2nd Birthday reflections

It began with a stop over on a bike trip during Covid; "Barrydale. WTF are we?"

Someone had checked us into a hotel that clearly wasn't happy.

The place was surrounded by razor wire and there was a liquidation action banner on the wall.

But in a Dickensian kitchen was a chef of note with a Chaine de Rottiseurs badge on his sleeve. Derek.

There wasn't a single bid at the auction. But three weeks later I brought Sue back there.

And so that thing we love must began; A brainstorm of note.

By the time Barrydale in Bloom came we owned it. 

We appointed Barrydaler  Zach Nell as our interim GM.

And  Morgan the builder who with 15 men began knocking the place apart 

The kitchen was the first to go

..and then the gloomy room next door. And then on to the rest of the rooms. 

In 5 manic months, no stone unturned, nothing spared .

There were more than a few surprises along the way - like the discovery of the hand hewn beams hidden above the ceiling in the bar. 

MOVING INTO FULL COLOUR 2022: THE IMAGES THAT COME TO MIND

Come new years eve 2022 we were still 2 months from opening but everyone was getting impatient so we partied in the street. 

We opened out doors for business in March 2022. From day 1 Sputnik our Rolls Royce Silver Wraith was there 

Sue did the decor. Her stamp is everywhere. 

It's not what you'd expect when walking off a dusty Karoo dorp street 

A tour of the house on the first day of our opening revealed that each of the 17 bedrooms was different

Every room has a story - many of them art based. Like the Claudius room that celebrates the work of an early watercolourist on a Simon van der Stel expedition in the late 1700's