Saint du Barrys re-imagined, hospitality re-invented, travellers' tales retold.

I've been listening and discussing with a number of people who have things to say about being versatile, flexible, creative yet clear about navigating the newness of business, emerging as we are at this confounding time.

For years we've been a four star guest house offering bed and breakfast to business people, guests doing the loop from Cape Town to towns on the coast to Clanwilliam and the Cederberg and the rooibos area,  to the Winelands, or in reverse order. We've hosted guests en route to Namibia, the Augrabies Falls and on to Johannesburg. We've been revisited by families from Windhoek travelling to Cape Town, Knysna, George and back.

We've paid attention to bed linen, towels, fresh fruit, local wines, tidy garden, clear splash-pool, keeping friendly guest-house pets and home-made muesli and jams.

We've spent years putting the story that made sense to us in place, and according to feedback from Booking.com and Tripadvisor, it's worked.

But now, with some regret, because it's been fun, we're putting that story behind us and are seeking the headings for new chapters.

We're not sure what to expect but here are a few likely items:

fewer international guests while Covid-19 remains a threat, but we look forward to their return

local guests who can travel and want to but have much less disposable cash

people who have been jolted out of normality and are looking for new stability but don't know what it feels like

people who are bereaved and seriously require the kind of company that's not easily definable

people who want simplicity rather than self-congratulation and self-comfort

people who want to get out of the city

people who are crying for KFC, Spur, wine, whisky, beer, vodka and cigarettes, and who have the sudden and horrible realisation that these aren't enough.

In short, I'm re-imagining Saint du Barrys, and if you can offer insights, please do.

I'm thinking of travellers who have lost much, but not the power to re-imagine their lives. Travellers who aren't merely travelling from Cape Town to Stellenbosch via Clanwilliam, but from a comfortable life to fierce disappointment to a disturbed but rekindled hope that there's something still left. That although some pages have been crumpled, there are yet many stories to be told.

I'm thinking of people who are able to sample world-class cuisine, and who have come to realise that shared simplicity is irreplaceable.

And that that which is prepared outside, in sunlight can be as intriguing and exciting as that which is prepared in a five star kitchen.

I've sensed that contact with our natural friends is much more important than we realise.

And that although food feeds us

"man does not live by bread alone...".

So it seems to me that in this re-invention, we'll work on establishing what's relevant not by being romantic, but by reaching out and asking to be real with each other, certainly in comfortable ways, and also in ways that are more clear and open to conversations about this new way of living. That one is not an eighteen hour long guest, but a traveller for whom much waits.