Earth Lodge of Sabi Sabi in the Sabi Sands, one of the best safari lodges in Africa

Earth Lodge at Sabi Sabi in South Africa

This post is about Earth Lodge of Sabi Sabi, one of the best safari lodges in Africa.

Earth Lodge at Sabi Sabi in the Sabi Sands of South Africa
The Earth Lodge of the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve was exactly as I remembered it from my first visit two-and-a-half years ago, living a #Travelife.

There are many truly beautiful safari lodges all over Africa, including some jaw-dropping luxury camps in remote places and some authentically retro camps that instantly take you back in time over 100 years ago.

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EARTH LODGE OF SABI SABI:ONE OF THE BEST SAFARI LODGES IN AFRICA

But perhaps none are as innovative and record-breaking in terms of design and style as Earth Lodge, which has a futuristic theme and is all about modern and yet earth glamour. Earth Lodge of Sabi Sabi is truly one of the best safari lodges in Africa.

This is the pet project of the owners of the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve.

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Sabi Sabi has three other camps.

While Earth Lodge is all about “tomorrow,” Selati Camp is about “yesterday,” and Little Bush Camp and Bush Lodge, which is the family-friendly accommodations, is themed as “today.”

Earth Lodge at Sabi Sabi in South Africa

REMEMBERING EVERYTHINGIN “TOMORROW”AS IF IT WAS YESTERDAY

Bush Lodge is contemporary in feel while making use of local materials and natural materials for an atmosphere that is both stylish and yet warm.

Walking into Earth Lodge again a few days ago made me recall one of my funniest memories from my first stay there.

Earth Lodge at Sabi Sabi in South Africa

THE STANDARD QUESTIONSBEFORE A GAME DRIVE

The Travel Companion and I were going out on our first game drive with a very nice and lovely girl named Moira, one of the rangers from Earth Lodge.

At Selati Camp, where we’d stayed prior to moving to Bush Camp, we’d had a different team of rangers and trackers to take us out on game drives.

As always, we were asked the standard question posed by proper safari rangers when taking guests out on a game drive for the first time.

DEPRESSION IN AFRICA,STILL LIVING A #TRAVELIFE

Earth Lodge at Sabi Sabi in South Africa

I remember that we were already seated in the jeep when she turned around to us before driving and asked brightly: “Any serious physical conditions I need to be aware of? High blood pressure? Any major surgeries or illnesses?“

I then pointed to the Travel Companion and said with a sober face: “Depression.“

She burst out laughing so hard, thus breaking the ice, on just another wonderful trip on my never-ending, and never-endingly eventful #Travelife.

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“Wow, nothing’s changed,” I said to Grant, the manager of Selati Lodge, on the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve, when we arrived, in Africa, living a #Travelife.

It was mid-afternoon when we finally reached Selati, and most of the guests were already on game drives because we were heading into winter and the days were shorter.

That’s Grant, manager of Selati Lodge

Yes, Selati was exactly as I remembered it. 

This is the intimate nostalgia lodge of Sabi Sabi, themed upon “Yesterday,” and it’s done so beautifully in the vintage style.

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A ROOM STRAIGHT OUT OF AFRICA

I stayed in Ivory Lodge, which is the best suite in the lodge, if not in the entire Sabi Sabi Game Reserve, and it’s a room straight “Out of Africa.”

Happily, it was exactly as I remembered it, with its palatial bathroom and its ever so picturesque bedroom with a pool that hippos occasionally visited on one side and a private terrace on the other.

I have so many happy memories of my first stay here over two years ago, so it was nice to be back again.

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SOME THINGS ARE NOT THE SAME

When I got to the lounge area for tea, however, I was nicely surprised to see that Selati did undergo some major renovations of its common areas — and I’m happy to report that everything is for the better.

They’ve opened up their lounge so that it is now twice the former space, and the decor is lighter and sleeker but still very much in keeping with the vintage theme.

