Down by the river

Beating around the bush in the magnificent Timbavati Private Nature Reserve

Before I even get a chance to check into my luxury safari tent at the Simbavati River Lodge, I’m rushed through the spacious  dining area towards the river. There to welcome me – in my mind, at least – was a majestic elephant whiling away  the afternoon with a  grassy nibble and the odd spray of mud to cool down.

Many of the lodges in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve are situated along the Nhlaralumi River (which is, for many hot months of the year, a dry river bed), but the  Simbavati River Lodge is placed prominently in front of a dam in the river, boasting water all year around.

Hippo, elephant, antelope and crocodile sightings  are a frequent occurrence, and because of the  activity surrounding the dam (especially  in the dry season when most  of the pans have run dry), the managers at the lodge tell me that they have had every single kind of game except rhino walking among the chalets and peeking their heads into the airy corridors of the dining area to say hello.

Quality game viewing really is the Timbavati’s claim to fame. In the  two short days, we tracked a leopard, stumbled upon a pride of lionesses and cubs feeding on a giraffe and witnessed a pack of 11 wild dogs playing under the shade of a thorn tree. The reserve shares a common unfenced border with the Kruger National Park, allowing animals free range and   there a few other factors that really give the Timbavati the edge.

For a start, no self drives are permitted and the lodges in the area are not allowed on the roads from  8pm to 6am at night and between 11pm and 3pm during the day (in order to give the game a rest from the vehicles). Also, when there’s been a special sighting (notably one of the Big Five) there’s a two game vehicle maximum rule, the vehicles are allowed to go off-road and the guides call in their sighting and share them with all of the other lodges within the Timbavati for the benefit of all of the guests. 

When you’re not beating around the bush in the reserve, the airy, thatch roofed paradise that is the Simbavati River Lodge makes for a pretty fine distraction. Ample buffet breakfasts and lunches keep you blissfully saturated, and the three-course evening meals that warm the heart after a chilly sunset game drive  provide for convivial group dining and a chance to swop stories. of the various sightings of the day.

The tender beef fillet and decadent Amarula chocolate cheesecake still live on in my memory. It’s amazing how tiring the sun, fresh air and mesmerising, bumpy chugging along of the game drive vehicles can be, so climbing into bed ridiculously early isn’t frowned upon at all.

During the day, when the sun is beating down and most of the animals have gone into hiding, the air conditioned confines of your tent or the cool poolside loungers are the two top ways to kill time before the next rev of the Land Rover signals the time to get up.

As far as accommodation is concerned, all of the various options have their own privileges. The three family chalets (Buffalo, Rhino and  Elephant) sleep four and five, are close to the communal lodge living areas and reception and have what must be some of the best bathrooms with a view in SA.

The four luxury tents situated along the river (ask for Leopard, Lion, Cheetah or Wild Dog) have picturesque river views, especially in the winter months when the trees are bare, and the  remaining four luxury tents situated  within the thick bush (Waterbuck, Kudu, Impala and  Bushbuck) are on the elephants’ path down to the river, so sightings are quite common.

Another alternative is to keep yourself within easy reach of a fresh gin at the bar and tonic  and perch on one of the leather deck chairs facing the river.  You never know who might be sharing that long drink with you.

Win a holiday!

One CitiVibe reader can win a two night stay at the Simbavati River Lodge in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve for two people. The prize includes all accommodation, two daily game drives, three meals a day and Avis car hire (group A) from Johannesburg for three days. Drinks, gratuities, a conservation fee (R150) and a vehicle entry fee into the park (R120) are excluded.

The prize is subject to availability and valid until August 31 2012.

For more information on the Simbavati River Lodge, visit www.simbavati.com, e-mail info@simbavati.com or call 021-945-3751.

To win, SMS the word SIMBAVATI, plus your full name and suburb of residence to 33521. SMSes are charged at R1,50 (entries are restricted to cell phone entries only) and the competition closes at midnight tonight.

Terms and conditions apply.

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Friday 21 October 2011. Photos by Natalie Bosman.

Reliving history

Conn Iggulden writes one of the greatest rags-to-riches stories in history

Historical fiction writer Conn Iggulden is far from a dusty, desk bound scholar who lives vicariously through the legendary protagonists that drive his plots. Iggulden recounts tales of wearing Roman armour himself so that he could write with authority, and travelling to Mongolia so that he could better understand the landscapes that his heroes conquered.

