Villa Anastasia

03/01/2023

December flew by and here we are in 2023 - wishing you all a magical year ahead. Pics of some of our incredible guests that we had the pleasure of hosting over the tail end of the festive season. 🧿

15/12/2022

Wowsers, this December has been one for the books. It’s been a whirlwind of fabulous guests, wedding bells, sunshine and smiles! 🤍🧿🤍

22/11/2022

Our fab guests! ⭐️

02/11/2022

Something amazing just happened. We received the eco-friendly award from TravelMyth!

Our commitment towards to environmentally sound practices remains steadfast. Hence you will not find a trace of single use plastics in our establishment. We replaced them with sustainable alternatives such as reusable toiletry dispensers, as well as reusable food and beverage containers.

🧿🤍🌍

02/11/2022

It was a weekend of celebrations aplenty! From a proud graduation to a well deserved girls’ trip, guests all the way from Limpopo, as well as a working weekend - we had such a fabulous group of guests staying with us! 🧿

27/10/2022

What a pleasure it’s been hosting our recent guests. Three generations of absolute loveliness, and two fabulous couples from Switzerland and the Netherlands.

14/10/2022

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How weird has the weather been in over the last few evenings?! Once again tonight had this terrible warm berg wind blowing.

This is a beautiful summary of the storm out over Umhlanga by
・・・
What a spectacular evening of lightning!

This evening I went down to the beach in Umhlanga Rocks to photograph the storm which was passing just north of Durban.

It was one of the most incredibly active lightning storms I have ever had the privilege to witness. It was also quite peculiar...

At first the humidity and moisture in the air was so thick, it felt like I was breathing in the ocean; salty and warm.
Suddenly the heavy haze of moisture lifted, and I was confronted with the hottest wind I have ever felt. The Berg Wind felt like I was standing right in front of a heater vent, and at one point it felt like my skin was on fire. I started worrying as I've never experienced anything like that before, and it just got hotter and hotter; unbearably so. I also started worrying about my camera as the heat kept rising and I was concerned for the delicate electronics.
Suddenly a cool wind came from behind and started to offer some relief. The heat stayed and there was a constant mix between heat and cool.

There was some rain, but only enough to make your car dirty. Such a strange storm.
I doubt I'll ever forget it, however I'm grateful to have witnessed and captured it.

I shot in two directions, but I thought I'd share the first photo for now. I hope that you like it.

This is a composite image created from some of the images that I captured, which have then been overlayed to create the single image.

South Africa has the most incredible beauty, and her storms are astounding. Keep looking for the beauty. It's there.

I am Proudly South African.

If you like my work and would like to support me, it would be great if you "bought me a coffee" : http://buymeacoff.ee/ChristoSmith

I used an amazing 6D Mark ii and an older 16-35 2.8

13/10/2022

Snaps of some of our recent guests. Aren’t they just lovely? 🧿

03/10/2022

It’s been a week of smiles aplenty at Villa Anastasia.

You’ve got to love our incredible guests who have become like extended family to us.

🧿🤍🧿

26/09/2022

Happy 60th Anniversary to the KZN Sharks Board! An absolute must see for any visitor to Durban, and we’re located less than a kilometre from them. 🦈

26/09/2022

What a fabulous time we’ve had with our recent guests - it’s been such a pleasure hosting and getting to know each of you!

We had two sets of guests from Germany - Harald and the Hartmann’s; the Medi Response team; and the avid rugby supporters from Scribante group.

🧿

16/09/2022

Absolutely adored hosting these wonderful people. A fond farewell to Jean, Mike & Monica!