If you’ve got a taste for local legends, the Tokai Manor House is home to one of the most famous ghost stories in the Western Cape, and Hermanus resident, Reinhard Buhr, knows this story better than most.

Reinhard was born and raised in Touwsrivier, a railway town in the Western Cape. After finishing school, he left the Karoo to study at Stellenbosch University, completing a Teacher’s Diploma and a BA in Physical Education. A natural athlete, Reinhard was a fixture on the university’s rugby and water polo teams, and later played for clubs in False Bay and Hermanus. His rugby team even played a part in Hermanus’ physical history, helping to fund and build the sports pavilion that is now part of Hermanus High School.

After university, Reinhard went on to work as a substitute teacher in schools across the province, before joining the staff at the William Porter Reformatory in Tokai in 1960. He spent over three decades at the institution, working to provide structure and a second chance to young men caught up in Cape Town’s gang culture.

It was during his final decade at the school, from 1982 to 1992, that Reinhard and his wife, Trudy, lived in the historic Tokai Manor House, which sits on land that once served as Simon van der Stel’s grazing grounds.

According to lore, during a particularly festive New Year’s Eve, a young nobleman named Frederick Eksteen was dared to ride his horse right into the living room of Tokai Manor House. He pulled it off at first, much to the delight of the crowd, but the noise and chaos spooked the horse, and the horse bolted and fell down the steep veranda steps. Tragically, neither Frederick nor his horse survived the fall.

Some say the party never ended – there are reports of the phantom sounds of a horse and rider repeating the performance, accompanied by screams in the night, especially when New Year’s Eve rolls around.

While this ghostly legend has kept people talking for over a century, Reinhard and his wife Trudy spent an entire decade living inside the ‘haunted’ manor, and Reinhard says that in ten years of residency, he never encountered anything supernatural. By the time Reinhard retired in 1992, he had risen to the position of Senior Vice Principal.

The Buhrs’ connection, however, was always to Hermanus. They built a holiday home in Voëlklip back in 1974, which became their permanent base after Reinhard’s retirement. Trudy became a well-known face in the community, volunteering her time and fundraising tirelessly for Huis Lettie Theron and other local organisations. In a touching turn of events, the very home Trudy supported for so many years eventually became the place that would care for Reinhard. Following Trudy’s passing, Reinhard moved into Huis Lettie Theron in 2025. 

More about Tokai Manor House

Information supplied

• The land was originally part of Simon van der Stel’s Constantia grazing grounds until it reverted to the Dutch East India Company in 1712.

• In 1792, Jan Andreas Rauch was granted 39 morgen of the land, which he sold months later to Andreas Georg Heinrich Teubes, a German surgeon who built the first homestead toward the end of the 18th century.

• Petrus Michiel Eksteen purchased the property in 1802, and it remained in his family’s possession until 1885.

• The Cape Government bought the manor in 1885, using it initially as the Forestry Department headquarters under Joseph Storr Lister.

• Portions of the land were later used for the William Porter Reformatory and various forestry projects, including an arboretum.

• The manor was declared a National Monument in 1961 it is now a Provincial Heritage Site.

While South Africa has a relatively short bonsai history overall, the ancient practice is considered one of the most popular Japanese arts in the country today, with many clubs now in existence including Kujira Bonsai Kai in Hermanus. 

In Japanese, Kujira Bonsai Kai loosely translates to Whale Bonsai Society. Kujira means whale and kai means association, club, or society. The word bonsai combines bon (tray or pot) and sai (planting or cultivation) to describe the art of growing miniature trees that mimic their full-sized counterparts in nature – a practice that originated in China as penjing* before being refined into its own distinct Japanese art form.

The goal of bonsai is not simply to keep a tree small, but to suggest age and character within the confines of a container. It is a living sculpture shaped over years and sometimes decades of patient planning, pruning, wiring, and care.

Besides popular international species, many enthusiasts in South Africa grow hardy local specimens that thrive in our country’s varied climates, including water-wise species such as spekboom. Growers are also moving away from trying to replicate traditional Japanese shapes, and instead allow indigenous trees to follow forms more natural to their own species – a philosophy that has helped give local bonsai its own distinct identity.

Kujira Bonsai Kai meets monthly, and each meeting brings a guest speaker. April's meeting welcomed Dr André Swart, a paediatrician from George who has spent more than 30 years rooted in the world of bonsai. He is also the author of Spekboom Bonsai Masterclass, a book dedicated entirely to the art of training spekboom as bonsai.

Dr Swart's talk on spekboom bonsai focused on design technique and the application of plant growth principles to create what bonsai is ultimately after: the illusion of a miniature mature tree. Much of what makes bonsai so fascinating is the need to work with the plant's biology, and getting there means understanding what's happening beneath the surface as much as above it. 

For those hoping to collect spekboom from the wild to start their bonsai with, Dr Swart’s advice is thoughtful and unhurried – have a plan before you remove the tree. If you don't know what you want to do with it, mark it on your GPS and come back when you do. Rushed collecting rarely ends well, and a plant left in its environment is always better off than one dug up without purpose.

Bonsai teaches what little else can – that some things cannot be rushed.