A NEW DINING ROOM AT SELATI LODGE

ON THE SABI SABI GAME RESERVE

The boma area, too, now opens up to a new vintage dining room, giving guests a third dining option.

It’s got one long table for all the guests to sit in, as Selati is a very social lodge compared to most safari lodges, and everyone talks to each other, and the walls are lined with copper pans and memorabilia.

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MEMORIES OF A PERI PERI CHICKEN LUNCH

Aside from the beautiful Ivory Suite, the other place that didn’t change at all is the terrace where Selati guests have breakfasts and lunches in a very private atmosphere.

This terrace was exactly as I remembered it, and nice memories of my very first lunch here in what seems a lifetime ago, having peri peri chicken upon arrival, full of excitement for Africa, came flooding back.

But that’s a never-ending #Travelife for you.

There’s no such thing as goodbye when you depart a destination you’ve come to love. Just see you later. Or, actually, see you again and again.

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On safari at the MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa

So until the other day, we’d already been on four safaris in two weeks in Africa, living a #Travelife, and we’d still not seen the elusive cheetah.

There were no cheetah in our first safari on this trip, which was at a seaside safari lodge near Port Alfred. 

As for the other three safari lodges, they did have cheetah but the sighting of one is a matter of luck as there are relatively few wandering about compared to other animals. 

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BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.

SEEN THE CHEETAH.

I was relatively relaxed about not seeing this beautiful animal as cheetah and I have already crossed paths several times before. The first time I saw a cheetah was on the way to one of the most remote safari lodges in South Africa. 

This is at the very tip of the remote Northern Cape, located within a national park with no commercial flights to and from the national park.

Taking a private Pilatus plane to the MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa

I had to take a private plane to a dusty and deserted airstrip, and from there it was a five-hour drive through nothing but desert to the lodge.

And, as there are no commercial flights here, the pilot had to park the plane in one corner and wait for me on safari — and so he ended up coming along with us, too, for want of something to do.

This was about 15 months ago, and it was on this safari that I first encountered a cheetah in the wild. And wasn’t he beautiful, sauntering in front of our jeep, just like that.

THE PRESSURE TO FIND A CHEETAHIS ON

On safari at the MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa

On this trip, though, my companion had never seen a cheetah, so the pressure to find one was clearly on by the time we got to MalaMala Game Reserve, which was our last safari stop.

By then I was also a tinge guilty about doing a best effort to show him a cheetah as I’d dragged him into going on this safari trip. His idea of a holiday is not riding a jeep through the wilderness, and he much preferred to do the wine route of South Africa for that same amount of time we had.

And now it amuses me no end, by the way, when he tells me he can’t stop watching lions and other wildlife animals on YouTube.

THE BIGGEST ESTATE IN SABI SANDS

Anyway, the pressure to find a cheetah yesterday was even more because we were assigned ranger Greg Baldwin, who is the head ranger for the entire MalaMala Game Reserve, which is the largest game reserve in this area of Greater Kruger.

All the other private reserves literally pale in comparison, as far as size is concerned. So we had a lot of ground to cover, and we had the best ranger in the area guiding us.

ONE FOR THE ROAD:OUR LAST SAFARI GAME DRIVE

Greg was our ranger for our stay at MalaMala and yesterday was our last safari drive before flying back to Johannesburg, and we still had not crossed the cheetah off our sightings list when we got into the jeep to start off.

By then, after so many game drives, I was actually quite happy just to meander about, and see impala jumping around and elephants wading in the river.

On safari at the MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa

WHERE TO FIND A CHEETAH

But suddenly Greg turned to us and said: “Two cheetahs have been sighted at the very far end of the property. But they’re actually walking out of the property now and into Kruger Park.”

