget how Isaiah fought against the big fire we had on the 3rd night after
moving to the farm.
After expanding it became necessary to employ more staff. Lackson thought of Leo, who was the always helpful nephew of our builder who proved himself by always being willing to work overtime when we were building the new cottages. Leo joined us in 2007 and has proved to be excellent at housekeeping, getting cottages clean and ready for guests, arranging flowers and doing basic brickwork.
Joshua joined us in May 2010 to take over from Isaiah and impressed us with his eagerness to learn.
Our newest member of staff Clement, attends to our house and is an excellent painter.
The tall and short story of Jackie and Riffels.
Jackie
and Riffels, your intrepid, panting,
wagging, helpful and oh-so-friendly tour-guides have their own name-histories.
Stubby-legged Jackie, oddly enough,
isn't called Jackie because he's a Jack Russell, but his namesake is Jack
Sparrow, the pirate, (of the Caribbean), and yes, he does have an eye-patch.
So be careful, he may just steal your heart.
As his worried-looking face turns to see if you're right behind him, Riffels, so called for the 'wrinkles' on his forehead (Riffels in Afrikaans), is true to his Ridgeback breed, with fierce loyalty to his family. Riffels knows the ridge like the back of his hand (sorry, paw) and when accompanying guest on walks, always brings them safely home. Jackie and Riffels are waiting to give you a warm, not-too-slobbery welcome.
We will spare you the detail about the six cats. Now you really need the rest!
“Het einde niet” Future plans for improvements.
We
are striving to be the best and for that reason, we can never stop improving. .
Some of our fences around the cottages have to be replaced during 2011. We hope to be able to do some basic paving around the cottages and add a covered shade cloth parking to each cottage in the near future.
Then there is the 2km farm road! We are planning to shorten it by making a new bridge across the river cutting out the drive past our neighbours. Then it has to be paved all the way! Starting in May 2010 we hope to have it finished before the summer of 2012.
In between we want to do some basic tiling in the kitchens and bathrooms
of the newer cottages plus lots more.