For more information on Kujira Bonsai Kai, contact Peter on 083 627 0936. You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram.

*Penjing aims to capture the spirit of nature in a "living sculpture" that is often more wild, dramatic, and naturalistic than Japanese bonsai. The first visual evidence of penjing is from 706 AD, although it is estimated to be older than that.

Most people who stand on the cliffs of Hermanus see only a fleeting glimpse of a whale – a misty breath or a curved back slipping beneath the waves, but behind those brief encounters are lives as rich and complex as our own. Through the Adopt-a-Whale programme, the MRI Whale Unit invites people to step into those stories. Each adoption connects you not just to a whale, but to decades of research, family histories, and the global ocean changes shaping their survival.

Blanca

First seen in 1984, she is one of the rare brindle females in South Africa’s southern right whale population. Born white, her skin gradually turned grey, and her calves have carried forward her unusual colouration. Blanca’s sons are brindle, her daughters partial-grey – a living thread of inheritance that helps scientists understand how these patterns are passed down. 

Emma

Emma’s story stretches back to 1983, when she was spotted near Rooiels with her first calf. The distinctive blaze across her back makes her instantly recognisable, and over the years she has become a mother, a grandmother and great-grandmother. Her lineage shows how grey morphism persists across generations, weaving genetic diversity into the population.

Maggie

The first female southern right whale ever identified in South African waters, she carries the weight of history. Seen in 1979 in Plettenberg Bay, she is now close to 50 years old. Her calves include brindle sons and partial-grey daughters, and her sightings across the coast reflect her endurance, as well as the challenges of survey work. 

Granny

And finally, Granny. She was first seen in 1981, and her regular calving intervals mark her as one of the most successful females we have tracked. Through her daughter Vicky and granddaughter Splash, Granny’s family has grown to include great-great-grandchildren, making her a matriarch whose story spans generations. 

By adopting a whale, supporters can help ensure that Hermanus’s giants continue to thrive, and that the global story they tell is heard. When you adopt a whale, you’ll receive regular updates on the Whale Unit’s research as well as your chosen whale. You will gain access to our WhatsApp community, where you’ll get real-time updates from the field, behind-the-scenes insights, and you’ll also receive a tax certificate. All this while directly supporting the science that protects these magnificent animals.

The Adopt-a-Whale programme links people to science, to the ocean, and to the extraordinary lives of whales like Blanca, Emma, Maggie, and Granny. It is a way of turning awareness into action, ensuring that their stories continue for generations to come. See the whales up for adoption at www.mammalresearchinstitute.science/adopt-a-whale

At the end of each day, when bakeries, delis, cafés and grocers begin to wind down, there is often still perfectly good food left unsold. Food waste may be a global issue, but in a place like Hermanus, where conscious living plays a big role, one local is showing that meaningful change can start within our own community. 

Launched just three weeks ago by programmer Ross Keenan, StillFresh is a simple but powerful concept aimed at reducing food waste while supporting local businesses. Inspired by the widely used European platform ‘Too Good To Go’, Ross brought the idea home and adapted it for a local audience.

At its core, StillFresh connects local food businesses with customers willing to purchase surplus items at a reduced price. These 'rescue bags” are filled with whatever a business has left at the end of the day (or from the day before). The items are fresh, quality foods that might otherwise go to waste.

Ross describes it as a bit of a lucky packet – you don’t always know what you’re going to get. It all depends on what’s still available, so each rescue bag from the same business can be different from the last.

“I came across it while visiting Germany,” he explains. “The idea stuck with me for years before I decided to launch StillFresh. I’ve always been aware of global issues, and I wanted to do something tangible that could make a real impact.”

The process of ‘rescuing' a bag of food is straightforward: customers reserve and pay for a bag online, the business is notified, and collection happens within a set time window. So far, local favourites like Mr. Write, Black Medicine, and Baked Coffee Bar have joined the platform, with more cafés, bakeries, delis, grocers, and restaurants in the pipeline.

For businesses, StillFresh offers several benefits – reducing food waste, recovering some costs, and potentially attracting new customers. There is also no cost for businesses to list their rescue bags on the website. When a rescue bag is sold, a small commission goes to Ross to help cover expenses.

For users, it’s an affordable way to access quality food while making a positive environmental impact. Each purchase also includes an impact report, estimating the water, energy and carbon emissions saved, calculated across the entire lifecycle of the food, from production to plate.

StillFresh also introduces a thoughtful community element. Users can gift a rescue bag to someone else or donate a bag for someone to claim. Ross is currently exploring ways for these donated bags to reach members of the community who may not have access to the technology needed to claim them. If you refer a friend, you can earn store credit towards your next bag. But beyond the rewards, the real value lies in shifting habits and mindsets around food consumption.

Ross’s long-term goal for StillFresh is to make it national, but for now, the focus remains local. “Food waste is a huge issue globally,” he says. “But if we can reduce it within our own community, that’s already a step in the right direction.”

For more information and to buy rescue bags, visit www.stillfresh.co.za. Businesses interested in signing up can contact Ross on 079 367 4283 or via email at support@mail.stillfresh.co.za