Treat Yourself

Issue 32

Could this be the perfect way to relax after a morning spent charging around the southern African bush? More and more luxury lodges now offer glorious spa treatments, so go on, indulge, says Melissa Shales – you know you deserve it. "Look who’s come to visit”, Bianca whispered, her hands stilled against my feet. It was a struggle to open my eyes – I was way too relaxed – but when I eventually did turn my head it was to meet the curious gaze of a family of warthogs, mama, papa and two babies, who were absolutely fascinated by my reflexology session. We stared enraptured at each other for the next ten minutes as Bianca turned back to repairing my ill-used feet, exhausted and aching after a morning bush walking. In that weird, half-waking torpor that wraps up the brain during the best massages, I found my thoughts wandering idly from how to do reflexology on a warthog to the idea of training them to walk up and down on your back. They really did look as if they wanted to join in. Bianca offers massages and reflexology under a thatched sunshade at Garonga, an enchanting little lodge on a private reserve near Hoedspruit and the Kruger National Park. The Big Five game-viewing is not spectacular, but this charmingly informal place, its part-tented rooms sprawled along the bow of a dry riverbed, describes itself as offering ‘safaris for the soul’. My soul wanted to stay there for weeks. There is something marvellously relaxing about the open air, the sun on your back melting away the tensions of the city. There is enchantment in the rustle of leaves as a bushbuck in stripy socks peers cautiously out into the open then tiptoes cautiously down to the waterhole. There is something wonderfully therapeutic about well-trained hands working out the kinks and knots of a life spent in front of a computer screen. Put them all together and the result is sheer heaven. Garonga was my first taste of what I came to realise is a massive new craze sweeping South Africa. No game lodge can be without its ‘spa’. What the spa might be varies hugely from a small plunge pool and one masseuse to a full-blown wellness centre worthy of London or New York, but if you want to be taken seriously as a luxury lodge, massage is on the menu. The rationale is absolutely logical and like all the best ideas, it’s hard to imagine why someone hadn’t thought of it years ago. You leap up at dawn, rattle around for a few hours in a Land Rover, getting covered in dust, or head out for a hot walk, skirting spider’s webs and termite mounds. What you most want on your return is to spend the heat of the day wallowing in cool water. Or to put it another way, after watching the sun rise over the African bush, a faint ground mist rising through the reeds as the sky turns as luscious as a ripe peach and a herd of elephants pads past like ghosts in the half-light, what you most want on your return is to make that feeling of euphoria last and last. Either way, bodily pampering is just what you need. To subscribe or to buy this edition, click here “Can’t be doing with all that stuff”, one red-faced fellow guest grunted a couple of nights later at Sabi Sabi, further south along the Kruger border in the Sabi Sands. His bleached and tanned wife looked cross and as soon as the meal was over slipped away to the reception desk. She arrived for the next afternoon’s game drive slick with lavender oil, looking serene, her toenails freshly painted a fetching shade of cerise. That incautious remark had cost him at least two treatments (it turned out she had booked two more for the following day). Sabi Sabi is one of the fanciest game reserves in South Africa and I was staying at the most luxurious of its three lodges, the low-slung, ultra-modern Earth Lodge, supposedly modelled on termite mounds, its greyish-brown concrete blending seamlessly into the parched winter earth. The spa here is far more sophisticated, a full service suite of treatment rooms, all low lights and soft music, with a mile-long menu of treatments from seaweed wraps to hydrotherapy baths and yoga classes. Perhaps it was an unimaginative choice, but I thoroughly enjoyed my massage. Next stop was Entabeni, a 12,000ha private reserve up in the Waterberg, about 2 hrs drive north of Jo’burg. This is one of the most beautiful parks I have ever visited, split in two storeys by a huge red cliff face climbed via a steeply forked forested valley. Earthsong Lodge, one of six very different small lodges on the property, is home to the spa and an essential stop. By now, I was getting well and truly into the swing of things and in between the buffaloes and lions, a facial was crucial (all in the name of research). So glamorous did I feel after this that I fully expected to look in the mirror and see a young Sophia Loren staring back at me. It didn’t quite work like that so there was no option but to continue my sybaritic tour of pure self-indulgence in hopes of further improvements. My last stop was far to the south, at Bushman’s Kloof, in the foothills of the Cederbergs. Its old Cape Dutch buildings set in spectacular scenery, this is one of few places in the western Cape to go gameviewing (not Big Five), while a huge variety of activities from canoeing and mountain biking to star-gazing picnics cater for all levels of activity or sloth. Surrounded by dramatic slabs of rock with basking lizards and over 130 San painting sites on the property, there was only one possible choice of treatments – hot stones carefully lined up down my back as I lay face down on a cool rock shelf. Perhaps 10,000 years ago some Bushwoman was equally spoiled after a hard day’s gathering. I like to think so. De-tox, de-stress, revitalise: the tour starts here In Namibia, the Gocheganas Nature Reserve & Wellness Village, set in a private 6000ha game reserve just outside Windhoek, takes things seriously with 11 specialist treatment rooms, indoor and outdoor pools, a sauna in a granite cave, gym and yoga facilities and a formidably long list of treatments. The Chobe Chilwero Lodge, overlooking the Chobe River in Botswana, is commonly regarded as one of the finest game lodges in the world. As a way of topping off the experience, they offer a range of in-room spa treatments from facials to Swedish massage. In the Okavango Delta, the tented Khwai River Lodge, which overlooks the Khwai River floodplains and Moremi Wildlife Reserve, offers aromatherapy massages and treatments and gym facilities. In Tanzania, the place to go is CC Africa’s extraordinary Ngorongoro Crater Lodge with its collection of high-Baroque hobbit houses. Game drives are the main attraction here; you can round off a day in the bush with an aromatherapy massage and a rose-petal-strewn bath. If you would prefer to watch for whales, Tanzania can also offer some of the finest in seafront spa treatments. Breezes Beach Club on Zanzibar is a luxury resort with more honeymooners per square foot than ants in a termite mound. It has a well-developed spa with therapists from Thailand and Bali offering a full range of soothing and rejuvenating treatments to help wind down after the stresses of the wedding. Fundu Lagoon on neighbouring Pemba is a real chill-out spot with rooms stretched out along gleamingly white sand, helped by a massage and treatment room and a house-party atmosphere. Further south, Quilàlea is also in Pemba, but this time, Pemba, Mozambique. All 35 hectares of Quilàlea Island, a private, uninhabited marine sanctuary nestling in the Quirimbas Archipelago, belong to the resort. Neighbours include whales, dugongs and turtles. The villas have superb beaches and while they don’t yet have a dedicated spa, there are body massage and yoga sessions on offer, plus watersports, snorkelling, diving, boat trips and fishing.

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