S1 - Ep 385 - Stanford - Our Enriching Experience in this Historic Village!

Our visit to Stanford was nothing short of breathtaking. The journey itself was a feast for the eyes, as we marvelled at the natural beauty and majestic mountains adorned with cascading waterfalls along the way. Upon reaching the charming village, we were left utterly awestruck by the meticulously-restored buildings and houses that exuded historical charm and character. It was evident that the residents took immense pride in preserving this gem. We drove past some of the places of interest along the Historical Walk route and discovered hidden gems with fascinating stories along the way. It very quickly became clear that a full day would be needed to explore them all. Our visit concluded on a high note at Birkenhead Brewery, providing a perfect ending to our enriching experience in this historic village. #DustBugs #adventuretravel #southafrica #southafricavlog #travelongravel #westerncape #stanford #birkenheadbrewery
Instagram
/ dustbugstravel
Facebook
/ dustbugstravel

[@vkaitakirwa]

Beautiful neat peaceful village.

[@DustBugsTravel]

It really is, I'm glad that you got that vibe too. 🚙😊

[@user-rv2et1yk8l]

Lovely drive but it's sad to hear what's happening In the western cape with the weather and the storms take care and stay safe 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@DustBugsTravel]

Yes, indeed. 😨 Little did we know that exactly two weeks from the date of our visit, the village and surrounding area would suffer widespread flood damage. Our thoughts are with all the folks in the area, we met a number of very friendly ones during our visit to the village.

[@tammyerasmus36]

Busy watching your video and just seen the terrible flooding that took place today in Stanford 😢

[@DustBugsTravel]

It's hard to believe that we were there just two short weeks ago! 😨 Our thoughts are with all the residents of the village and the outlying areas. 🌧️

[@ronnykenny3965]

Hi Dustbugs, once again you've outdone yourselves withthis awesome trip. Since subscribing to Dustugs i too have learnt to enjoy the beauty around me while driving on the quiter roads. So many things I've noticed that I've just driven past before. Thank yoy for that & for this trip. 🚙🥰

[@DustBugsTravel]

Your comment is music to our ears! It took us a very long time too to appreciate every single little thing around us, especially when on the road. There is just so much to admire, appreciate and explore! So glad you're doing that too now! 🚙😍

[@elsjec.naicker9037]

Hi Curtis and Sonia, nee kyk, you guys have a gift to capture the beauty in everything that you see. It definitely was an amazing trip, beautiful landscapes and rich history in another hidden gem called Stanford. We are always "disappointed" when a video comes to an end. Thank you "sunny" Sonia for stating the time and date, you guys rock!!!

[@DustBugsTravel]

I'm glad you enjoyed the village of Stanford! 🚙🙂 There is so much beauty everywhere and we're happy to share it with you. Thanks for coming along and appreciating it with us!

[@llewellyndalton6085]

Hi Curtis and Sonya watching this episode of you guys exploring Stanford, brought back precious memories. I had moved to Cape Town from PE at the end of May 1994. I rented a flatlet on the property in Marina da Gama from a lady and her daughter (originally from PE). the daughter and I spent a few days in Stanford in October of that year. We stayed in the Stanford Hotel in adjoining rooms. It was my first in the area, Stanford was more quaint and run down then, but still charming. The daughter and I married 2 years later.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Wowzer! Those are precious memories indeed and we love that you shared them with us! 😍 From adjacent rooms to married, I'd say that's great progress! I'm so happy that you came back to Stanford with us, one of the places where your romance started to bloom. Super special, Sonia has been completely enchanted by your comment and can't stop smiling since I read it to her. 🚙🥰

[@1812nico]

Hi you two! What a beautiful trip, again. The mountains on the way are really breathtaking and the town so very neat and and well kept. Trees and lawns decorating all the streets. It must be quite a happy experience to enjoy the brews of Birkenhead in that green garden viewing the mountains. The historical detail you two gather on trips like these can not be just read up in a library, which makes is very precious, especially as you also show it to us. Thank you so much. I am ready for the next Western Cape trip. I seems the rainy season might be tracking you, so -- Keep safe!

