………aka Fawlty Towers.
You may wonder where does a spoilt Safari Tart go for her Christmas holidays? I needed a place to veg out, do absolutely nothing, get up late, read a lot and turn up for breakfast at 10.30am. I also wanted to feel like I belonged and be entertained a little. Sounds good doesn’t it? I found just the place - a real life Fawlty Towers complete with Basil and other crazy characters in the countryside near Cape Town.
I have been going on safari in Africa every year for 15 years, yet it was at Samara Private Game Reserve, in the middle of nowhere in the Graaff-Reinet Karoo, that I found two elements of a safari that had so far eluded me; a yoga mat and an aardvark.
A strange duo I agree, but a pairing that makes Samara a special safari venue in the absence of Africa’s really big game….. I regretted that line as soon as I wrote it, because it shows what a spoilt safari tart I have become!
You don’t find anything taller than giraffe, any stronger than rhino, any faster than cheetah, or any meaner than buffalo and Samara has them all, as well as antelopes and of course aardvark (which I will speak more of later).
Lion action at Tuningi on 31 August 2009
These curious young lions and lionesses came to see the goings-on as guests from Tuningi Safari Lodge enjoyed their sundowner game drive drinks & snacks in the Madikwe Game Reserve. Madikwe Collection game rangers and guests watched from a safe distance as the lions investigated the contents of the cooler boxes.
“Evening game drives include a short stop for bushveld snacks and sundowner drinks, allowing guests to stretch their legs and, in this case, get close and personal with the ‘locals’.” - commented Grant Marcus, Senior game ranger and photographer of these pictures.
I had a great time at Tuningi, while I was writing the Exclusives Safari Lodges of South Africa book. During that visit an elephant came to drink out of the dam just a few metres from the swimming pool.
They have an excellent kids safari programme too, and a separate area for children on safari to avoid them get too noisy for other guests.
Tuningi Safari Lodge is nice an intimate with four luxury suites and a further two family cottages with two bedrooms and adjoining lounge, kitchenette and dining room. Little Tuningi is a part of the main lodge but can be booked as stand alone accommodation for those that want the place to themselves. Little Tuningi has a double room and a family unit as well as a private pool and boma (for outdoor meals around the fire).
For rates contact: safaritart@wydahtours.com.
Leopards on the lounger; elephant at the poolside; and a bad day for a buffalo
.. …these special safari moments occurred at Tintswalo Safari Lodge recently http://www.safaritart.com/?p=304 :
Read the comment below to see what a recent guest said about Tintswalo.
To book this lodge email: safaritart@wydahtours.com
‘Number One Hotel in the World’
according to 2009 US Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards reader’s survey.
Crikey, what an accolade! Read my review of Bushman’s Kloof Wilderness Reserve http://www.safaritart.com/?p=119 on this site and find out why it won this award. Who does the voting and how many people who voted have actually been there I wonder, but this exclusive 5-star wilderness retreat at the foothills of the Cederberg Mountains (about 270m north of Cape Town), is certainly one of my favourite places.
I have fond memories of when my friend fell into the ice cold mountain dam after trying to extricate himself from a canoe that he could not control. And mountain 
biking with zebra and antelopes grazing on the plain and sitting by a remote spot where the strangely shaped yellow and ochre rocks created a landscape of natural sculptures. And then there was a press visit when I was forced to eat a ten-course taster menu - each nibble was more delicious than the last and I ended up with a stomach twice the size of my body but still wanted more.
This day ended with a massage from hands that knew how to unlock the tension.
Oh for that day to be right now!
And whaddyaknow, Bushman’s Kloof also took pole position as the Number 1 Lodge/Resort in Africa and the Middle East and their sister property, The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa, in CapeTown, was voted the Best City Hotel in Africa & Middle East, as well as Best Hotel Spa in Africa & the Middle East.
Enough now! If you want to know more you’d better look on www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest
Or see www.bushmanskloof.co.za, email: safaritart@wydahtours.com
As I galloped along the water’s edge of Oyster Bay Lodge’s own 3.5km beach, I couldn’t help letting out a “yeehaa”.
I was supposed to stay just one night at Oyster Bay Lodge, but arriving at dusk and leaving early morning on a media tour, just wasn’t enough. So, being a safari tart, I asked if they wouldn’t mind if I stayed another night. They thought I was a chancer, which I probably am, but a quick google search of yours truly showed that I am a real travel writer, and no novice. I’m so glad they agreed, because otherwise I would have missed my “yeehaa” and all the feelgood that is still running through my veins after a perfect beach ride. I would have also missed chatting to owner Hans Verstrate, who is a man that makes you search into your soul and question yourself.