Even in the impromptu recounting of some of his adventures, the storyteller within grabs hold. Iggulden is fervently passionate about history, in part due to the strong historical connections his family brings with them.

“My mother was a history teacher and always told me stories – usually romanticised stories,  I now realise,” he admits with a laugh. “Plus my father’s ancient, so he was there for some of history. He  really was – he was there for WW2. And my grandfather was born in around 1850, which is far back for two generations by anyone’s standards – he had my father when he was 75 – so in just  a short way, we go back a bit. My grandfather saw Buffalo Bill’s circus when it came to England, so I’ve always had a love of the stories of history.”

There are many burdens for the historical fiction writer – that fact that real life is also filled with “dull” bits and the fact that history often has gaps that need filling are two of the most obvious. But it’s a burden Iggulden willingly bears.

“I have access to some of the greatest stories and some of the most extraordinary characters of history who may or may not exist today. There probably isn’t a similar character to Julius Caesar – they were really unusual beings, and it’s a privilege to be able to write them.”

Iggulden’s latest book, Conqueror, stands out from all of the rest and sees the author end Kublai Khan’s life story in the middle, or “in glory” as he calls it in his author’s note at the back of the book.

“I wrote the end of Genghis Khan and of Julius Caesar, and so when it came to Kublai Khan, I was faced with a life in two parts. To tell that story was great, and to finish on a high. I might know that the second half of his life was filled with tragedy, but he doesn’t know that at this point, and I wanted, for once, to not have the Titanic sink at the end. I wanted it to still be floating and heading away into the future.”

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Thursday 12 October 2011. Photo courtesy Ben Gold.

Conn Iggulden’s Conqueror (ISBN: 9780007271160) is available now.

Fearless non-fiction

Bestselling author Alexandra Fuller on writing books that nearly kill you 

Alexandra Fuller’s bestselling  book Don’t Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight was an incredibly visceral and demanding debut, but she’s of the opinion that the only book worth writing is the one that nearly kills you, so the journey was one that she wholeheartedly embraced.

Because of the autobiographical nature of the book it proved to be a difficult read for her mother, and even in Fuller’s latest work of non-fiction Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness, Fuller has her mother repeatedly (and rather humorously, at times)  referring to Don’t Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight  as “that Awful Book”.

“It really was my story, even though my mother thought it was hers,” says Fuller, basking in the sun and sipping away at the “bath” of rooibos tea she has just ordered. “What was hard for her, I think,  was that I had exposed her real grief. I think she thought that she had given the world such a brave face, and I had shown that behind closed doors she had dissolved.”

Her latest book, however, is one that her mother –  “Nicola Fuller of Central Africa”, she’ll have you know – loves.

“OK, she doesn’t love it, she accepts it and she’s fine with it,” admits Fuller with a laugh and a long pull of her cigarette. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness revisits some of the childhood happenings that Fuller documents in Don’t Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight, but really the author says the book is a counterargument of sorts. 

“I am always curious about the way that being attached identity creates conflict and violence, every book I write seems to be along those themes, but this book is also  an impatient rebuttal to all of those silly books out there saying ‘oh, how I grew up in Africa and I had to leave because there was no place for me there’. Actually no, you didn’t have to leave because you’re white, you had to leave because you refused to be African. That’s my answer.”

Although Fuller says she threatens that in her next book “nobody will die”  and she  “will make it all up”, she also acknowledges that the truths and stories that find her are clearly the content that she has been put on earth to tell. “My cerebral self says I’d love to do fiction, but then I get out of bed and say ‘I’m  yours, what’s the story?’ and truth just keeps coming,” she explains.

“Death is part of life, and yes it’s tragic. There is nothing more tragic than a mother losing her children, but I think especially living in the States where you realise people are so allergic to the idea of dying that they shove their faces full of botox – they are constantly trying to fight age or death – you need to accept that  it’s going to happen.”

For readers that applauded Fuller’s last book, The Legend of Colton H. Bryant, for the way in which the author stripped off labels such as “feminist, vegetarian, liberal,  white, African and British”, then the stripping off of the label of daughter in Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness proves to be one of her greatest conquests yet.

 

“Peeling off label of daughter and just hearing my mother was probably one of the hardest things about writing the book,” she says. “But the gift of writing is that you get to do your million little deaths while you’re living.”

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Thursday 13 October 2011.

Alexandra Fuller’s Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness (ISBN: 9780857201287) is available now.