[@DustBugsTravel]

There is a stiff breeze blowing in Strand today and it is bright and clear again. We're grateful for that. Stanford was picture-perfect on the day of our visit. The mountains and surrounding scenery were stunningly beautiful. ⛰️🌳 I shall definitely pay Birkenhead a return visit for that tasting when the weather is warmer. Those gardens with the wonderful views can only make a beer taste all the better! 🍻

[@mandypaul7846]

Hi there We love you program thank you. FYI That spot you stopped at on the way to Stanford , the mountain where you saw the waterfall. This is known to locals as "die vark se snoet". When we have good rain it looks like pigs nose is running😂. Keep them coming we travel through your eyes.

[@desh7120]

Another delightful escape and I, too, could do it all day, Sonia. Thank you both very much!

[@DustBugsTravel]

We're happy to provide you with all the escapes you might need from everyday life. 🚙🌻 I'm so glad you enjoyed Stanford.

[@desh7120]

@@DustBugsTravel💕

[@Kamikaziidare]

Those waterfalls along the Klein River Mountains are known as “Die Vark se Snoet” as the rock in the middle look like a pig’s nose the waterfalls look like tears and the two gorges above look like the pig’s eyes.

[@wooden_branches]

What a beautiful town. I just noticed you are over 20K !! Congratulations to you both. I love your channel.

[@annawitter5161]

Oh yes I agree. Those mountains are to die for. I was so fortunate s a child to grow up going to our house in Kleinmond every weekend and holiday and later when I was 18 we bought my Oupas house in Hermanus after he passed away. My late husband and I once spent a weekend in Stanford on a farm stay. WE loved this charming little town. St Thomas church really special. Particularly the artwork. Toadlets? I wonder if they are Leopard Toad, which are getting rare and are protected. Nothing like a good bird hid[ing]!🤣😅😂Thank you for a nostalgic tour.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Sonia still talks about those incredible green mountains! 🤩⛰️ You are indeed very fortunate to have such precious memories of the village and area. Stanford is an enchanting and charming place and the local folks make such an effort to restore and preserve, it's fantastic! We have a permanent sign in Somerset West about a certain species of frog crossing a rather big road. We will sit all day waiting for them to cross if we have to. 😍🐸 Thank you for coming back to Stanford with us. 🚙🙂

[@margaretpautz843]

Just after watching the Stanford video , was terrible to see the flooding that has happened this weekend - the river outside Stanford flooded - the road totality covered .. 😢😢😢

[@DustBugsTravel]

Indeed. 😨 I believe Stanford has been affected by severe flooding, so I can imagine it looks a lot different today from exactly two weeks ago when we visited. Our thoughts are with all the residents in the village and surrouding area. 🌧️

[@thanadevilliers7994]

Houses also flooded

[@annawitter5161]

Oh what sad news!

[@terrimeyer3815]

When I grow up I am going to go visit Stanford for sure. 🎉🎉20k followers🎉🎉 well done. This place is very beautiful. Cant wait to move to the Cape.....that's my next move...whoop whoop 🚗🚗💕💕💕🚗🚗🚗 Lotsa love beep beep its WILD

[@DustBugsTravel]

And you should, you'll love it! You will never run out of beautiful places to visit in our beautiful Western Cape! 🚙⛰️🌊 Thank you for celebrating the 20k milestone with us! 🥳

[@emmerentiagroenewald3694]

Stanford is such a beautiful place!! The riverrides with all the water birds! And the NGKerk! Like you said: "unbelievable"❤❤

[@DustBugsTravel]

Beauty overload in Stanford, both naturally and architecturally. ⛰️🏡 We enjoyed the stonework of both churches. 🚙💒

[@michalf6460]

Beutiful place!

