Shoes off at the door

A yoga room on the first floor above the bike shop in Trill Road, Observatory. Twenty-two mats, yellowwood floors, no mirrors. Drop in for R120, or come every day of the month for R780.

See this week

Why there is a room at all

We both taught out of gym studios for years — mirrors down one wall, a spin class thumping through the other. In 2019 the first floor above the bike shop came up empty, still smelling faintly of the fruit that used to be packed in it, and we spent four months on our knees sanding the yellowwood back. There are no mirrors and there is no music unless somebody asks for it. The sash windows open onto Devil's Peak and you can hear the Cape Flats line going past, which people either like straight away or stop noticing in about a week. It holds twenty-two mats. We have never once wanted it bigger.

This week on the mat

The board changes on the first Monday of every term and this is the winter one. Doors open twenty minutes before each class and are locked at 20:30. Sixty minutes unless the line says otherwise, and we start on the minute.

Sunrise · Mon to Fri

05:45 · Ashtanga, led primary · Nandi

06:15 · Slow flow · Rifqah

07:00 · Breath and sit, 30 min · Nandi

07:30 · Vinyasa, the faster one · Kabelo

Midday · Mon, Wed, Fri

12:15 · Lunch flow, 45 min · Kabelo

13:00 · Beginners course, Wed only · Nandi

13:15 · Restorative, bolsters out · Rifqah

14:00 · Room open, no teacher, no charge

After work · Mon to Thu

17:00 · Vinyasa · Kabelo

18:15 · Hatha, slower and warmer · Rifqah

18:15 · Prenatal, Tue and Thu · Anneke

19:30 · Yin, long holds, lights low · Anneke

Weekend · Sat and Sun

Sat 07:30 · Mysore-style, two hours, come and go · Nandi

Sat 09:00 · Everybody welcome, a friend comes free · Rifqah

Sun 08:00 · Slow flow and a long savasana · Kabelo

Sun 16:00 · Restorative by candle, nobody talks · Anneke

Worth knowing before you come

Eight things people ask us on the stairs.

Nothing to bring

Mats, blocks, bolsters, straps and blankets live here and get washed on Sundays. Wear whatever you can bend in. If you own a mat you are fond of, bring it and we will keep it on the rack.

Beginners are the point

The Wednesday 13:00 course runs six weeks from scratch and takes ten people. Nobody in it has done this before, which is the entire reason it works.

Finding the door

14 Trill Road, Observatory. The green door beside the bike shop, not the shop door itself. Nineteen steep stairs, which we mention because everybody asks and because there is no lift.

No levels, no grades

One class, everyone in it together, three versions of every shape. Nandi has been doing this fifteen years and still takes the easy one on a bad Monday.

Not a heated room

The room sits at whatever Observatory is doing. From May we put two oil heaters on at 05:00 so the floor is warm before you are on it. In February all four windows stay open.

Tell us what hurts

Say it at the door, not afterwards. Anneke trained as a physio and Rifqah nursed for twelve years, so between them there is very little they have not already watched go wrong.

We finish on time

Sixty minutes means sixty minutes, because half the room has to be somewhere by eight. Come in late and quietly rather than not coming at all.

Twenty-two mats

That is the whole room. Book on the board by the door or on WhatsApp. If a class is full we will tell you it is full rather than squeezing one more mat in.

What six weeks does

You stop counting the breaths and start noticing the moments you had stopped breathing altogether.
Your hamstrings give up arguing somewhere in week three, usually on a Thursday, usually without warning.
You get through a whole sun salutation without checking what the person on the next mat is doing.
Standing on one leg becomes boring rather than frightening.
The lower back thing you have had since 2021 gets quieter. It does not go away, and nobody here is going to tell you it will.
Ninety minutes of lying still stops feeling like a waste of an afternoon.

Who will be at the front

Nandi MgxajiAshtanga, Mysore, the beginners course

Learned in Mysore in 2011 and has taught in Observatory ever since. Takes the 05:45 five mornings a week and sands the floor herself every December.

Rifqah AdamsSlow flow, hatha, restorative

Came to yoga after twelve years of night shifts at Groote Schuur. Teaches like somebody who knows exactly what a tired body looks like from across a room.

Kabelo MotaungVinyasa and the lunch flow

The faster classes. Ran two Two Oceans halfs before he could reach his own toes, and tells the 17:00 room about it roughly once a fortnight.

Anneke LoubserPrenatal, yin, the Sunday candle class

Trained as a physiotherapist in Stellenbosch before she trained to teach, so she is the one to tell about the shoulder, the knee or the wrist.

The term board goes out on the first of the month

One email with the new timetable on it and nothing else in it. We have never sold the list and would not know who to sell it to.

Get the term timetable

Come and find us

First floor, 14 Trill Road, Observatory, Cape Town. WhatsApp 072 604 1188 is the fastest way to an answer. Drop-in R120, ten-class card R1 000, unlimited month R780.