He’d been on the radio, you see, and so he was listening to all the chatter that morning. He continued: “Do you want to see the cheetah? It’s about a 40-minute drive over there.“

A LAST HURRAH

We were in the middle of our drive already, and 40 minutes meant 80 minutes roundtrip on bumpy terrain and rough roads.

But we decided to go for it as a last hurrah, and boy, did we literally fly. I felt like Indiana Jones’ sidekick, with our jeep flying through bushes and brush and us bumping up and down in the back.

Once, Greg turned around and said: “Sorry if I’m driving so fast, but the cheetah are literally on the border. We’re minutes away from missing them.“

THE STRICT RULES AT SAFARI GAME RESERVES

On safari at the MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa

And if you know safari reserve rules, you’ll know that most game reserves don’t have physical fences. Properties are just delineated by roads, but things are very strict, and you cannot cross even one inch into another property, even if there are no fences.

And even if no one is watching.

When we finally got to the sighting area, we arrived just in time to see the cheetah pause. Literally pause for a minute or two.

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THE LAST TWO MINUTES AT A SAFARI

The cheetah were already officially in Kruger Park so we couldn’t follow them in with our jeep, even if they were like a dozen meters away from us. But from the very edge of the final inch of MalaMala property, we could see them well enough.

And if we’d arrived two minutes later, we would have missed them completely. The cheetah had paused for a two-minute breather. And how lucky were we.

Because after that, the cheetah turned their backs on us and walked deeper into Kruger National Park, presumably living their own versions of a never-ending, and never-endingly eventful #Travelife.

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A four-course dinner by lamplight at Sabi Sabi’s Selati Lodge

We were seated across our ranger Neil — your ranger usually joins you for dinner, so there were about three or four rangers seated with us eight guests that night — and we were having a wonderful meal of impala carpaccio and a beef steak when suddenly a lion roared in the distance.

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A Boma dinner at Selati Lodge

That’s a photo of our tracker and Neil at the wheel, and we’re seated at the back of the jeep. And we’re racing after a lion in the dark!

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Breakfast on the terrace of the Westcliff in Johannesburg

After a short but wonderful stay in Johannesburg, living a TRAVELIFE at the iconic Westcliff Hotel, we went on to the second part of our trip around South Africa — to the Sabi Sands in Greater Kruger National Park.

Here we’d booked a stay at the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve, one of the most luxurious safari experiences in the world.

Federal Air pilots and crew loading the luggage

At first, it was tussle trying to decide how to get there from Joburg.

But in the end we decided to take the small charter plane from a private hangar just off Joburg’s international airport. This took us straight to Sabi Sabi’s private airstrip in about 75 minutes.

After a lovely breakfast on the terrace of the Westcliff Hotel, the hotel car took us straight to the hangar.

The entrance of the Federal Air hangar

I was surprised at how pretty and comfortable the hangar was.

It made me feel like I was already on a safari, as it had authentic safari decor and even a boutique selling safari-type clothes in case you didn’t bring white shirts and khakis and then you suddenly felt in an Out of Africa mood.

The hangar at Joburg looks more like someone’s garden

We sat in the lounge for a few minutes checking emails and drinking Roobois tea, while they loaded the bags on board the Federal Air plane.

And soon, we were off on our amazing Travelife adventure.

This was our pretty small plane

I’m not good with any kind of small and enclosed space.

But somehow, I was calm and happy on the flight even if I was slightly anxious at first. I think it helped that the crew was nice and the pilots certainly looked very professional.

The pilots at work

I worked on my blog for most of the flight, but every so often I looked out the window in wonder and amazement at the vast expanse of nature below me.

We weren’t flying very high so it was possible to literally see a lot of Africa from the sky.

Sabi Sabi, as viewed from above

Finally we reached Sabi Sabi, and it was really a painless flight.

And when we got off the plane, our ranger Neil was there in a safari jeep to greet us and take us to the Selati Lodge, which was one of the two lodges we were going to stay at.

We weren’t even 10 minutes into the drive when already our safari began — or rather, literally got jumpstarted.

