The Hidden Letters in Swellendam South Africa

Even before we’d discovered Swellendam South Africa, Richard found this old couch on one of his antique store trawls in 2002. He bought it. It sat in a pile of building rubble for the many years that we’ve been restoring and building our Schoone Oordt country hotel. This past winter, whilst breathing new life into the rooms, kitchen and garden, Richard also found the time to ‘potter’ on restoring the couch in his workshop.

This is what it looked like lying outside Schoone Oordt and pre-restoration:The restoration project of this beautiful old piece of furniture is perhaps a story enough, but what makes this truly memorable, is that two old letters dating back to World War Two were found hidden down the side. Obviously stuck there in anger or pain and forgotten. They conjure a story of love, of hurt, of betrayal and leave us wondering whatever happened to the people in the story. For privacy reasons, we haven’t posted the letters so that you can read them, but if you recognise the writing, do let us know, we’d love to return them to their rightful.

And after many hours of pottering in Richard’s true perfectionist style, here is the finished couch proudly displayed in our beautiful Honeymoon Suite. Thank you for the gorgeous pictures Wander & Sonette Bester (our management couple extraordinaire!).