The Making of Karoo Keepsakes II

There’s a place overlooking Simon’s Town called Cotton’s Cottages, where we go to put the final touches on our books.

It’s part of a tiny enclave of Karoo-style cottages and stands on Paradise Road. Good name. In the ancient days, this was a hangout for hookers and whalers. All changed now.

The creatives we work with – for both books and this website – call themselves Inkfish Design Studio, and they’re based nearby in Kalk Bay.

Jules – as you can see – likes to park off on the stoep in the summer mornings if the weather permits it, and beaver away on her laptop. Occasionally, her eyes drift out to sea. She keeps a lookout for whales in the bay – and the odd Navy frigate passing by.

Owners Roly and Sheena Hutchings have made Cotton’s our home from home for nearly a decade now, since we first passed this way on our long coastal book trip, which resulted in Shorelines and Coast to Coast.

We worked from here on Karoo Keepsakes I, Karoo Space versions I, II and III as well. The occasional Kalk Bay night life (The Olympia Café comes to mind) also helped to soothe fevered brows after a day’s editing of word and image.

This year it was a double mission: put Karoo Keepsakes II to bed and finalise the look and feel of this brand-new Karoo Space website.

We brought as much of the Karoo across as we could carry in a dozen 1-terabyte hard drives of images and text. We had twice as much content as we needed, and spent long hours arguing the case for various items to be included – or not.

This new book is the result of four years of Karoo journeys and hundreds of encounters with the people, places and events in the best place on Earth: the Karoo, the Heartland of South Africa.

If you ever thought there was no life to be had in the Karoo, think again. But then you’re visiting this website – you know what I’m talking about.

Cotton’s Guest Cottages

Tel: +27 (0) 21 701 0377

Mobile: +27 (0) 73 253 5252 or +27 (0) 73 255 8111