My Autumn years

About two years ago I realized my career as a Geographical Information Systems Technician had to come to an end. The hairs were turning grey, some of my body parts could do with an overhaul, but my spirit still felt young, so sitting around doing nothing, absolutely was not for me!

My son @deanoza, introduced me to Airbnb, and that’s how our quaint Lily’s Cottage was born.

Looking at the possibility of supplementing my income after the corporate world discarded me, became very attractive, plus the opportunity of meeting people from all over the world made this venture even more appealing :)
We live in an awesome green valley, in a quiet tranquil suburb of Durban, South Africa.

This is our little paradise which we get to share with our guests; monkeys trooping through our garden, foraging for food, plus many garden birds as well as raptors swooping through the valley.
We have planted papaya trees, a wild plum tree as well as a pigeon wood tree which all provide food for these wild creatures.

Starting a guesthouse in the autumn of my life, has been an absolutely awesome experience! We get to meet fabulous people from all over the world, and some surprisingly from just around the corner!

Life at our address which became known as Lily’s Cottage has never been the same again!

We have been amazed at the demand for short term accommodation, started our venture in peak season, and thought our business would go into hibernation until the next school holidays, but this was not to be, with business guests arriving for a lengthy stay!

We’ve had many funny moments; body builders entering a competition came with high protein food and supplements galore. One morning when I went down to the cottage, the door was opened and all I saw were muscles and the tiniest skimpy speedo; the young man must have been highly amused at the shock on the face of his host; had me giggling like a teen :)

Someone wanting to escape pesky visitors, booked with us after telling the visitors that she would be attending a church conference out of town therefore could not host them; she had a gloriously relaxing time with us. No dirty laundry, mounds of dishes and house full of beach sand. This often happens when you live close to the sea, and as we all know, some visitors are an absolute pleasure to have, but some are like smelly socks, cannot wait to throw them out!

All our guests are endearing in their own special way; a German lady was so excited when she ‘saved’ a frog from drowning in the pool, another German lady asked ‘Ver is the sun?’ after some cloudy days, as though we could order it to appear on demand :) Four young French guys who could barely speak English, left a cellphone power pack behind and messaged us ‘You can’t have it!’

We had a Mom and son from San Francisco who came for the AIDS conference, and went on from here to climb Mount Kilimanjaro successfully, and I must add the Mom was already well into her fifties!

A Swedish couple arrived snow white and left with a glowing tan after a two month long stay with their gorgeous little boys who crept into our hearts :)

Then a young couple on their way to a cruise stayed over, and the young man confided that he was planning on proposing on the cruise; and sent us pics of that moment.

An awesome family from New York who do mission work in Zambia stayed for a week. It was lovely hearing their songs of praise and guitar strumming wafting up to our house every morning.

We’ve hosted Cricketers, Water Polo players, BMX riders, Drum Majorettes, Hockey players, Comrades Marathon runners, Darts players and many other sportsmen and women and we have been able to assist some with small sponsorships in the form of accommodation. One young sportsman gave us one of his medals as a memento, so we made a collage which now takes pride of place on the walls of Lily’s Cottage!

We have hosted guests who all bring a little of themselves; they come for leisure, business, sport, funerals, hospital visits, conferences and many other reasons. Lily’s Cottage has been a tranquil haven for many!

We have now listed our Lily’s Cottage on many other booking sites, we’re busier than ever before, but our lives have certainly been enriched, plus we have been able to beautify our home and garden with the new income!

www.lilyscottage.co.za

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