The story of our Guest House "Chez Coetzer" and our Logo - A Paradise Flycatcher with chicks in a nest- started many years ago. In my early days as a photographic enthusiast before becoming a professional photographer a friend Chris Viviers an Architect by trade took me under his photographic wings. Me and Chris spent many happy hours photographing Paradise Flycatcher birds feeding their chicks. All the Paradise Flycatcher nests were all ways very similar in construction. Very neat and all ways to small for the chicks that occupied it! Paradise Flycatchers leave their nests within 14 days of hatching! ( I have wondered on so many occasions why human offspring can't do the same and leave the nest after 14 days?!).

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In this short period growth is very rapid. Initially the little chicks heads are bigger than the rest of their bodies. It amazed me and Chris how the chicks could sense quite early that either the male paradise flycatcher with his long tail or the female was approaching the nest with food.  What amazed us even more is that the food that was brought to the nest on many occasions were bigger than the birds themselves. Ad onto this the fact that the food was never shared amongst the chicks. If the Paradise Flycatcher arrived at the nest with a huge grass hopper the whole insect would simply be rammed down a single chicks throat! As the parents approached the nest all the chicks will get very exited stand up in their little nest with their beaks begging for food. Now only one will receive the food.

What stayed with me forever was the fact that the same chick that just received the generous helping from the parent were back in action pleading for more even before the parents left the nest! To us its just seemed to be an impossible task that the Paradise Flycatcher parents were burdened with. No matter how hard they worked the chicks were always screaming for more food. During the time that me and Chris photographed the Paradise Flycatchers Chris took his family for a holiday to Kruger National Park in our winter season, picked up a lung virus and died within days. In the process of opening my first studio I met my wife Veronica. The love affair ended in a second marriage for me and Veronica and we brought five chicks to our new nest. Just like my Paradise Flycatcher friends me and Vee from the beginning had to work extremely hard to feed "our chicks". What is more, the rest of the experience with "our chicks" was exactly the same as that of the poor Paradise Flycatchers. Every day that I stopped in front of our house in my mind's eye I saw five paradise flycatcher chicks with their beaks open, begging for food.

What ever we brought home for our chicks was never going to be enough. The same child that has just received his or her "juicy grasshopper" was begging for more even before we left our little nest in search of what ever was required to fulfill their primary needs! Our five beautiful children's nest has now become "Chez Coetzer" and we promise the same commitment and dedication to your comfort and well being than the Paradise Flycatchers will give to their chicks. We dedicate this guest house to the memory of an amazing little bird - The Paradise Flycatcher - and an awesome human being my friend Chris Viviers. Lou Coetzer