Isibindi Zulu Lodge, Rorke's Drift

Under African Skies

When it comes to character stays, these are a few of my favourite things:

• Scenic drives through an interesting geographical environment
• Accommodation in a spectacular natural setting with indigenous fauna and flora
• A respect for local culture
• Interesting and typical architecture
• Individual cottages with plentiful windows and double doors onto private patios with views

And Isibindi Zulu Lodge gets a standing ovation on every one of these categories. Set in the fascinating Rorke’s Drift KwaZulu-Natal battlefields, with legends of Isandlwana, Cetswayo and Blood River rolling off the tongue, there is so much to do and see. The Lodge is in a nature reserve, offering game drives and walks to view giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, jackal, caracal and an elusive leopard.

Accommodation Experience:

Working too hard for too many weeks, I had been holding out for my stay at Isibindi Zulu Lodge to save me from myself. As one leaves the lush Midlands, heading out from Greytown towards Dundee, one gets the sense, like Dorothy in her travels in The Wizard of Oz: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” The green grass changes to pink and ochre, and the trees become sparse - thorn trees, cabbage trees and bright orange capped aloes. One drives through dramatic ravines and over a wide river spanned by a single-track metal bridge. The architecture becomes traditional thatched rondavels and the homesteads spread out alongside kraals made of low stone walls. This is Africa at its most natural and rugged, and I guess that living out here is not for sissies. Fortunately, Isibindi Zulu Lodge is.

Upon arrival, one is welcomed with a cool, home-made lemonade and a traditional warm face cloth with which to wash the dust off from the trip. One is taken past the infinity-edge pool overlooking a vast gorge, on to the accommodation, nestled into the curve of the hill. The rooms are cosy stone and thatched traditional Zulu round huts, with wooden floors, low curved windows and woven, curved ceilings. Each has its own wooden deck, making the most of the bushveld views.

In the evening we walk down the valley together to a Zulu homestead, and we are treated to a display of Zulu dance, the drum beats pulsing through one’s veins. We are seated around two enormous fires, hot against the cool night. Later a gracious host shows us into a typical round house, with a grinding stone, sleeping mats and a small altar used for communicating with ancestors. We are given a delicious traditional meal of Zulu beer, stew, pap, chakalaka, butternut mash and curried cabbage.

Eventually I slip out of the fun and increasingly heated gender-debate which is being had between the locals and foreigners and end the evening in the silence of my own deck, overlooking the moonlit valley below. The night is quiet and open, and I imagine the slow movement of the wildlife below. The insight into Zulu culture has awakened my senses to the privilege of being in an unspoilt corner of Africa, and I have the sense that the natural environment is essential to this celebration of all that is local.

Sitting out on my deck under African skies, with no time constraints or agendas except to experience this place as fully as possible, I feel a gentle coming home to myself – a simple but profound “click” as I find myself internally re-aligning and centering. John O’ Donohue says “One of the beauties of a landscape like this is the stillness and silence within it. When you truly are present to a landscape you know afterwards that something has shifted or some burden has fallen.”

For bookings at Isibindi Zulu Lodge, please visit www.isibindi.co.za. 

Grand Daddy Airstream Rooftop Trailer Park, Cape Town

For the young at heart

The Grand Daddy Airstream Rooftop Trailer Park in Cape Town is a celebration of all that is young and hip. The concept is as bizarre as it is fantastic – a collection of shiny silver Airstream trailers placed at the very top of a funky hotel in the centre of the city. Walking out onto the rooftop, with its wooden walkways between the trailers, labelled red letterboxes and pretty green trees, it is like entering the mind of a creative genius.

Individually decorated trailers have creative themes like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Pleasantville and The Ballad of John and Yoko. I find my own dinky trailer, Dorothy, the pale blue inside of which is covered with white polka dots. No effort has been spared in the commitment to the concept, with the polka dot theme extending to the walls, roof, floor, fridge, radio, cups and even the dustbin. Some of the polka dots are three dimensional, and when lifted reveal a tiny art exhibition. A pair of glossy red shoes under the basin in the bathroom completes the Dorothy theme.

The trailer bathroom has a fully functional toilet and the cutest bath-shower in one corner. More gimmicky than glamour, this space is a delight for kids and the young at heart.

Accommodation Experience

I feel about a hundred years older than the average resident at the Grand Daddy Airstream Rooftop Trailer Park, though I am greeted in a friendly and inclusive way by the thinly clad pretty young things at the open air bar. Well, I figure if you are going to have a mid-life crisis, do it in style. Most of us have been so very good our whole lives – fulfilling others’ expectations of us, even adding to this with our own self-imposed achievement pressure. Mid-life (and beyond) is a psychologically exciting time to review all this. To eschew the neat, well-behaved path we are treading, which could be leading us further into estrangement from our true selves.

Mary Oliver, in her poem Wild Geese, writes:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Rodwell House, St James

Bringing out the best

I ended my work day irritable, held hostage in a small room for too many unnecessary hours. I felt the most scratchy, ungrateful version of myself and struggled to let go of my grudge against my unproductive captor. Yet as I hit the classical St James high street, I couldn’t help but break out into a wide smile, especially knowing where I was headed. 

