Transportation

Between Port Elizabeth/Storms River & Twee Riviere/Joubertina

The Institute shuttle

The Institute’s courtesy shuttle collects passengers from Port Elizabeth Airport as well as from bus terminals in Port Elizabeth and at Storms River. The shuttle bus departs from Port Elizabeth Airport at 15h00 on the Sunday immediately preceding the start of a course, providing students with free and comfortable transport to their place of residence. Please enquire from the Programme Office regarding the availability of special collections (at a fee) outside of this set time. Course participants whom have arranged their accommodation privately and not via the Programme Office, are also advised to check with the Programme Co-ordinator whether their particular Langkloof accommodation establishment is indeed serviced by the Institute’s shuttle bus route.

At the point of first collection (airport arrivals hall, and/or bus terminus), course participants are met by the Institute’s shuttle bus driver, identified by an A4-sized placard bearing the Institute’s name. Before leaving Port Elizabeth, the shuttle bus stops briefly at a conveniently located Spar supermarket, permitting students to undertake convenience purchases. (Langkloof retailers close at midday on Sundays). The shuttle departs again after 20 minutes, to transport students to the accommodation establishments that are serviced by the shuttle bus. The journey from Port Elizabeth to the Langkloof (180km) takes an hour and a half to complete - an approximate arrival time of 17h00 may therefore be anticipated.

Between accommodation establishments & course venue

The shuttle bus is available to provide course participants with daily morning and afternoon transport between class and the accommodation establishments that are on the serviced route - collecting students at 08h30 and returning them again at 17h10. Please note that the daily shuttling comprises of short, 5-minute express journeys, and that unscheduled stops can regrettably not be accommodated. Participants who are in possession of their private mode of transport, are welcome to follow the shuttle bus to the campus on the first day of class, or may make their way there independently by obtaining directions from the Programme Office.

Accommodation

The Institute routinely assists course participants by securing suitable accommodation on their behalf. Details of such arrangements are telephonically and timeously confirmed by the Programme Office with each student prior to their arrival. Students who permit the Institute’s Programme Office to initiate their accommodation arrangements, have certainty that they will draw benefit from the corporate accommodation rate which is extended to the Institute by certain accommodation providers:

A variety of accommodation options are available, and rates vary from extremely reasonable to moderate. These rates (per person per night) range between R75 - R375, and include breakfasts, in the case of some. Kindly invite the assistance of the Programme Office.

For reservations and assistance please contact the programme officer at programme@sainst.org

Local Information

Once the future student has enrolled and successfully secured a seat on one of the Institute’s upcoming training programmes, the Programme Office routinely forwards an information pack to such student’s postal address. This information pack provides the prospective student with detailed information regarding joining instructions and class times, and also lists retailers, bankers, medical and telecommunication services that are available in the immediate area. Information on climate, general terrain and seasonal weather conditions are also included to assist the visitor’s planning and preparation.
For more information - click here for the central campus information pack

Skrijwershoek - The Campus Arboretum

The Institute’s campus grounds is located on a rural acreage initially settled in 1871. The campus grounds is home to both the faculty buildings and to Skrijwershoek Arboretum, a prized tree collection which is tended by the Institute’s dedicated grounds staff. Persons with an interest in the grounds’s historic or botanical aspects, may wish to read about Skrijwershoek’s inception and recent past. Students on campus are welcome to explore the relatively young arboretum, which comprises a unique collection of approximately 700 landscape specimens, composed in a parkland setting. This collection emphasizes autumn colouring species, and also includes many rarely encountered trees. Considering that visits to the arboretum are currently still self-guided, the absence of tree labelling may limit the experience for some. The campus’s grounds staff aims to complete the tagging of the entire collection during 2007.

Skrijwershoek Arboretum

Skrijwershoek comprises a 13 hectare (31 acre) parcel of land, and is home to the faculty buildings of The S.A. Institute for Objects Conservation, a tree collection, two privately occupied dwellings, several sheds, a tree nursery, stable and other minor structures. The land is sectioned into two distinct portions by the Tweerivier River - resulting from the confluence of the Tweerivier and the Dwarsrivier. The Tweerivier river is a (mostly) modest stream which follows a riverine gully through Skrijwershoek’s entire length, from south to north. The mountain catchment basin - visible a few kilometers to the south - is the origin of this river and also gives rise to the frequent, quick flooding of the river gulley, when the meandering stream rapidly swells to impressive proportions!