We saw a group of springbok on the field, jumping and playing around.

A herd of springbok

And then a little further afield, on a large plain, a wondrous sight greeted us.

A group of giraffes were literally having a lazy stroll in the park. I clicked away with my camera, admiring the elegance and gracefulness of the giraffes.

A giraffe in the wild

Sure, you can see them in a zoo. But it really was wonderful to see them in the wild, in their most natural habitat.

I said to Neil, our ranger for our stay at Selati Lodge: “Not bad, for our first 10 minutes.”

And Neil replied, with lots of confidence: “Don’t worry. A great adventure awaits.“

That’s Neil, our ranger at Sabi Sabi’s Selati Lodge

Indeed, we were so lucky.

We saw the Big Five we had come from so far to see, and much more, over six hours of game drives every day, for four wonderful and wondrous days in a never-ending, and never-endingly eventful Travelife.

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On safari in Sabi Sabi, in breathtaking South Africa

The other day in Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa, living a TRAVELIFE, The Boss and I were sitting in the living room of the Selati Lodge in the Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, checking emails and having champagne cocktails while waiting for our afternoon safari drive to begin.

The lodges of Sabi Sabi are among the most luxurious safari lodges in the world, and they have over 6000 hectares of private lands to view wild animals in.

It’s really the best of both worlds as you’re not fighting over animal photo opportunities with people from other safari lodges, as only Sabi Sabi guests are on the Sabi Sabi estate.

No 10 jeeps from 10 different safari lodges trying to see the same lion, for example. This makes all the difference in a safari experience as you can really get a good and uninterrupted view of the animals in their natural environment.

The presidential suite of the Selati Lodge. This was my room…

And when you return from safari, you’re back in a beautiful and civilized world of organic toiletries, fine bed sheets, private plunge pools, and champagne cocktails.

The table setting at Sabi Sabi

We’d just had a very nice lunch at another lodge on the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve, which is called Bush Lodge, before returning to Selati Lodge, where we were staying.

The Sabi Sabi Game Reserve has four lodges and each has its own personality and attractions.

A very retro feel at the Selati Lodge

The Selati Lodge is an intimate and nostalgic retro lodge and it’s a really nice choice for those looking for an old-fashioned but luxurious safari experience.

It’s perfect for couples and those looking to socialize with other guests as there are only eight rooms — so that’s a maximum of 16 guests at the lodge. Everyone becomes friends very quickly.

When we were staying there, there were only eight guests and we all had fun together, talking about our animal sightings and comparing notes on travels. Dinner was a half-circle around a campfire, out in the open, but with fine table linen and a four-course meal.

The wonderful African accent pieces at Sabi Sabi’s Bush Lodge

Meanwhile Bush Lodge is hip and contemporary, as well as a much bigger lodge. It’s almost like a regular hotel in a safari setting, but with great African design. We had lunch here just so we could see it, and I swear wanted to bring home the African accents displayed in almost every nook and cranny.

Bush Lodge is very nice for groups, and it has more services as well.

I’ll write more on the four lodges later, as it’s good to know for anyone considering a safari at Sabi Sabi – which we highly recommend, by the way.

Lunch at Sabi Sabi’s Bush Lodge

Sabi Sabi offers one of the best safari experiences in the world. The Boss and I have been all over the world on some pretty amazing experiences, but we were both very impressed with the overall experience of Sabi Sabi, including the services and facilities.

This is one of the restaurant venues at Sabi Sabi’s amazing and futuristic Earth Lodge

The personnel too are top-notch, and when you’re on a safari, I can’t over-emphasize just how important having top-notch personnel is.

Anyway, that afternoon, I was on my Macbook Pro writing a blog entry while The Boss was seated across me on his iPad, reading my blog, looking up information on South Africa and possibly answering emails on his phones as well.