[@DustBugsTravel]

It is indeed! 🚙😍

[@charlietreston4035]

Hi guys the scenery everywhere blows mind so green ( it reminds me of the Irish song 30 shades of green) and the topper Baboons!!! .no wonder the whole town is a national monument. Its so pretty and quaint colonial style property stunning. The streets and houses have a European size and the privet hedges are just like English villages so nice to see no big fences .but then you look into the distance and your eyes are met with the glorious mountains. Toadlets crossing sign vineyards in town love it and not to forget the bird hide !!! .the DRF church was Unusual like the one in Hermanus. The little Anglecan church was cute especially the different plastering techniques. Lol. The stories of the hotel so interesting and the thought of the kids stamping grapes made me smile. I bet the barber had lots of business with the short back and sides. When I went to the barbers as a kid it was 2 shilling for short back and sides or a 1 shilling and 6 pence for a all off so we had the all off and spent the extra 6 pence on sweets 😆 the Brewery at the end definitely looks inviting with amazing views 😉 very interesting video thanks for taking me along cheerio till the next one

[@DustBugsTravel]

Those mountains were indeed glorious, that's the perfect word to describe them! 😍⛰️ We enjoyed the two stone churches very much too and it was good to get confirmation that the one in Hermanus must indeed be of original design then too. 💒 As someone who so desperately wants an all-off, I chuckled when reading about your visit to the barber. Sonia will have none of it though. 💇‍♂️. How clever you were to keep the change for sweets, one is only young once! 🍬🍭 We appreciate you visiting Stanford with us today. 🚙😊

[@doraduplessis2727]

We were pleasantly surprised about Stanford. Only visited the town once a couple of years ago, but drove past it so many times. Sad to hear on the news tonight that more than 40 people had to be rescued from their homes because of flooding.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Yes, this superstorm of the past few days has caused much havoc in that area and Stanford was also affected by severe and widespread flooding. 😨 We're staying in touch with very kind folks we met in the village and keep them and all the residents in our thoughts.

[@christinagodinho9384]

Lovely town !

[@mariusroos]

1857 wow what an old village and most reserved village! The old propertis are beautiful - as if it was preserved for ever! Even the businesses are mostly situtated inside very old buildings. The mountains are really stunning.The grave yards are always a good point of reference to see howw old the town is. The Kleine Riviers House has a rich history of all the owners who purchased the house. You are so right to say the town has a calm feeling. It is indeed so. I love the old Anglicn church It is absolutely history at its best. The HW series of houses were so nice to see. Each one with his own rich history. A very nice and informative video. Thanks so much for showing us the rich history inside this beautiful tranquil town. Next trip seat booked.

[@DustBugsTravel]

There are enough historical buildings, including those two incredible stone churches we saw, in Stanford to keep even the keenest history enthusiast intrigued. It is actually incredible if you think how small the village is. 🏛️💒 The care with which most of the buildings have been restored and are now preserved, is highly commendable. Those mountains now belong to Sonia, she fell completely in love with them at first sight! 😍⛰️ Stay dry and warm, until we pick you up again on Wednesday. 🚙

[@vicengelbrecht9968]

Ai, ons geniet elke episode. Well done.

[@anne-marievanrooyen5906]

Such wonderful memories ❤️. My Dad was a Full Gospel Pastor there for many years.

[@DustBugsTravel]

I'm always happy to hear when our videos remind viewers of special times and people in their lives. Thank you for sharing with us. 🚙💒

[@dawnbarnes1361]

Hello😊 i watched your video this morning & thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved the green lampposts in the streets!! So very sad to hear about the flooding there😢😢 Take care guys and God Bless❤

[@DustBugsTravel]

It's such a picturesque village and it's horrible to think that the folks in the village itself and in the surrounding areas have suffered such big losses in the widespread flooding this superstorm caused. 😨 They will remain in our thoughts as they navigate their way through this ordeal.

