Chitwa Chitwa -- So Good You Have to Say it Twice!

Gowrie Gate

At the Gowrie Gate entrance to Sabi Sands, passports are presented and a record is kept of who is going in -- presumably against who is coming out and not having had an unfortunate encounter with any one of the many wild animals that could mean an untimely end.

From here, dusty, bumpy roads take you further and further inside Africa.  Chitwa Chitwa is a private game lodge, and their logo is several giraffe heads.  The directional signs from the Gowrie Gate have the giraffe heads looking in the direction you are to turn, and eventually the last one directs us to the entry of our home for the next four nights. 

We are welcomed by a very pregnant Manager, Chantel, who could not have been any more gracious had she tried.  She exuded absolute calmness and serenity as she led us past the main office, down a timber walkway through the gardens and onto a massive deck which overlooks their waterhole.  I am almost dumbstruck by how gorgeous it is.  Just in front of where we are standing looking at the waterhole, is a clump of bushes on a tiny dot of dirt about 10 metres into the waterhole, and Chantel tells us one of the hippos, whose back and head we can see emerging in the water, had a baby a few days earlier and has it hidden just in amongst those trees.  We need to complete check-in formalities and are led to a magnificent carved, timber table where an icy cold, welcoming drink awaits us.

As we are enjoying this refreshment and chatting to Chantel about the baby hippo, I cast my eyes all around this area, and everywhere I look there is something gorgeous to see.  There are beautiful carvings, wall hangings, paintings, rugs, hanging lights, soft chairs beckoning you to sit, carved tables, ornaments... the list is endless.  Nothing is small or discreet, it is all over the top in size but so very tasteful.  There are candles and flowers, binoculars on a ledge, reference guides to peruse, water to drink.

A few steps down to a gravel path on the left is an open air dining room set ready for lunch services, complete with knotted, soft white curtains, white linen tablecloths and napkins, crystal glassware, shining silver cutlery and a buffet table is being laden with bowls and platters in readiness for hungry guests.  This is where breakfast and lunch are served daily.  Dinner location, as we are to find out, changes daily dependent on weather, any celebrations, number of houseguests and each night would be different and each night would be more beautiful than the night before.  Oh what culinary joys awaited us.

High tea on the deck

We crossed the deck, past the lap pool, past the opulent lounging area with its groups of leather lounges for future conversations and the fireplace for bitterly cold nights at other times of the year, past the well-stocked bar and the smiling barman, and followed a guide and a porter down a gravel path towards our 'hut'.  We pass other huts on the way to ours and discover that our hut is the last one.  Hut conjures up an image of a small, insignificant structure and our thatch-roofed 'hut' was anything but that.

 To say our room was one of the most beautifully appointed rooms I have even been in would be an understatement.  Inside the entrance door was a massive dining table and sideboard (who on earth would we be entertaining here?), leather lounges and a long, heavy coffee table, a very modern lamp whose long, arching silver arm hung like a moon ball over the table.  There were beautiful floor rugs and several individual armchairs placed near windows for just watching, feet on a skin mat on the cool, polished concrete floors.

The other side of the fireplace partition revealed a magnificent four
poster bed, overflowing with pillows and cushions and a mosquito net

hanging from the ceiling.  The bathroom was luxuriously complete with African fruit scented toiletries, gleaming porcelain, thick, soft bath sheets, and a doorway that led out to another private, outdoor shower should you feel like getting close to nature.

 

  Back to the bedroom area, and several sets of French doors opened to our private deck, with a small, deep and very cold plunge pool and some deck chairs for viewing the waterhole immediately in front of us.  The old, gnarled tree that would later be full of vervet monkeys offered us shade from the hot midday sun as we perused our surroundings.  We could see more hippos and a few crocodiles lazily lying around the perimeter of the waterhole, and on the other side, elephants, impala, bushbucks and the like were spending time in the shade of other surrounding trees.  We just looked at each and couldn't believe how lucky we were to have found this place, this heaven on earth.

 

On our coffee table there was a handwritten welcome note from the management, inviting us to a braii that night in the boma, or a barbeque in an outside, safe enclosed area.  We had also been instructed to be at the main deck at 3pm for high tea and to bring our warm jackets ready for our first evening safari.  Our adventures began!

