They chose South Africa.
Heine and Daria unveiled Bliss and Stars, a stylish Afro-Nordic retreat in the arid solitude of the Cederberg, to a social media audience in late 2020. Hugging the slope of a mountain, Bliss and Stars overlooks the Doring River and across onto the opposing burntorange mountainside. Itʼs calm here, and the first thing you want to do is… well, nothing. Perhaps go down to the river to swim or paddle with one (or three) of the retreatʼs friendly dogs, perhaps read a book or write… the days stretch long and healthy, framed by sunrise and sunset through the glass wall of your cabin. The easy quiet is as antidote to our otherwise busy, technologyfuelled daily lives.
Roughly 130 rock steps separate cabins from the main living area, enough to work up both a fair level of fitness during your stay, and an appetite for meals. Classically trained chef Arabella Parkinson marries delicious flavour to healing nutritional value with her plant-based menu – but, for the lucky ones, the highlight of the evening is served at South Africaʼs newest and largest private astronomical observatory after dinner.
The sky above was studded with white lights pricking through an infinite blanket of blackness. Beside us loomed two human-sized telescopes with wide barrels pointing skywards. Heine tapped on his linked computer to input the names of stars and, with a low whirr, the larger of the two telescopes rotated towards its target.
ʻLet's use your camera,ʼ Heine said, reaching over to attach my Canon 5D Mark IV to the back of the telescope. Still somewhat sceptical dialled in the exposure (ISO 3 200 and shutter speed of three minutes). Our conversation paused as we waited in suspense. Despite having practised astrophotography since 2008, Heine was just as invested as I, if not more so. Click. We checked the LCD camera screen. There, on the back of my camera, was a green and blue nebulous gas cloud surrounding diamond-light-flared stars. I gasped. Heine smiled.
We dialled in another co-ordinate, and another: ʻThatʼs 47 Tucanae, the second largest star cluster with millions of stars, thatʼs the Black Eye galaxy…ʼ until we were forced to stop by the creeping blue light of dawn. Prior to this night, Iʼd always thought images like this were reserved for the NASAs of the world and the telescopes that accompany them, inaccessible to the likes of you or me.
If my awareness of stars had been born in Namibia and gained depth in the Karoo, it surely opened its eyes in the Cederberg. For it was here that I finally understood that the black and white sky above us is actually overflowing with colour.