Ngama Tented Camp, Hoedspruit

White-linen Glamping

This elegant little stay requires little other than perhaps a pair of white pajamas to complement the serene bed. The unique feature of the Ngama Tents is that one whole side of the tent lifts up completely to open bushveld. This gives a wonderful outdoor feeling, enhanced by the stylish interior.

When a clean minimalism is done well, it is both calming and inspiring. All white furniture and fittings, a wide mosquito net, silky white linen and sage green cushions contrast and connect with the outdoors. Natural, light lampstands bring a warm glow to every corner of the tent.

Character stays should remove us from our everyday life, and I love a freestanding bath in the main suite – it is an unlikely romantic decandence compared to our usual functional lives. A Victorian-style slipper bath overlooks a window onto the bush with organic home-made Marula bath products filling the tent with this local fragrance. There is a basin and white towel ladder in the room, with a separately brick-enclosed toilet at the back of the tent. An outdoor shower opens onto bushveld trees and blue African skies.

At night is it hard to leave this peaceful haven for dinner, but I am excited to discover that we will have an African dinner outside in the boma. The glowing pathway to the boma is lit with oil lamps and the reed circle enclosed boma is surrounded by more hung lanterns giving a warm orange light to match the large open fire in the centre. We are instantly transported into a surreal happy place, and the excitement is tangible. Individual lamp-lit tables have been prepared for each couple around the central cooking fire. No effort has been spared and I am touched by the attention to detail and invisible hard work that has gone into laying out this unique experience for us. Our hosts work seamlessly together and are generous in plying us with drinks and food. The meal is excellent – one of the best outdoor meals I have ever had – tender lamb stew and potjie slow-cooked vegetables, stuffed chicken, braaied bread, stuffed butternut, mielies and salads. A malva pudding with home-made custard completes the evening under starry skies.

Accommodation Experience:

As soon as I wake I lift the sides of my tent completely up, even though it is a cool morning. I drink my coffee and munch the biscuits from my suite. The light moves slowly down the surrounding high trees, over the grass, onto my deck and into my tent. I have come here seeking solitude, silence and simplicity, but I find myself surrounded by many enthusiastic friends. Zebra bark, a Nyala antelope munches her breakfast loudly, an African Wood Hoophoe chortles and bush warblers chat. The textured sounds and layers of bush are the perfect backdrop to the tent’s soft interior, and there is nothing left to do other than sit in mindful appreciation of the complex simplicity of it all.

Phelwana Game Lodge, Hoedspruit

High Tea with Hippos

Put me next to a waterhole in a game reserve and I am happy. Put me next to a waterhole in a game reserve in a luxury tent and I am a supremely ecstatic little camper. I sit drinking my coffee on my deck overlooking a dam where mother and baby hippos splash about. I may soon join them for an afternoon wallow in my own plunge pool - there is a certain permissive sloth and appreciation for life that they impart. 

Phelwana Game Lodge has been taken over by enthusiastic new owners who understand a girl like me. Creamy floors, white linen and cream curtains are perfectly balanced with wooden and leather safari style chairs and an old travelling trunk. The waxy green central wall adds flair to this calm and spacious tent.

This is glamping in true style, with airconditioning and a spacious glossy bathroom with double basin and vanity, indoor and outdoor shower and modern fittings. 

Meals may be taken at one’s own tent, complete with white table cloth, silver service and romantic oil lit lamps and candles. The main lodge has a large dining area and freshly upholstered lounge looking onto a fireplace.

Accommodation Experience

High tea at Phelwana is a sumptuous affair. A layered cake stand is brought out to the lapa overlooking the dam, and is filled with freshly baked scones, carrot cake (with the good icing), koeksisters, tartlets, sandwiches and deviled eggs. While I am eyeing out the lavish spread, two hippos come closer for a look – not 10 meters from the lapa in the water below. I have never been so close to hippos within such safety and decadence. I can almost count the chin hairs on the hippo’s broad jaw as he yawns. This is a high tea I will always remember with excitement, as a great serendipitous privilege.