Delicious dishes

On David Higgs and his moreish ‘modern comfort food’

Once you’re finished gawking at the slick, sophisticated interiors of the Central One Bar & Restaurant – think crisp whites and dramatic reds, vertical succulent gardens suspended on the walls and bold oversized lighting – the hard work really begins. Shortly after presenting us with an ample and utterly tantalising menu, our waiter Andrew summed it up well when he informed us

that “everything here is awesome”.

To be fair, it must be tough being asked for recommendations when the chef at the helm of the Central One is none other than David Higgs (Chef of the Year at  the annual Eat Out Restaurant Awards). Higgs aptly describes the dishes on his newly released menu as “modern comfort food” and although he  has mastered the art of presenting his food in such a way that it looks delightfully intimidating, it all tastes surprisingly  comforting and homely.

His green herb soup starter, for example, is certainly not something most of us would be able to whip up at home (especially not when three roses of dalewood hugenot cheese are served, followed by the waiter pouring your soup over these embellishments as soon as the dish  finds it way to  your table), but there’s something comfortingly familiar about its green wholesomeness and rich, healthy flavours.

Again, when it comes to Higgs’s main courses, the classics are all there, but they’ve been given a refreshingly  modern twist.  The way in which the meats are prepared (my succulent trout salmon roll fell apart as soon as I took my knife to it), as well as the inventive sides and sauces (such as the almond and ciabatta crunch and roasted lime puree that my fish was served with) that Higgs’s chooses to accompany his mains set him heads and shoulders above so many restaurants offering the usual suspects with little to no variation or playful experimentation of flavours.

The quality of his dishes, as well as the details that do much more than simply decorate the plate,  are really the two areas where  Higgs shines. My partner’s smoked pork knuckle terrine starter, served with a paint slick of duck liver, a handful of fresh peas and a few dollops of local mozzarella gave me a serious case of “order envy”, and that’s before I stole a bit of his braised pork belly main, served with lentil, sweetpotato and apple, sweetcorn and bok choi.

Ordering dessert is rather a  deceptive affair at Central One. The desserts are conveniently grouped into four food main ingredients: chocolate, fruit, coffee and cheese.  That’s easy enough, until the actually look at what is detailed beneath each one of these groupings. My partner and I decided to continue in the gluttonous vein with which we started and opted for a coffee and a chocolate.

Chocolate involves an absolutely perfect fondant (the Masterchef judges would have given Higgs a 10/10, without a doubt), served with vanilla and parsnip ice cream and  orange peel puree. Coffee is even more of a delicate and intricate offering: milk chocolate mousse, espresso ice cream, coffee-filled macaroons. Add to this a glass of Meerendal Cabernet Sauvignon, and you’ve come as close as possible to a perfect meal as I ever thought I would get.

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Tuesday 11 October 2011.

For more information on the Central One Bar & Restaurant in the Radisson Blu Gautrain Hotel, Sandton, visit  www.radissonblu.com or www.ghal.co.za or call 011-286-1000.

Whale of a time

Deep blue oceans and riveting reefs in Sodwana Bay

With one foot in the Indian Ocean and another in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Sodwana Bay offers  divers tropical conditions (thanks to the warm Agulhas current) and pristine protected marine areas. There are no beach houses or developments punctuating the skylines above the dunes, and this absence of human interference translates into magnificent coral reefs when you’re under the water.

If, like me, you cannot quite get your head around an introductory DSD (“discover scuba diving”) course in the swimming pool, then the rock pools just off  the beach and the shallows along Sodwana’s “2 Mile” reefs provide some of the best snorkeling you’re ever likely to experience.

Ideally, however,  you want to be down in the deep blue to fully appreciate the magnificent marine life  Sodwana Bay is famous for. There are numerous  dive operators in the area, but only two of them are situated inside the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. One of these is  the reputable Coral Divers, which is the largest dive operator in Sodwana and boasts   nine boats, a shuttle service to and from the accommodation to the beach and a permanent gazebo on the beach.

Under the capable instruction of a Coral Divers dive master, my partner was in and out of the pool doing a quick refresher course and soon thereafter jetting alongside the breakers in a speed boat destined for Sodwana’s sought-after “7 Mile” reef. Being a fan of choppy boat rides, my decision to tag along was rewarded with a deep sea swim. out of the ordinary.

When the skippers spot dolphins, they usually stop and let the divers have a quick swim among them. While we were paddling among the dolphins, however, our skipper told us to quickly swim to the right and before we knew it we found ourselves swimming right above a big, beautiful whale shark.

