Retirement: Where in SA?

Close to wherever my family and friends are. Don't see the point of picking a place as to me relationships beat location every time.
 
MickeyD said:
Stemming from a general discussion elsewhere, the question of retirement choices arose.

Where would you like to spend your retirement?

- Limited to South Africa.
- If you want to roam, where would you base yourself?

My choices:
1. Sedgefield/Wilderness
2. Hogsback
3. Jeffreys Bay
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Kleinemonde in the Eastern Cape. 1 hour outside of East London, 20 min from Port Alfred. A beautiful small and safe coastal community.
 
Wilderness or Knysa pretty much..

Or IF I could afford it, one of the private residences at Phinda.
 
Where to retire ...

I went through the process starting 4 years ago, and we spent a lot of time driving around the WC looking at the smaller towns. Two things were non-negotiable .. i.e. we only considered (1) Only WC (2) a small town

We travelled (from Jhb) in the WC for those 4 years at every opportunity, and tried to stay a couple of nights in small towns which we liked the look of.

We already owned a free-hold home in a complex in Brenton-on-Sea (we bought it years ago as an investment & potential retirement home) but soon ruled out the Plett / Knysna / Brenton areas because of holiday-time crowding, and ever-rising crime (albeit only of the housebreaking / theft-type currently.

Places like McGregor / Greyton were just too small and out of the way.

Somerset West / Gordons Bay, Hermanus, etc were also just too crowded in holiday periods & long weekends.

We eventually settled on Swellendam (although my SO 'kan nie een word Afrikaans vestaan, of praat, nie' (She was schooled, as was I, in the 'colonies' many years ago). It's midway between George & Somerset West (where we both have family), but far enough away to preclude too many visits.

We bought our SWD home a couple of years before retirement, and we enjoy a serene lifestyle, with beautiful Langberg mountain views from our home.

We have no burglar bars, nor security doors, nor electric fencing, and no alarm system ... but both our motor- and household-goods insurance premiums halved when we arrived here, compared to Joburg (where we did have all the anti-theft measures - it was an insurance pre-requisite)

The ONLY issue (notice I don't say "negative") is the distance from major retail malls & stores & Woolies Food store (my SO loves Woolies) .. and I miss the Makro's / Builders Warehouse type of store if I need to make a major e.g. PC/ appliance / TV /furniture etc. purchase. And with those I now buy online.

We have a smallish Checkers, and a Superspar, and a small Clicks .. so day-to-day supplies are easy to get. It's only a problem if we need the odd speciality item, and then we have to travel to a bigger town / city. Our town has no traffic lights, no parking meters, no traffic jams. Lifes great here!
 
The wildside just outside of PE…
 
MKFrost said:
Our winters down here are actually far milder than the ones up there and the rain is only a week or two thing, not the whole winter.
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It has been for a very long time now that we read about the rain, floods and snow in the WC. Way more than a week.

JHB is much warmer in winter than CT. Remember, the JHB winters are dry, there is no rain in winter here - there is nothing worse than having cold AND wet weather together.
 
MKFrost said:
When last have you been there? Place have gone to the dogs....
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Quite the opposite. Springbok has been developing in the past few years and lots of new houses, alongside the gorgeous old ones. Beautiful little town situated in a kind of valley. They even have a Nando's :D
 
blunomore said:
It has been for a very long time now that we read about the rain, floods and snow in the WC. Way more than a week.

JHB is much warmer in winter than CT. Remember, the JHB winters are dry, there is no rain in winter here - there is nothing worse than having cold AND wet weather together.
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Plett is very far from CPT....
 
akescpt said:
whats the place called between east london and PE? its on either side of a river mouth. it looked pretty great when we drove past there.
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Bushmans, Kenton, Port Alfred, Kleinemonde
all fit your description
 
poffle said:
1st choice hogsback but i think you would lose your mind after about a month.

probably Wilderness.
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They have enough of the green stuff at Hogsback to solve the lose your mind problem. My recommendation is more to George side. Tergniet, Reebok. But not that other place that all the Pretorianers migrate to called Hartenbos.

EDIT: Gonubie. Moderate weather. Bit of wind. Not too small, but not too big. East London is close.
 
akescpt said:
whats the place called between east london and PE? its on either side of a river mouth. it looked pretty great when we drove past there.
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lol - I'm leaning towards Sundays but you're going to have to narrow it down just a little bit. :)
 
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