Johannesburg - On the final night of our stay, we hit the jackpot.
We’d been lucky, having seen languid lions, escaped raging elephant bulls in musth, bovine white rhinos and their young, skittish zebras, cheeky warthogs and chameleons which our ranger Michelle and her tracker Candy deftly identified in the dark of night from a moving Land Rover.
There were hippos, buck and birds galore – the Sabi region boasts 5 percent of the world’s bird population – but not much can beat the sight of a solitary cat.
Sauntering along the road to the nearest watering hole, the male leopard is an exquisite, rare sighting. Unthreatened and unfazed, he soon finds a watering hole and laps water as gently as a kitty does milk.
We watch until the animal has had its fill, before heading back for dinner at Sabi Sabi’s Earth Lodge.
The habitat of the Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, which is situated in the 65 000ha Sabi Sands nature reserve in the south-western section of the Kruger National Park, is rich and diverse.
Home to free-ranging game, including the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo – as well as cheetah, wild dog and about 200 other animal species, the reserve also boasts about 350 species of birds. It shares a 50km-long unfenced border with the Kruger, so animals roam freely. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Sabi Sabi is the first game reserve in the country to earn the Fair Trade in Tourism trademark.
Adhering to a philosophy of “yesterday, today and tomorrow”, Sabi Sabi’s four different all-inclusive lodges and camps each have a unique design, look and feel.
For romance, the Selati camp, which features a portion of the original gold-rush railway line, four-poster beds with mosquito curtains, antiques and a restaurant on stilts overlooking a watering hole, ticks all the boxes.
Bush Lodge and Little Bush Camp, with its focus on families and activities designed around children at the Elefun Centre, are positioned in the here and now and the eco-friendly exclusive 13-suite Earth Lodge looks to the future.
It’s this keen eye on the future that has earned Earth Lodge a place among National Geographic Society’s Unique Lodges of the World, a collection of boutique hotels in extraordinary places around the world which have proven to have a demonstrated commitment to sustainability and excellence.
Each of the National Geographic properties are judged on the uniqueness and authenticity of their design in celebrating both the surrounding landscape and cultural heritage, guest experience and quality of service, sustainable tourism practices, commitment to conservation and benefits to the local communities.
With wild grass roofs and suites seemingly dug into the undulating landscape, the lodge is inconspicuous and tranquil, using local materials and organic designs. Drift wood retrieved after severe flooding in the area has been used extensively in water features, furniture and inventive lighting.
As no children are allowed, guests are afforded privacy and solitude, or as much solitude as bird song and the occasional animal sounds allow. Guests can swim at any hour in their own private plunge pool, relax on a deckchair on their patio, or take lunch in the day bar with their feet ankle-deep in cooling waters.
For pampering, the Amani spa’s full offering includes massages, facials and other treatments. And if you don’t feel fully alive without exercise, there’s a small gym and guided bush walks.
Sabi Sabi meals are an occasion though, at any time of day, whether a deluxe breakfast, dinner under the stars, or in one of their restaurants. One of their most popular mealtimes is the traditional meaty boma braai, which is served weekly under fairy lights at the Little Bush Camp, which includes biltong tartlets, boerewors, lamb chops, ostrich kebabs and skilpadjies, with sides of putu porridge, potato bake, salads and braai broodjies, followed by milk tarts and koeksisters. For special occasions though, the Earth Lodge is distinctly different. Their wine cellar, which stocks about 6 000 local and international wines, is an American Express Diamond Award recipient. Head chef Brendan Stein, who joined Earth Lodge at the end of last year, counts La Colombe, The River Café and 95 Keerom among his local restaurant experiences, while internationally he has worked in Zanzibar, Mozambique and the Maldives.
To nurture the existing culinary talent at Sabi Sabi, the reserve has launched a partnering programme with acclaimed international chefs on a consultancy basis. Recently, the Michelin-award winning chef Eric Chavot, from Brasserie Chavot in Mayfair, London, was hired to tweak their menus. The year-long consultancy programme will see three top chefs assisting Sabi Sabi’s chefs and following up with regular Skype conferences.
After a sumptuous dinner prepared by Chavot in the Earth Lodge’s wine cellar, I concluded my stay with a midnight dip and a nightcap on a deckchair. No longer as stiflingly hot as earlier in the day, the temperature had dropped slightly. It was idyllic in the clear evening, with the stars scattered across the heavens. The air was punctuated only by the sounds of cicadas and other night creatures. Traffic, load shedding and city aggression belonged to another world. It was bliss.
Contact details:
The Sabi Sabi Head Office: 011 447 7122.
Earth Lodge: 031 735 5251,
Email [email protected] or visit www.sabisabi.com
Georgina Crouth flew directly from OR Tambo International Airport with Federal Airlines. Sabi Sabi has its own airstrip. Alternatively, you could fly via the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport in Nelspruit, or self-drive. Go online to http://www.fedair.com/, e-mail [email protected] or call 011 395 9000.
Georgina Crouth, Saturday Star