It’s hard to top that experience, even 20 metres below the surface, and even and after having ticked  a peaceful lionfish, a blue-spotted  stingray and a slender trumpetfish off your diving bucket list. But 7 Mile is listed as one of the world’s top dive sites and only the sheer variety of fish species that can be spotted  around this reef has the potential to overshadow  an up close and personal whale shark encounter.

Besides the variety of dives available to Coral Divers’s guests (there are over 20 dive spots in and around 2 Mile alone), diving at Sodwana Bay really is an unforgettable experience.Tamar Taylor has a BSc in Marine Environmental Sciences and offers a Marine Ecology Course (three presentations and three guided dives) through Coral Divers.  She explains that part of the reason why Sodwana is such a special dive site is because of the natural conditions in which the reefs find themselves.

The water stays above 20°C degrees Celcius for most of the year, the reefs are very deep and naturally protected from sun damage and none of the boats use anchors, so apart from the odd stray flipper, human-induced damaged is almost non-existent. The biodiversity is also astonishing, with around 130 species of coral and 1 200 species of fish waiting to be discovered by divers descending on Sodwana.

And last but not least, there really is no “bad” month to go diving. The tropical climate keeps it relatively warm all year round, and whether the gestating ragged-tooth sharks attract you in December, or the ghost pipefish in breeding pairs lure you in February, you’re guaranteed an underwater experience that you would be hard-pressed to match anywhere else in the world.

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Friday 7 October 2011. All photos courtesy Laura-Jean Edeling.

Enjoy Makhasa Game Reserve and Lodge (Hluhluwe) and Coral Divers (Sodwana Bay) for the ultimate bush-beach escape.

• The Bush & Beach full package includes six nights, six meals, five dives and three game drives for only R2 100 per person (save R2 490).
• From Monday to Wednesday, pay only R600 per person for three nights (in tented
• accommodation, upgrades available) and five dives. 
• Coral Divers is a PADI 5 star Gold Palm IDC Centre and offers a scuba training pool and classrooms.  
• For more information contact the central booking office on 033-345-6531, e-mail info@makhasa.co.za or visit www.coraldivers.co.za or www.makhasa.co.za.

Tale of trauma

Julie Myerson on the bleak mental landscape in her latest novel ‘Then’

If Julie Myerson says that all of her novels carry an element of her state of mind at the time of writing them, then it suddenly becomes easier to understand the devastating mental landscape that takes shape in Then. 


Even preceding the actual publication of her previous book The Lost Child – in which  Myerson writes in detail about real life rows she had with her son and how she eventually kicked him out of the house because of his alleged  addiction to “skunk” cannabis – the author found herself in the centre of a massive media controversy, being accused of betraying her son and the institution of motherhood by some and of being “insane” and “obscene” by her own son Jake.


The public onslaught that Myerson endured was brutal, and chatting over the phone from the Open Book festival in Cape Town, she confesses that it has taken her two and half years to get her confidence back.


“I was in a very dark place, and I was full of anxiety,” she explains. “That  maternal responsibility  and sense of guilt coming through is not a coincidence.”


Considering the criticism she received from publishing The Lost Child and  her latest novel  putting  forward a protagonist that has a rather disturbing take on maternal love (without giving away too much, the results of this at the end are absolutely devastating to read), releasing Then seems like rather a brave move.


“I could never not write, I have been writing since I was a little girl,” she says.
“I write because I have to, whether it’s going to be published or not. But having said that, Then was difficult to write. It is a dark novel, and although I didn’t know the ending when I first started writing the book – I start all of my novels in the same way, with an idea or a feeling – I think that if I knew how most of my novels would end, I probably would not  have written them.”


When the reader is first introduced to the protagonist Izzy, London is a frozen post-apocalyptic wasteland. For the first  third of the novel, at least,  the foggy haze of snapshots and memories that are as unpredictable as the weather  have the reader frantically (and quite frustratingly)  trying to figure out who this woman is, what has happened and who the various characters are floating in and out of her consciousness.


The more the reader learns, the less they want to know however. A devastatingly sad love story comes to the fore, and suddenly a literal reading of the story becomes too much to bear. A metaphorical of London and Izzy’s life as an emotional and mental devastation seems easier to bear, especially as the end of the book dawns near and Izzy’s action take a tormenting turn.
 Largely inspired by Ian Currie’s book  Frosts, Friezes and Fairs – Chronicles Of The Frozen Thames And Harsh Winters In Britain, Myerson started out writing Then as quite a literal story. While she quickly concedes  a more metaphorical reading is possible, it was that feeling of anxiety and uncertainty that she says drove her plot forward. 