[@SangMarocain]

Very clean nice village ❤

[@logannaidoo9667]

thank you - once again a beautiful; well maintained and immaculate town - i suppose these little beautiful towns have low density populations - so it's easy to control -

[@DustBugsTravel]

The villagefolk have made an incredible effort towards keeping the town so well-preserved. Hats off to them! 🚙👌🏻

[@conrayjones9290]

I love the street lamp poles

[@DustBugsTravel]

Yes, they add to the charm of this authentic village. 👌🏻

[@benjaminlabuschagne9101]

Remember a house being g built there in early 1990's .... constructed out of car tyres!! ....alsoa nice brewery just outside town opposite side of road where many a hikers camped close by!! ..... lovely place for sure !!

[@DustBugsTravel]

The tyre house sounds interesting! 🏡 I visited the brewery before we left town, the scenery in that area is absolutely spectacular. 🌳⛰️

[@yesnomads]

1857 wow very old village. Nice tour

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thank you for watching our video of this historical village. 🚙🙂

[@user-wl7br4jq3e]

The "HMS Birkenhead" was one of the first iron-hulled vessels of the Royal Navy. In February 1852, on way to the Eastern Cape carrying settlers, soldiers and horses, it ran into rocks and sank during a storm off Danger Point at Gansbaai. There wasn't enough life boats to go around so the crew decided in the spur of the moment "women and children first". They held their last drill on the deck and whenever one broke rank, he returned immediately to line. Only when water reached their feet, did the captain order: "Every man for himself now". Most perished. They were immortilised by Rudyard Kipling in his poem "Birkenhead Drill" The Kaiser of Prussia made it compulsory for his troops to learn about it. It was the birth of the modern protocol: "Women and children first" in situations of peril and extreme distress, mainly (but not exclusively) in shipping. Today it would be "Children and the infirm first" Lady Anne Barnard owed her life to that.

[@cherylmoss3632]

My sister and my fathers funeeal services were held in St Thomas Anglican church.

[@sicko_the_ew]

Again, because it's just up the road for you, so the info might turn out handy, that private nature reserve whose road you saw the sign for is at least partially accessible to the public. I've forgotten quite a few of the details, but I'm pretty sure there's a restaurant, or a place to eat up there (you'd need to check), and it's probably in the "ghost house". (There's an absolutely enormous mansion there, that has some level of public accessibility.) Apart from that, there's access to the coastal dune forests / some walking trails, and there's also lodge accommodation near the lagoon between there and Hermanus (it's a huge lagoon). Given how much you enjoy old buildings, I think you'd go completely crazy about the mansion. It's really quite something to behold. (Hopefully you can find better info than this online next time you're in the area - failing which you could drive all the way up that road and be told it's closed now, or they must have been feeling indulgent when I was there, and just let me look around when they normally don't.) I think it gets used as a wedding venue, for instance, so that might be a way of finding it. As far as Hermanus - Voëlklip - goes, if you go up something like 10th Avenue (streets are all numbered up that end of the town) , right to the foot of the mountain, you can find public walking/cycling trails up there. It's pretty steep, and you can end up a bit isolated among all the baboons and leopard up there, if feeling dramatic, too, but if that's OK, you can climb right up to the survey beacon on top by reasonably maintained footpath if you're feeling fit and strong. Basically, you could probably quite easily do an entire X-revisited series on the area without repeating yourself. If you ever need that. There's also a whole far North to explore. And Zim. And Nam. And some scary places beyond, even.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thanks for the info. 👍🏻

[@ajl1973]

Lots of great ZA towns, but whoa Stanford is really well done. Western Cape weather, green, wine, modern homes with colonial touches. Lekker mooi. I want to say my friends and I popped in on a trip to Hermanus circa 1998.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Stanford is for sure a fantastic place and the natural beauty and scenery which surround the village a feast for the eye. 🚙🌳⛰️ I'm sure a lot of restoration and preservation efforts have gone on in the village since your visit. 🏡💒 We were there exactly two weeks before a massive storm caused severe flooding in the area and I believe huge damage has been caused. We were very sad to hear that. 😨

[@deonzar]

Lovely place Stanford.Had quite a chuckle at 45:22..."I love cheeses" I believed you said.. 🙂

[@DustBugsTravel]

😁 I did and I do love cheeses! 😍🧀 Stanford is indeed a fantastic place. 🚙👌🏻

[@deonzar]

@@DustBugsTravel yes I know....but did you check what youtube changed it to in print...