I wouldn’t mind going to Heaven if it was like Singita Lebombo. I have been here once before (Lebombo, not Heaven) but this visit had a more profound effect on me. The subtle change in décor, from touches of lime green and grey amongst a sea of white, to a palate of ripening corn through straw to old oak, sang to my soul. What can I say? There are things that can dramatically influence the way you feel and Singita Lebombo cosseted me in waves of harmony and tranquillity.
In a previously pubished review, I said that Singita Lebombo is like existing inside a magazine photo shoot. It’s cool contemporary design would not look out of place if were situated by palm-lined beach or in a sun-drenched city, but here it is in the heart of the African bush looking perfectly comfortable.
Singita Ebony Lodge is the well loved original lodge of Singita’s small and exclusive stable of safari lodges in South Africa, with other, more exclusive safari vacation properties recently acquired in Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Ebony Lodge retains the nostalgia of its beginnings by keeping the same look and feel that it always had. It’s had regular refurbishments but never a complete makeover. The décor is hard to describe and has strong colonial elements from well waxed dark furniture, heavily varnished woods, historic prints and leather-bound volumes in darkened corners, while never feeling stuffy.
There are also aspects of a Scottish castle, with a huge brick fireplace and bright tartan fabrics. Throw in some African artefacts and a myriad of red and yellow upholstery and cushions in plaids and stripes and you are probably wondering how this eclectic mix actually works together and who would have been bold enough to create this. I think it was an act of committed inspiration when it was first created more than ten years ago.
You are treated at Tintswalo in the same way the owners treat their staff, like family. It’s like being a guest at a luxury villa of an old family acquaintance, except that it is deep in the African bush.
I woke up in a glow, remembering yesterday as if it were a special birthday. Without trying very hard, we saw Africa’s Big 5 animals in just two game drives, even though an encounter with eleven lions was not expected. Nobody had ever seen this pride before - they had come up from the south, killed a buffalo and gorged until their stomachs looked like they would burst (especially the young males who snatch as much meat as they can before the older females snarl them into submission and send them packing). The Tintswalo rangers and trackers are hoping this pride will settle here as it’ll make their life a lot easier when there are forty-four paw prints to track to the source.
My tracker and ranger team at Tintswalo Safari Lodge of Alfie and Omega (where do they get these names?), swear that with this many lions in the Manyaleti Game Reserve of 23,000 hectares, not a single day will go by without them finding the lions.
Travelling is what I do best but I am a travel writer that is always getting lost! Finding Thandeka Lodge somewhere up a long track near the blink-and-you-miss-it town of Bela Bela, would have been much harder without “Bossy“. Bossy is the female voice on the Nokia Navigator GPS phone that my travelling companion Toni has on her Vodakom contract. Bossy told us exactly where to go and when we’d gone past our chosen point, she kept her calm even when we ignored her. We did at times tell her to shut up and sometimes she heard us.
Once we’d arrived at Thandeka, we let Bossy have some rest for a couple of days, although we felt she was itching to come on the 4×4 game drive just so she could tell Vernon (Thandeka’s manager), a thing or two about finding your way around. I suspect she would have been out of her depth, because Vernon is no novice in the bush, he’s a guide trainer and in this terrain, I have no doubt that Vernon would have kicked Bossy’s ass.
What a pleasure to be with a ranger who asks what you are interested in, rather than just repeats lots of dry facts and figures. Vernon used to teach bush survival skills and sent his students into the wilds to cope alone for a couple of days. I’m sure I would do what one of his student’s admitted to years afterwards; finding himself on the border of the reserve and seeing a pineapple farm beyond, he persuaded the workers to lob over a few juicy ones, and then pretended to be starving when he tracked his way back to camp. Finding the edge of Thandeka Game Reserve wouldn’t be that difficult, as it is not huge, but contains just enough animals to make the game drive interesting.
Vernon and his wife Lorriaan manage Thandeka Lodge and their hospitality experience shows. I felt well hosted with a sense of a friendship developing, and this is more difficult than it sounds when you have to be nice to people all the time. I couldn’t do it, but they love their job and their presence makes a stay at Thandeka memorable.