“It’s not set in the future, it’s set tomorrow,” she explains. “I liked the idea of how life can be one thing one day, and then change so drastically the next day. In real life I am quite fearful, but as I writer and in my imagination, I am fearless. It’s liberating to be able to go anywhere and do anything in your imagination; there you can confront troubling things.”

This article was first published in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Thursday 6 October 2011.


Julie Myerson’s Then (ISBN: 9780224096171) is available now. 

Ways of ‘The Wild’

Josette Eales talks spray tan, sunscreen and her idol Philip Seymour Hoffman

Self confessed “Durban theatre girl” Josette Eales might have  felt a bit  like a fish out of water when she moved up to Joburg, but landing a lead role in the M-Net series The Wild and being cast in the new Leon Schuster movie that is set to be released in June next year brings her that much closer to realising her dreams of Hollywood.


Soon after returning from a training session at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK, Eales was cast in the pilot shooting of The Wild. The pilot got the go-ahead and as of next month, Eales will appear on South African television screens as Sara van Reenen, daughter of Karel van Reenen (played by Ian Roberts) and member  of one of three families who are tied together by  a stretch of land and a five-star game lodge.


Sara is a sun loving landscaper, which is pretty much the complete opposite of the pale Eales who lathers herself in sunscreen and avoids the sun at all costs, but layers and layers of spray tan every morning before the shooting begins is good training for the “chameleoning” that Eales believes all good actors should be adept at.

“I want to be that actress where people say ‘gosh, she’s amazing, what’s her name again?’” Eales explains. “I want to be the actor that is so changeable and versatile that they can chameleon into different roles and almost not be recognisable. I think that those are the actors that are the most interesting to watch. Take Philip Seymour Hoffman, for example. For years nobody knew his name, we all only learnt his name after he won an Oscar. But he’s incredible, and those are the kind of actors that inspire me.”


Even though the transition from the stage to the screen has been a “scary” and rather steep learning curve, Eales knows what she wants and is prepared to go the extra mile to get there. When she  lived in New York, she fought to get into a highly sought after class with  Philip Seymour Hoffman’s method acting coach. Now, adjusting to the fast pace with which her Schuster and The Wild shoots have been advancing is just one more step in the direction of Tinseltown.


Whether she’s playing Sara van Reenen or an uptight, pearl-wearing British PA in Schuster’s latest movie, Eales measures her performance and that of her peers on credibility alone.


“Essentially, if I watch an actor and I don’t believe them, they’ve failed at their job. Acting is acting, if you’re able to deliver a truth and a character and you’re able to deliver that to an audience, then you’ve won.” Eales is probably her own toughest critic, but she has a contagious charm and admirable determination that should be fuel enough to propel her straight to stardom.

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Wednesday 5 October 2011.


The Wild is on M-Net Mondays to Thursdays at 6pm. Eales’s character Sara van Reenen will be introduced from November. 

Picture perfect

Photographer Mike O’Brien on capturing moments and breaking the rules 

There's a truth to the cliché that a picture speaks a thousand words, and if photographer Mike O’Brien had his way, that would suffice. In spite of his jokes over the telephone that he’s not great at talking about his work, however, I find that he has a surprising amount to say. Two cups of coffee worth, in fact.


A graphic designer “by day”, photography is a hobby and a passion for O’Brien. Even as a young kid, he says he loved taking photographs and even hand printing his own black and white snapshots. He has an old Hasselblad camera which he says he likes to drag out and dapple with when he has time, but the graphic designer in him also appreciates the ease and affordability that his digital camera allows.

Looking at the photographs in his One Hundred And Eighty Degrees exhibition,  you wouldn’t say that he breaks the rules. Whether it’s the rule of thirds or taking photos at midday, when the lights and shadows are at their most problematic, O’Brien says he relies on instinct to position a shot and that having studied principles of design, colour and composition inevitably informs his approach.


It’s also the graphic designer in O’Brien that sees him willingly altering colours or tones if he thinks the image needs it.


“A lot of my stuff I do leave, but I like the freedom of being able to take the shot in the moment and then later on go back and add a detail or a certain effect, for example. But I would never add things in if it wasn’t there, that’s where I draw the line.”

There’s a focus on city scapes in this exhibition, but O’Brien concedes that his favourite shots are probably his wildlife photographs. “I like the challenge of shooting animals. I mean, you cannot tell an elephant to keep moving left until you have a perfect frame,” he laughs.


