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.
