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The best thing about the bush is that you're not in the bush'I was filled with X-rated sensations at the prospect of visiting the country's most luxurious bush retreat' THE wonderful thing about the bush - except for the bush itself, of course - is that today it welcomes all kinds of visitors. Depending on the depth of their pockets, they can field creepy- crawlies in the most basic of tented camps, or they can sip champagne in silk sheets to the sound of snorting hippos. Being of the latter persuasion, though not exactly deep of pocket, I was recently filled with X-rated sensations at the prospect of visiting what easily rates as South Africa's most luxurious bush retreat. It is six-suite Singita Boulders Lodge, which opened in December on a private reserve in Mpumalanga's Sabi Sand Reserve. Singita Boulders is sister to the original eight-suite Singita Ebony Lodge, which opened a few years ago. Boulders lies 500m downstream on the banks of the Sand River in the 19 000ha Singita Private Game Reserve. The man behind the project is Durban-based multimillionaire Luke Bailes, who makes personal use of another lodge, Castleton, not far from the swish, commercial sisters. Singita is marketed by the Varty brothers' Conservation Corporation, owner and operator of nearby Londolozi. Up until now, Singita Ebony was the where-to-unwind talk of gentleman who make deals and ladies who lunch. This year, their breathily competitive dinner-party chatter has switched to Singita Boulders. This is not surprising. South Africans who've visited Ebony - and left with the impression that there could never be anything more luxurious in the bush - have been outdone by the few who've seen Boulders. For one thing, the six suites are even bigger, more luxurious and decoratively detailed, and each is equipped with a private sun-deck and pool. For another, Bailes and his team have installed a cellar to rival any in the heart of the winelands. And for a third, they have poached Tim Cumming from Stellenbosch's Spier Estate to add the most important touch as operation manager of both lodges - that of witty, sophisticated and detail-conscious host. Cumming, in turn, had been lured by Spier from the Regent Hotel in Hong Kong, where he was catering and public relations manager. "My passions," he says simply, "are entertaining and planning entertainment." He has plenty of scope for these at Singita, not least because it has been chosen by the Olympic Bid Committee as the venue at which to entertain selectors over the next few months. The fortyish Bailes, a man of charm whose business interests range from property and services to manufacturing, explains that Singita Ebony was opened before the elections. "Tourism was in dire straits but we were looking for a way to offset the prohibitive cost of holding land in the Sabi Sand. At first, we had only five suites, and everybody thought we were mad. But the response after the elections was so overwhelming that we expanded Ebony to accommodate 16 guests. Then came Boulders, which will soon have an adjoining gym and massage centre." Bailes adds that a final project - a presidential house, accommodating four to six guests - will bring Singita's capacity to 34. "What we have striven for in attracting independent travellers as opposed to groups is comfort, exclusivity, intimacy and an excellent ratio of game-viewing terrain to guest." Certainly, if our game-viewing experience over two days was anything to go by, it would be an unlucky Singita Ebony or Boulders guest indeed who didn't see the Big Five and much more besides. It helps, too, that ranger Bruce Simpson is the personification of the "handsome is as handsome does" cliché. Bailes is spot-on when he observes that people who have marvellous game viewing experiences are forgiving of small disappointments on the food, service and other fronts. However, except for feeling that Singita could copy Londolozi in laying on hot snacks instead of merely biltong and nuts on evening games drives, I believe a guest would have to be overly picky to fault the total package. Singita Boulders was designed and decorated to be a fusion of the contemporary and the African by Boyd Ferguson of Durban's Cècile & Boyd. Its visual effect is best summed up by a female American guest's remark upon her arrival: "Sensory overload!" Apart from this, the lodge abounds in small, ego-massaging surprises: a daily gourmet breakfast dish; smoked salmon canapés before a reinvented boma braai; a box of watercolour paints and art paper in your suite; vast indoor and outdoor showers, a guest loo and cut- above toiletries; and your own torch-bearing guard to guide you to our suite after the evening drive and to dinner. The crunch is the price - for South Africans, that is, which is why they account for only 5% to 10% of visitors to Singita. A night at Boulders will cost you R2 500, while Ebony's rate is R2 300, but both are likely to have increased by summer. The rates include bed, meals and drives. ý Linda Stafford is a senior editor of the Financial Mail.
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