It is great fun finding a grand character building which represents the quintessential local architectural style of a quintessentially characterful area. The 1930’s Rodwell House in classical St James, Cape Town, not only rivals its neighbours in representing the typical architecture of the area, but it is situated in the most enviable position, overlooking the famous brightly coloured wooden huts of St James Beach. The house is set well back from the main road, and views over the estate’s pool and St James Tidal Pool beyond, stretch far out to the sea in the distance. The house backs onto an impressive mountain and there are striking vistas up the cliffs to the bluest of skies above.

I stay in the elegant Rodwell Suite, the scale of which is difficult to capture on camera. There are two seating areas and an indoor fireplace. A bank of windows maximises the fabulous views, as does the balcony onto which a private entrance opens. The suite has plush beige carpets, cream curtains with matching upholstered chairs and couch. An ochre  headboard resonates with the golden wood of the furniture, and a trendy tan leather reclining chair completes the effect. The look is very grown-up without being in the least bit staid. It has clearly been prepared by someone experienced in providing the best that accommodation establishments can offer.

What I love about Rodwell House:

• The house itself is typical of the St James vernacular – a solid square stone double-storey building with deep arched verandahs and two perfectly symmetrical wings.
• The setting over St James beach is softened by the long garden in front of the house, with a full length swimming pool, flanked by green covered pergolas on either side.
• The entrance boasts a grand staircase and the main house and suites are full of antiques.
• The House is also an art gallery and beautiful pieces of 20^th-Century richly-coloured art work are displayed throughout.
• The impressive lounge has a fireplace, deep red walls and matching patterned rugs.
• Fabulous local cuisine is served in the bistro, or if it is quiet and cool intimate tables are brought into the lounge with a lit fire.
• The service is warm, attentive and kind, and one is soon made to feel that this is one’s very own private estate.
• The suites are spacious and stylishly decorated, with thoughtful attention to comfort, and with calm matching colours.
• The bathrooms are beautifully modern, also managing a balance between being spacious and warm.
• An enormous bath is gently back-lit with stylish lighting, reflecting down onto the large cream ceramic floor tiles and glossy fittings.

Accommodation Experience:

Sometimes once the initial excitement of a character stay settles, one also quite simply wishes for a good night’s sleep. I spread out in my huge soft bed, one of the most comfortable I have ever lain in. While I am reluctant to turn out the lights of my gorgeous suite, when I finally do I am pleased to find that the thick curtains are properly lined with blackout backing – yet another sign of thoughtful attention about the needs of perhaps a more mature traveller.

I lie there musing that some luxury accommodation brings out the worst in us – making us feel entitled, arrogant or even inferior. But other times, when we find a combination of elegance, kindness and warmth, it makes us feel humbled and deeply grateful. This is what I experienced at Rodwell House, which encouraged me to be a better version of myself. Who could have thought that my day and attitude could have been turned round so completely in only a few short hours – going from resentful and sorry for myself to feeling one of the luckiest people alive to have the privilege of staying in such a lovely place. 

Dutch Manor Antique Hotel, Cape Town

 

I had been on the road for a few days and was beginning to doubt whether yet another character stay was a good choice, especially since I was in Cape Town on business and needed convenience and maximal efficiency with the limited time I had available in the evenings. And driving into town to the 1812 Dutch Manor Antique Hotel I had a moment of panic that it would be stuffy, musty, dark and noisy in the middle of the city, and that the staff would disappear after I had arrived, leaving me nervous and alone.

All my imagined concerns were completely unwarranted – I find the Dutch Manor Antique Hotel spacious, light, fresh and friendly, with the most helpful and enthusiastic staff. The highest windows I have ever seen let the sun stream in, while original wooden shutters and heavy, lined curtains mute the city sounds. Solid antique Yellowwood and Mahogany furniture and enormous thick old doors grace every part of the hotel. Spacious modern bathrooms, only just renovated, with matching Charlotte Rhys bathroom products, are offset with traditional touches like toiletries which are presented in a white lace-trimmed purse. A 200 year old leather couch sits in prime position in the lounge, with views of the Cape streets below.

What I love about the Dutch Manor Antique Hotel:

• There is a genuine commitment to the historical theme throughout the hotel
• Antiques really are everywhere and create a feast for the senses and imagination
• Heavy local timber doors, windows and furniture lend gravitas to every room
• Individually decorated rooms have bold colours with traditional Cape Dutch themes
• The friendliest, most helpful staff are available at any time of day or night
• The hotel is in a convenient setting, in one of the oldest streets in Cape Town, with easy access to all the major tourist attractions
• Fine linen, freshly renovated bathrooms and beautiful bath products make this a luxurious stay

Accommodation Experience

My bed is so high it takes me a moment to strategise how to climb onto it. Once there, I admire the spectacular 4-metre high window with its original wooden shutters and thick, extra-length curtains. The bed is a four-poster, which feels solid and comforting, with its thick, chocolate brown posts. The curtained back and sides of the bed, with a ruffled frill around the top create a cosy canopy, in which it is easy to escape to the past.

I imagine travelling in 1812, under harsh and uncomfortable conditions, to arrive at this inviting, beautiful space, and the sense of relief and gladness people must have felt to settle into this lovely room. I sink back into the curtains behind the bed and enjoy a strong cup of coffee in a classically Dutch-shaped coffee cup. I run my hands along the fine thread-count white linen and sigh my own sigh of relief.

This feels like a character stay where people of this place revel in your delight of the antiques, and they seem to do everything possible to make your time here comfortable, convenient and interesting. There is no sense of withholding or tourist trickery here – only a sensational place for a weary traveller to rest and be inspired by the past and present of Africa and the spectacular Mother City of Cape Town.