Bridget Hilton-Barber: Unspoilt places
`This is a dead dog tree,” says our game ranger, stopping near a fallen, sun- bleached trunk in the yellow grass. A frisson of uncertainty ripples through our group. We are five minutes into our “tree walk” on the first morning of a weekend bushcamp trail – and feeling a little out of our depth. The ranger lights a cigarette, leans on his gun and squints into the sun. “We call it a dead dog tree,” he says earnestly, “because it’s lost its bark.”
The moment is a metaphor of the light- hearted, laid-back style that makes Tamboti Bushcamp tick. Like the great South African novel, the great South African bush experience is best approached with a healthy degree of cynicism. Both bookshelves and bushveld, it seems, abound with khaki-clad conquerors, quasi-military Kenyan safari-style colonialists and those ridiculous “I can’t stand the city” romantics who would be better off taken down to the paddock and shot.
Tamboti Bushcamp is a refreshing departure from the stereotypes. Sprawled under the shade of a tamboti tree in the vast unspoilt tracts of Tilodi Wilderness, near Thabazimbi, this tented camp runs on the principles of good old-fashioned environmental enjoyment.
This ain’t veld school, the army or some officious wilderness trip – the idea here is to tailor-make a bush weekend around what you want to do and see. If you want to walk, you can walk; if you want to do trees or birds, they’ll provide the expert guide and plan the whole outing.
The Tamboti emphasis is on understanding the magic and making the connections rather than simply ticking off the sightings. Lions I have seen and forgotten, but I have yet to recover from the sheer amazement of discovering that trees talk to each other via pheromones; that giraffe have a built- in shoebrush-style device in their palates so they can strip the leaves off thorny acacia trees; that kudus graze downwind; that you can call waterbuck – and they come.
And while the people at Tamboti know that the knowledge they impart may well lead to long-term tree hugging tendencies or the proclivity to burst into tears over a porcupine quill, they also know exactly the right moment to produce an ice-cold beer.
Yes indeed, here are people whose vast stock of outdoor experience has taught them that the beauty of a hippo ballet in a lake at sunset is undeniably heightened by biltong and a gin and tonic.
Unless you’re the victim of an arrears- induced electricity cut, the simplicity of bushcamp living is also bound to appeal. We’re talking flickering lamplight, fireside conviviality, hot outdoor showers and star-studded night skies.
The camp’s simple reed-and-thatch boma is relaxed and comfortable, peppered with Out of Africa objects. Scattered about the camp, the tents are far away enough to hear the call of the wild, far apart enough not to hear other people snoring.
And Tamboti also specialises in Added Value – that hot-water bottle slipped into your bed on chilly nights; that ceremonial blast of a kudu horn to announce dinner; that morning cup of coffee delivered to your tent.
You won’t be able to recharge your cellphone battery but after a weekend of Tamboti-style pampering, you may even forget that you own one.
— Tamboti Bushcamp. Call (014) 73-5603. Costs R295 per person per night (maximum eight people)