The grounds of Skrijwershoek are favourably furnished with its own springs, which support the current development of an arboretum (tree collection) on the grounds. The property - in current extent - was acquired by the present owners in three parcels, respectively purchased in 1993, 2000 & 2005. Reclamation and landscaping have only recently been initiated on the most recently acquired, northernmost portion of 8 hectares. On the original portion, landscaping and tree planting had commenced in 1996, when the first tree seeds (from which the current collection was propagated) were sourced. The intent was to create a restful and recreational landscape for private enjoyment, and one which would be principally defined by both common and unusual trees which possess notable autumn colour. The collection is composed of noble (non-invasive) trees from many countries, each qualified by its ability to espouse the climate and to contribute to the desired autumn colour palette. (With minor exceptions, our indigenous species are regrettably not notable in this second respect and do not present themselves for inclusion…)

Lately, the arboretum has also begun to find its voice as a planted landscape which seeks to foster an appreciation for trees generally, and one which hopes to stimulate in the visitor a renewed interest in the unique, even profound, contribution trees can make to the human habitat. In keeping with its inception, no commercial purposes are currently envisioned for the arboretum.

Purposeful seed-collecting and propagation were continued under current tenure until 2001, and saplings of rare specimens were attentively cultivated throughout this initial period. Many of these are currently flourishing in the immediate landscape, and dozens more (predominantly Oriental plane trees and Sycamore planes) have been established along the town’s streets. The arboretum is notably young but nonetheless significant - on account of a number of uncommon specimens on the one hand, but also for a second reason: It eloquently refutes the notion that one plants trees for posterity only, having only scant hope of sharing the reward oneself. Many otherwise patient persons are given to maintain that they simply “cannot wait that long” or that they “will never see the tree mature”. But the practice roundly contradicts this sentiment: Consider that practically the entire tree collection on Skrijwershoek had been seed-grown, and that the majority of saplings had only germinated as late as 1999! Fact is that, in the final analysis nobody actually “waits” for a tree to grow… Whether we plant or not, time passes just the same! (All the better to plant then!). Click here for Gallery

A Brief History

The current-day Skrijwershoek (originally Scriberia) was parcelled and settled in the late 1860’s, shortly after a German immigrant, one Dennis Sampson Schreiber had acquired it. Mr Schreiber, a German immigrant, had come ashore at Knysna before making his way across the Tsitsikamma mountains to the Langkloof (literally “Long Valley”) where he soon settled in the hamlet of Twee Rivieren.

Literacy was not yet commonplace in these parts, and consequently Dennis Schreiber (an educated man) quickly rose to prominence in the tiny community, where he soon held office as magistrate, school principal, postmaster and shopkeeper! Having married a Miss Murray, Dennis Schreiber and his young wife gradually consolidated the family’s position by adding no less than five sons and five daughters to the household.

Evidently pleased with the land they had acquired, the Schreibers erected their modest family home in 1871, adopting the double-pitched settler’s cottage style which was representative of the time. This house (now slightly extended) is located at the entrance to Skrijwershoek, where it still serves its original purpose as a family home - albeit now in its capacity as Dean House to The S.A. Institute for Objects Conservation. In the last years of the 1800’s, two of the Schreiber sons (already young adults) erected a second, twin dwelling on the family land. This survives as the building that currently houses the Ceramics Conservation faculty, and was incorporated into Skrijwershoek in 2000 along with a 2,4 hectare parcel of land. In the construction of this building, traditional yellowwood still predominated as the timber of choice for ceilings and beams, although (in contrast to the original house) Oregon Pine had by then caught on as a popular timber for flooring and was consequently used underfoot. Little of the original floor has survived to the present day.

The pitched-roofed stone structure located at the south-western corner of the grounds (and adjacent to the tarred road) used to serve as the town’s general dealer store, and was (no surprise here) operated by the inimitable Mr Schreiber. The daily transactions of his store were carefully and precisely captured in his elegant script and were recorded in bulky, leather-bound store journals, of which one known copy still survives. This structure (now referred to as the Stone Shed) is adjacent to the stable, and is as yet unrestored. This structure has been earmarked to serve as a forge and smithy which will, at some future point, serve special course presentations of the Metals Conservation Department.

Visitors are permitted access to this erstwhile store’s jumbled interior (which currently serves as a wood shed), where the faint evidence of long-gone shop shelving can still be traced along its walls…

The Belfry Kitchen

During 2010, construction will begin on the Institute’s on-campus café, The Belfry Kitchen. This engaging and relaxing corner of the campus will resurrect the historic stone building which formerly housed the town of Twee Rivieren’s general grocer from 1879 to 1940. Since the store’s closure during the Second World War, the dignified old building has largely stood abandoned...

Plans for The Belfry Kitchen provide for a wood-fired oven, which the Belfry’s patisserie chef will use to produce a range of traditional breads and scrumptious confectionery. Visitors will also be able to enjoy the results of artisanal cheesemaking and general delicatessen, light meals, good coffee and much more...

Under the lively stewardship of a youthful, qualified chef, The Belfry Kitchen purposes to demonstrate the beauty and bounty of home-grown produce which draws on traditional farming practices, patterned on the home life of a bygone age. With few exceptions, all produce will be drawn from the on-campus dairy, poultry stocks, vegetable gardens, fruit and nut trees and much more. Earth’s bounty indeed!

Following its launch in November 2010, The Belfry Kitchen will be open to serve students, staff and the public - daily from 08h00 - 16h30, Sunday to Friday.