A quieter corner of the archive for people who live here, visit often, or keep coming back to the same stretch of coast and the same small towns. Long-form essays, maker interviews and photo journals from the Boland, the Overberg and the Cape Flats, written for readers who would rather sit with a piece than scroll past it.
Most of our subscribers found us through a friend's forwarded email, not a search engine. These are notes from people who read the weekly letter on a Sunday morning, often with coffee, sometimes with a garden to get to afterwards.
"I started reading for the Kitchen Notes and stayed for the maker interviews. The piece on the Riebeek-Kasteel market lunch made me drive out there the following Saturday. I've been going back most months since."
Nadia P., Somerset West
"I work from a converted garage in Durban and rarely feel seen in lifestyle writing. The home studio series described my exact problem with clay dust and the kettle. Small thing, but it mattered."
Sipho M., Glenwood
4.8
Average reader rating across the last two years of letters
9 in 10
Subscribers who say they read the letter in one sitting
"The Karoo drive piece is the only travel writing I've read in years that didn't try to sell me anything. I stopped twice on the N9 because of it."
Elsabe V., Graaff-Reinet
If you read slowly and keep a notebook by the kettle, this is built for you. Every feature is reported or written by someone who was there, and each one carries enough detail to be useful after the reading is done.
Weeknight cooking from Boland farm kitchens, Durban Indian households and Cape Flats bakeries. Recipes arrive with the cook's own notes on substitutions, seasonal timing and what to do when an ingredient is out of reach.
Interviews with ceramicists, weavers, bookbinders and furniture makers working from garages, back rooms and shared workshops. Practical talk about rent, ventilation, storage and keeping a practice going alongside a day job.
Routes out of Cape Town and Durban that reward stopping: the N9 through the Karoo, the back roads behind Ceres, the coastal stretch past Gansbaai. Each drive comes with a loose itinerary and a reason to pull over.
Book reviews written by readers rather than publicists, plus a weekly letter for people who would rather finish one essay than scroll through twenty. Letters go out on Thursday mornings.
Start with a recent piece in the planning notes or a practical first-week read.
For readers outside the city
The weekly letter is written for exactly that distance. One essay, one photo journal, one short note on what contributors in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are working on that week. No feed, no notifications, no rush to keep up. It arrives on Thursday and reads well with coffee on a Saturday.
Prefer to write first? Send a note to info@robyndodd.com or call 027 262 2309. Letters can also be posted to 8326 Badenhorst Trail Apt. 078, Lake Xolani, LP 1455.