Who are we?

How it all began

Dave and Annamarie (with our two children aged six & nine) came on holiday from the UK to visit an uncle in Cape Town in 2003. Having saved for two years, we thought it was a once in a life time holiday….Until we stood on a beach and Dave said “What are we doing with our lives, I’d love to live here and have a guest house!” I said “That’s funny I was thinking the same thing the other day!”

To cut a long story short within 9 months we’d sold our house, quit our jobs, – got through immigration “kind of” (but that’s another story), and invested every penny we had in South Africa, buying a very old rundown guest house in Hermanus. We set to work immediately, with renovations. Each year we closed for a few weeks, making more improvements. Neither of us had any experience in running a business or the hospitality industry. Dave was an engineer and I was a Nursery Nurse.

Renovations take place annually to maintain a high standard. In 2013 we closed the guest house for almost 17 weeks to replace bathrooms, ceilings, and floors. We rewired, and re-plumbed the entire building. We added flat screen TV’s & WI-FI to all rooms, replaced all beds, dining/lounge furniture. Even the swimming pool got relined, and the paving area re-laid. Basically The Potting Shed was reborn, with a brand new look!

Dave & Annamarie are hands on and available to recommend restaurants, activities and info on the area. We prepare & serve breakfast ourselves offering home-baked bread, cookies, rusks, and granola. Our homemade pancakes, jam and lemon curd seems to be a hit!

The Journey Forward

We are very passionate about our business and life style change – never looked back! For sure it’s one of the best decisions we ever made! Each day is another learning curve, and it’s great meeting so many wonderful people.

We feel truly blessed to live in such a beautiful place! Hermanus is awesome!!
In August 2014 we had a party to celebrate 10 years of living in South Africa and The Potting Shed Business. 

Using video footage and photos from the day we left the UK, this clip shows some of our progress from 2004-2014. Although it’s not professionally done and there a few blips in it, I love it! It’s a true reflection of our life here so far, and we’d like to share it on our website.