Every year the Mom’s group I belong to tries to get away for a weekend; just a few mums and a whole lot of chocolate. Our tradition has been to stay at a friend’s home in Plettenberg Bay, but this year we decided to do something different.

I suggested visiting the Pink Haus, a new eco-friendly craft retreat situated in the hills just inland from the village of Great Brak. The new owners, Andre and Vivienne Holtzhausen, have a policy that you can come for a semi-working holiday and pay reduced accommodation rates - this suited the group as we had a limited budget. Vivienne suggested that we might like to help her mosaic a table in the swimming pool area, which sounded fun, so off we went. Five of us, ranging in age from 30 to 48, climbed into my husband’s bakkie and our journey began.

We left Port Elizabeth at 3pm and in order to reach the Pink Haus before dark, decided to reserve most stops for the return journey, although we did stop at Storms River Bridge (you have to stop there) for chocachinos and chips and had two beautiful, brazen starlings entertain us by trying to steal crumbs from our table.

We were greeted at the Pink Haus by Ben the handsome hound and our hosts, Andre and Vivienne at just after 7pm. Jack the Doberman emerged with enthusiasm once the gates were closed – he apparently has a tendency to take himself for walks given half a chance.

The house looks impressive by night; a huge dining hall is lit by chandeliers and the house is full of colour. In our cottage we were welcomed with fresh wildflowers in the rooms, welcome bags of chocolates on our pillows and home made jam and fresh fruit in the kitchen. After unpacking we went over to the main house for an evening of conversation and laughter over a delicious home cooked meal of Karoo lamb soup, potbread and sherry, rounding off the evening with coffee and chocolate biscuits.

On Saturday we awoke to a lovely breakfast cooked by Carol, then joined Vivienne for an informal tour of the Pink Haus and some of the property. Walking around the pastures and seeing the fynbos was such a treat; the air is clean and crisp and the Outeniqua Mountains loom on the horizon like comforting friends. I derived great pleasure from sitting with the goats and hearing the chickens kip-kipping as I fed them leftovers.

Andre and Vivienne have chosen to live a green lifestyle. Apart from recycling and re-using as much as possible, they collect water from the condensation formed on the expansive tin roof. As little as 2mm of rain causes their four tanks to overflow; all the excess is channeled to the dam and the swimming pool. Great Brak is a water-stressed area, so collecting water and using it carefully is essential. Shower water is used to flush toilets and rain water is used to water the vegetables and drinking.

Recycling is made easy for guests with boxes for plastic, glass, tin and paper/cardboard. This waste is taken to the recycling depots in town.

Organic waste is composted. Even the local garden refuse dump is visited regularly to obtain topsoil or the odd re- usable crate to create perches and hide-outs for the chickens and goats. These are essential as visiting rooivalke and eagles steal the chickens otherwise.

But back to our creative retreat: our project was to mosaic an underwater theme onto the table top in the pool area. Vivienne gave us some tips and shared her creative vision and inspiration. She had laid out a table full of mosaic tiles and spread the bar counter with ‘found’ items, which we were encouraged to include. We were then allocated a fifth of the table top each and given artistic license.

It was lovely to see the different personalities emerge during this activity.

Karen, perhaps the most experienced mosaicer in the group, started right in with clipping, snipping and fitting and showed us all how easy it is to create a picture.
Gill set about making a handsome king crab, perfectly placing small pieces into their place with great precision and patience.
Carol, initially hesitant to take part in the activity, chose to make an intricate sea- horse design that turned out beautifully.
True to her personality Shannon chose very bling tiles to create a dory swimming through seaweed. She was totally absorbed in her art and unusually quiet for a change! She and I are similar in that we didn’t like breaking the tiles – whether it’s the noise or the mess I’m not sure – so we used mostly whole tiles in our creations.
I found the company and atmosphere so relaxing and therapeutic that I made a terrapin in honour of a recent visitor to the Pinkhaus dam, as well as a snail on a rock.

After an afternoon siesta we went off to collect some pre-ordered goat’s milk and cheese from a neighbour and from there Vivienne took us on a short drive through Botelierskop Nature reserve where we saw rhino, wildebeest, zebra and buck aplenty in the space of about one kilometere, almost as if they were lining the fence and waiting for us - what a treat!

Sundowners were enjoyed at Seeplas, a very irie beach pub, followed by pizzas and pud before calling it a day and falling into bed.

We left Pink Haus (with promises to return) midmorning Sunday to enjoy a leisurely drive through George, and lunching and shopping in Knysna, before arriving home safely and very much refreshed after a peaceful and creative weekend.

Having spoken with some of the ladies subsequent to the trip, we are eager to visit again and help with the next project! I’m ready when they are.

For more information about The Pink Haus (and to see the finished mosaic) visit www.thepinkhaus.weebly.com. Alternatively, email Vivienne Holtzhausen at crochaus@eject.co.za, or telephone +27 (0)44 620 3085 or +27 (0)82 730 1001