[@DustBugsTravel]

Nope, I haven't watched the video since it's been published. They with their close-captioning! 🙄 I know what it must say without even checking though. 🙂

[@sallygemmell7562]

I am not sure if you are at home or away right now, but I hope you are both well and safe and that you have not suffered any, or minimal damage to your home or neighbourhood. Stay safe.

[@DustBugsTravel]

We are home and safe and sound, thank you. 😊 There are many folks very close to us though who have suffered severe damages caused by the superstorm of the past weekend. We can't imagine what they must be going through and we keep them in our thoughts as they clean up and try to move forward. 😥

[@sallygemmell7562]

I am in Australia and the footage of that storm being shown here is absolute devastation. As you say, thoughts and prayers to all and thanks, too, that you and your home are safe.

[@carolmccorry3053]

Very pretty place. Loved the thatched roof on the church

[@DustBugsTravel]

Agreed on both accounts. It was fantastic to see new thatch on that incredible stone church and its hall. 🚙💒

[@hugovanderbroek6878]

So sad that the town flooded this weekend with a lot of damage 😢

[@DustBugsTravel]

Absolutely! What a difference two weeks can make. We believe there is widespread flood damage in and around the village. 😨🌧️

[@dawnbarnes1361]

Hope you guys are Okay in the Strand with all the flooding that's happening there😢❤

[@DustBugsTravel]

We're safe and sound, thanks. A lot of folks in our area have suffered major losses due to the severe flooding though and we can't even imagine what they must be going through now. 😰 It was a superstorm for sure!

[@dawnbarnes1361]

🙏

[@hugovanderbroek6878]

No.potholes in this town.....not even the gravel roads......😮

[@DustBugsTravel]

It's always fantastic to see when roads are well-maintained. We're fortunate in the Western Cape to see that in most places. 🚙🛣️

[@grahamleigh8398]

Are you now using a gimbal?This is a very good video. Salute.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thank you so much. 🚙😊 I have several gimbals, but I find them way too restrictive for my liking. I still use a normal selfie-stick instead of a gimbal.

[@theunskoch7406]

The road between Hermanus and Standford is now closed with the floods

[@DustBugsTravel]

I believe so! 😳 Some of the towns and villages are completely cut off from neighbouring towns due to road closures. 🌧️🛣️

[@danielprinsloo2917]

My darling wife also drives (me crazy at times)

[@DustBugsTravel]

I wonder what she would say to that! 🚙😁

[@danielprinsloo2917]

@@DustBugsTravel She would probably cook me cabbage for a week , No, I am jiking we have been married since I was 22 and she was 23, we are now 53 and my wife 54 . We still run our business together and have been doing that for the past 26 tears. Soul Mates is what I believe they call us, I like to think we are the very best of friends who simply love, respect and honor each other - and never go to sleep without settling an argument - Which she allows me to win once in awhile be blessed and thank you for your efforts you are an inspiration to us.

[@DarthTrotter]

Ironic considering the towns been washed away. 😞

[@DustBugsTravel]

I just called up someone in the village. I believe there is widespread flooding in the low-lying areas of Stanford and along the Klein River. They were also experiencing an unscheduled power outage at the time of my call. Our thoughts are with all those who are affected by this superstorm. 🌧️

[@DarthTrotter]

@@DustBugsTravel Some videos of houses up to their roofs just posted

[@hugovanderbroek6878]

Is julle ok da innie Strand ?

[@DustBugsTravel]

We're safe and sound, thank you. There are widespread flooding and many road closures in our immediate and greater areas though, including Stanford. We think of all those affected. 🌧️😨