The two Blackberries on safari in South Africa

He’s always on his two Blackberries or his iPad , by the way, so sometimes I just send him an email even if he’s just seated across me, if I want to ask him a question.

Yesterday, for example, we were having tea and he was engrossed on his phones as usual. I was just seated next to him working on my computer, and midway I asked him: “What time is it?”

No answer. He didn’t hear me at all as he was fiddling with his two Blackberries again. So I sent him an email instead, knowing it would pop up on one of those Blackberries, with text only on the subject title.

“What time is it?” I wrote.

 That’s the kind of thing I have to resort to at times, to get something across to him.

The decor at Sabi Sabi’s Bush Lodge

Anyway, back to my story. He was on his gadgets again while we were in the living room of the Selati Lodge, and I was working on my computer. While he was doing these, he was complaining that I was writing very inaccurately about him in the blog.

He said to me, although with a smile: “You should be glad I’m so nice, that I actually put up with all of these inaccuracies.” He meant that he was being such a good sport and that he was nicer than how I was describing him in this blog, when actually I think it’s the other way around.

That’s Ashley, having some fun with us, over mid-afternoon champagne cocktails at Selati Lodge.

We were having this conversation and laughing quite a bit at the same time, that Ashley and Brett, the managers of the Selati Lodge, came over to see what all the laughing was about.

The Boss explained to them: “She writes about me in her blog all the time, and it’s all inaccurate. She’s never nice to me.”

I replied: “I only write about you when you’re somehow part of my day. I write about everyone who’s part of my day in a significant way.”

Then I added:  “And I can’t make you sound nicer than you really are. I don’t make up stuff.”

There was a time, a very long time ago, when he was very nice, and I’d written about him in this way. But that was ages ago.

That’s Brett, the Selati Lodge manager and one of the Selati Lodge bartenders behind him

But then, that very moment, I had a change of heart. Life’s short and I can embellish a little if it’ll make him happy. So I said to him: “Okay, I’ll make you more of something but you’ll have to choose. I can make you sound smarter than you are, or nicer than you are. But I can’t do both. That would be impossible. So choose which one you prefer.”

Then I added: “But I think you should go with smarter. That’s easier for me to invent out of nothing.”

Of course I was just teasing him. He’s never as nice as I would like him to be, but he’s not that bad either. And this amused Brett and Ashley no end.

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So I said to Ashley: “If you can think of something nice for me to write about him. I’ll do it.”

Ashley giggled and promised to do so. But by the time we’d checked out of Selati Lodge to go on to the next Sabi Sabi lodge, she still had not come up with an answer.

And as we rode out of the Selati Lodge driveway, there was Ashley waving and giggling, but still with nothing nicer to say about The Boss. And that’s why you’re still reading about him exactly as he is, instead of as he wants to be portrayed.

Just a bit of fun in a never-ending, and never-endingly eventful Travelife.

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Last Saturday, in Manila living a Travelife, the Travelife team had dinner at the residence of the Ambassador of Thailand to reminisce about our recent trip to Thailand to attend the King’s Cup elephant polo championship in Hua Hin.

It was also the evening of the big Bonfire on the campus of the Ateneo de Manila, as die-hard Ateneans celebrated a fifth straight win in the UAAP championships.

There were also a couple of black-tie charity events happening last night, and even a recital of a master cellist in someone’s home.

As for me, this is the eve of the next chapter of my never-ending Travelife, so I was quite happy to spend Saturday afternoon packing for this never-ending Travelife and Saturday evening chilling out with excellent Thai curry and lots of talk about all the fascinating places to visit in Thailand.

At the moment, I actually have five suitcases lined up in a row in my bedroom, for five different trips to five different climates, and involving five completely different environments. If that sounds like a major headache, I can confirm that it most definitely is.

The most challenging packing so far among the five luggages is the one for South Africa because it’s two weeks of everything from nice dinners to three days of a safari to perhaps pretty adventurous activities like possibly climbing up a mountain — or at least part of the way up.