Royal Malewane Luxury Game Reserve, Limpopo

Soulful Luxury

One of the open lounges at the main lodge

What is your definition of luxury? For me, it is close contact with nature from a bed of fine white linen or a deep bubble bath – where the contrast between the natural and the finessed somehow enhances each experience. It is about a balancing act of creative décor and an earthy respect for the environment, a celebration of all that is quintessentially local. However you choose to experience luxury, you will find it here at Royal Malewane Safari Lodge in Limpopo, South Africa (www.royalmalewane.com).

Literally host to royalty and A-list celebrities, it doesn’t get better than this. Individual thatched open-plan suites, more like private villas, overlook the African bushveld. With infinity edge swimming pools, indoor and outdoor showers and Victorian baths it is easy to stay cool even in the summer heat. Usually a prude, even I walk freely between these aquatic pleasures in my natural state, so discretely designed and well placed are these villas. There are three outdoor seating areas on my deck – sun loungers, an al fresco dining area where private dinners may be served, as well as a thatched shaded lapa.

Private heaven

Colonial Afro-Zen fusion is expertly achieved with antique furniture, Persian carpets and the finest fabrics. My suite has a cream couch and a fern-print armchair facing a bank of glass doors outwards and an indoor fireplace. A grand four-poster bed is draped in a white mosquito net and said silky white linen.

The main lodge overlooks a water hole, with beautiful indigenous reeds back-lit by the setting sun. The safari-style lodge is a vast open-plan structure with four different lounge areas, each decorated with Liz Biden’s dramatic flair. She manages to make creamy white couches, oversized regal arm chairs, ornate vases and rich carpets somehow work seamlessly in this open-air bushveld setting.

Waterhole overlooked by the main lodge

I say it again – the Royal Collection deserves its own 6-star rating from the South African Tourism Board. The enthusiasm to please goes well beyond tick-box duty. Around every corner there are thoughtful touches, and every day reveals a surprise of some unique African bushveld experience in which the staff take genuine delight in their guests’ reaction.

All luxury aside, one also wants to have close encounters with diverse game when on an African safari. Set in a Big 5 game reserve bordering Timbavati and Kruger National Park, your chances of seeing interesting game are greatly increased here by the private game reserve setting and the guides who are as passionate about their Royal Malewane animal family as they are about pleasing their guests. Genuine naturalists, each one is plotting their own personal wildlife expeditions, including gorilla trekking in Rwanda and tiger safaris to India. They have become international consultants on how to coordinate game viewing experiences in a way that fulfills their guests’ hopes while respecting the animals’ safety and comfort.

Morning munch at Royal Malewane

Accommodation Experience:

I find myself a little above my usual station in life at Royal Malewane, and so I decide to drink everything, even this humble juice, from the beautiful crystal champagne glass I find in my suite. I do this as I lie in a deep bubble bath overlooking my private infinity edge plunge pool, onto African bushveld. A family of monkeys is using my day spa bed in the thatched lapa, the babies cuddling up to mom for a nap, while the teenagers fight. Clearly they are used to this level of luxury.

I feel a little silly about my indulgence and have a twinge of guilt at my lazy appreciation of the afternoon, but I am learning to recognize this as a defence against sinking into a realness of presence. Remember how impressed and intimidated we were with that New York style frenzied busyness and assertiveness? Already, that aggressive lifestyle has become “so 90’s” and we have seen through the emperor’s clothing of bluster and bragging to the insecure vulnerability it masked. A new brand of post postmodern soulfulness is emerging, where we recognize real luxury to be about the gift of free time, connectedness with self, family and friends and the privilege of being able to contribute to the protection of our natural heritage. A restlessness of spirit, combined with a deep love for the environment draws us increasingly to stillness and mindful appreciation of the natural world. Kindness to self, others and our environment is replacing the currency of domination and competition.

Good hair day at Royal Malewane

And this is what I find at Royal Malewane – a soulful rootedness in their pristine game reserve setting, dedication to preserving their unique, unspoilt corner of the earth, a warmth and humility in their service, an openness in the architecture and a softness in their décor. While lavishly generous, there is no ostentation here, only a shared enthusiasm for the outdoors, rare game sightings and all that Africa has to offer its privileged guests.

Another tough day in Africa