We met our guide 'Surprise' and our tracker

Howard, both very experienced bushmen.  For this drive we only shared our vehicle with a Canadian mother and son.  As we set off on the rough tracks through the bush, Surprise gave us an outline of what we could expect and asking was there any animal in particular that we desperately wanted to see.  Everyone hopes to see the Big 5 of lion, rhino, buffalo, leopard and elephant.  Surprise and the other guides are fully trained rangers and are all able to communicate sighting details through their radio mikes.  If you are in the lucky vehicle to spot something first, you have a few minutes by yourselves before other vehicles turn up.  At the very most, there was only ever about five vehicles at any one time and the drivers all position their vehicles so everyone gets a good view and uninterrupted photo angles as best they can.

Howard sits at the very front of the vehicle, in a jump seat, and his eyes are peeled.  He can see things ages before anyone else and even when he is pointing something out to you, sometimes it can be difficult to see what he sees.  Surprise would often slow the vehicle down and look at prints in the sandy tracks to help him decide which way we should be going.  He could differentiate between the types of animal prints, which way they were heading and how long ago, usually the size and sex of the animal and whether they were travelling solo or in a group.  Howard would sometimes hold his hand up for Surprise to stop the vehicle completely, and he would cast his eyes around, looking far and deep into the bush, as well as at broken twigs and branches close by, carefully listening to the sounds of the bush, smelling the air and determining wind direction.  He would then advise Surprise and we would follow down the tracks, hoping to spot something wonderful.  We never came back to the lodge disappointed.  Every outing offered something wonderful.

Our very first animal encounter was a cheetah,

just casually walking along a track.  Cheetahs hunt at nightfall and this male was scouring the landscape, looking for his dinner.  As if a paid model, he randomly just laid down on the track for a photo session.  To see a wild animal this close, with nothing other than the air between you, is exhilarating.  They are so beautiful, so majestic, so awesome! 

After our time with the cheetah we left him to continue his business and we drove around and spotted a pride of lionesses basking in the late afternoon sun.  A lone adult male was close by and there were a few restless adolescents playing in the dry creek bed.

As the sun was getting quite low in the sky, Surprise stopped at a clearing near a waterhole and we were able to get out of the vehicle and walk around but remain close.  Surprise and Howard pulled down a metal table from the front bonnet of the truck, and from baskets and containers, pulled out beautiful savoury canapes, wine beer, gin and other refreshments for our 'sundowners' to enjoy whilst watching the sun go down on the day.  As we stood there in the dusky light, gin and tonic in hand, listening to the calls of the wild, once again we couldn't believe how lucky we were.

Finally back at the lodge, there was time for a quick pre-dinner drink and chat at the bar, before the dinner gong sounded and we were led to a circular walled area just outside the main lounge complex.  The gates were opened to the boma and we were welcomed by the most magical sight of a magnificent central fire pit with resplendent tables in a semi circle.  There were fairy lights and enormous candelabras with the dried, waxy drips of hundreds of previous candles everywhere, soft music played, wine waiters filled our glasses and then the procession of beautiful food was brought to the tables.  The guides, trackers and management sat with the houseguests, and discussion and stories centred on recent animal sightings and some of the wild and sometimes scary escapades that had occurred in the past.

Dinner was over before too long, and even though a few of us would have kept going for a few hours longer, it was time for bed.  The early morning safari would be here before we knew it, and as we had to be escorted back to our hut by Surprise, armed with a rifle just in case, we had to be fair on him as he has very long, tiring days and needed his sleep.  So somewhat reluctantly we left the boma and followed Surprise along the dark pathway, startling some grazing bushbucks along the way that made us jump out of our skin.  We reached our hut, Surprise instructed us not to leave it under any circumstances during the night, and he would be back to collect us at 5am for our pre-dawn snacks and first morning safari.

We did venture out onto our back deck and watched the moonlight shine across the waterhole.  We heard the sound of splashing water as the hippos and other water loving animals settled down for the night.  We listened to the sounds of the bush and heard not one man made sound.  We closed our French doors up tight, snuggle down into the vast, downy bed ensconced by the mosquito netting, and that night we dreamt of Africa.