We also have a limit of 20 kgs each on a really small charter plane from Johannesburg to Kruger National Park, and this friend coming along with me seems to be having a rather merry time checking if I’m keeping to the limit or not.

Tonight he asked me: “Are you bringing a duffel bag to South Africa?” He did say he was actually going to go out and buy a duffel bag for himself for the trip; but I thought he knew better than to ask me again whether I was going to do the same thing.

I’d replied: “You must be kidding.” As of tonight, I’d even packed a second bag into my luggage, anticipating the need for more space and kilos somewhere in the middle of the trip. Of course I didn’t tell him that. My packing a second luggage into my first luggage, when he was talking duffel bags for two weeks in South Africa, was just TMI — Too Much Information.

Guys probably don’t understand these wardrobe worries, but the girls certainly can. Just last week I was having lunch with a girl friend who’d already been to South Africa thrice on safari.

When she found out I was headed for South Africa very soon, the first thing she’d said to me was:  “That’s major wardrobe trouble. You have to pack for all kinds of things. It’s an entirely different wardrobe on safari and another one for the city — especially if you’re going to nice restaurants in the Cape Town area.”

She added: “That’s not even factoring in the luggage space you’ll need for shopping. Trust me, you’ll get Africa fever for  awhile and you’ll want your house to either look like a Dutch house on the Cape or a safari lodge.”

My sentiments exactly — and that’s what my second bag is for.

And even if South Africa is generally on the pretty casual side, we’d certainly lined up some of the fanciest places to eat in on that side of the planet.

But I was still fixated on what she’d just said. I wanted to know more about what she meant by a safari wardrobe since she’d been on safari thrice already. So I said: “Safari wardrobe. Something like “Out of Africa” I suppose….”

She nodded vigorously.

The movie Out of Africa

Then because she thought I was being ironic and mentioning the movie Out of Africa in jest, she stressed: “It’s not a joke. There’s a reason why you’re only supposed to wear white, brown or black on safari. No color, no jewelry, no perfume. These will all attract the animals, and especially red. Don’t ever wear red on your safari. Animals associate red with the color of blood.”

She also continued: “But, of course, when you’re in Joburg, Cape Town, or Franschoek, you don’t exactly want to look like you just arrived from a hunt if you’re in one of the luxury places or happening places. It’s a completely different vibe there. Suddenly it’s all about color.”

Then she asked: “How long are you going to South Africa again for?”

I replied: “Just about two weeks.”

She almost laughed. “On 20 kgs? A safari plus luxury hotels, sightseeing all day and dining out every night? Good luck.”

Then she added: “Of course there’s a way out, though. Get your main luggage stored at Joburg airport and just bring a small soft luggage to the safari. Then pick up your real luggage on the way back.”

I sighed. I’d already thought of that. But the schedule we’d done, from our safari charter flight to our next plane ride, was already cutting it so close that the hotel concierge who’d arranged our flights was having major palpitations.

And so was I, actually. My friend and I had already agreed that we were significantly risking missing our next flight if our charter didn’t take off from Kruger National Park on time for some reason, because of the small window between flights and terminals.

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And if we missed our flight, we’d decided to just take our chances and go up to any airline counter at Joburg airport and book the next flight out to our destination. Hopefully that’ll work out and flights won’t be full.

We actually have a rental car, plans for drinks at someone’s house, a chef and a gourmet dinner waiting for us somewhere in the middle of nowhere at this next destination — so I’m just hoping we make everything on time. If things don’t, our schedule for that day is going to fall apart like a pack of dominoes.

Ironically, I’ve been somewhere almost every week for years, and so far I’ve always cut it close and I don’t think I’ve ever missed a flight, a boat or a train (or even a balloon ride!) or a dinner booking yet.

So if this does happen in South Africa, well, this’ll certainly be a first in my never-ending Travelife.

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