O’Brien approaches photography with a very relaxed attitude. His love of travel and wildlife comes first, while the photographs that arise from his adventures he sees as simply an attempt at “capturing a moment” - nothing more, nothing less.


“It’s interesting to hear what people see in my photographs, but I  think a lot of people read a lot of stuff into art that isn’t necessarily there. My photos were taken to record a memory; they meant something at the time, but for me you never know what you get until you see it back at home on the screen.”

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Wednesday 5 October 2011. All photos courtesy Mike O'Brien.


Mike O’Brien’s One Hundred And Eighty Degrees exhibition opened on September 22 and is on at Odd Café, 116 Greenway Road, Greenside for a month. For more information on the artist and his company, visit www.obriendesign.co.za.   

Porra power

Sonia Esgueira on playing the hairy daughter, stereotypes and the secret to her one woman show’s six year success

Only the sassy Sonia Esgueira can admit that she loves her own jokes and still come across as absolutely charming and utterly humble.

“If people don’t laugh, I am like ‘I don’t understand people, I mean come on. This is gold here, I am giving you gold’,” she jokes, before bursting out into contagious laughter and chatting some more about bringing the newly director Porra’Licious back on to the stage.

Ask Esgueira what the secret of her success is, and she will graciously rattle off about how grateful she is for the support and encouragement. There are the odd shows where audiences don’t laugh as hard as they should  (on these nights Esgueira melodramatically threatens to “give it all up and become someone’s PA”), but more often than not her loyal supporters are steadily chuckling away at some of the harsh but nevertheless endearing truths that play out on stage.

“I am  lucky to have so much support, and I  think it’s because I have a very niche market that supports me 1000%,” she elaborates. “They come out in their droves and word of mouth spreads to the rest of the Portuguese community. Actually, I think that’s the secret to theatre success – to have a strong target market. People want to know about themselves, and they want to laugh at themselves. If I wasn’t doing the show, I would have gone to see it,” she says, again bursting  out laughing.

In Porra’Licious, the third installment in the uber successful one woman trilogy that Esgueira fondly labels “a romantic comedy for the stage”, her larger than life characters like Paula (ever longing and looking for “the one”) and the macho man  Rui Ferreira (ever chasing the same  Afrikaans poppie) have matured somewhat and are that much closer to finding the happily ever after’s that they have been so desperately seeking  over the years.

Under the new co-direction of Helen Iskander and James Cuningham, Esgueira says that audiences can expect a show with depth and a lot of physical mime and gestures throughout the monologue. She also says that while the characters in the first installment Porra were quite strongly stereotypical, the third installment really sees them coming into their own.

“I think with the first Porra I really played into the stereotypes. I was doing a show about one community in a country with so many different languages, cultures and communities, so I felt I needed to make the characters and their stories very accessible and recognisable, you know, like the cafe owner and the  hairy daughter. But later the characters became their own people.”

Esgueira is the first to admit that writing  Porra’Licious, which is in many ways the end of an era,  was an emotional experience. She’s not saying that it will never return to the stage, but she is also keen to stretch her creative muscles and try something new. Once this run has finished at the Studio Theatre, she says she’s excited about a new one woman she’s working on for next year. All she will reveal for now, however, is that it’s a mainstream comedy about “one person’s search for something”. 

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Tuesday 4 October 2011.

Porra’Licious is on at the Studio Theatre, Montecasino from  October 5 to  November 13. Tickets are R150 at the theatre (011-511-1988) or Computicket (www.computicket.com).

   

Coast and countryside

Enjoy the best of both the beach and the bush

As a proud Gautenger and Kruger Park junkie, the first thing you notice about Makhasa Game Reserve is the sea sand. The diversity of habitats that make up the 2 000-hectare reserve is undoubtedly one of the reserve’s biggest drawcards for locals and visitors alike. There’s the lushness of the lala palms, acacia thornveld, broadleaf woodland areas, sand thicket habitats and a pristine sand forest area, reminding bush lovers of just how close they are to the ocean and making for easier animal tracking because the soft sand retains tracks for longer.

Each of these five habitats ensure that the daily bush drives are the furthest thing from monotonous, and they are also all home to different animals and game. Ironically for a reserve situated within the iSimangaliso Wetland

Park on KwaZulu-Natal’s beautiful Elephant Coast, Makhasa boasts three of the Big Five (white rhino, buffalo and leopard) but no elephants or lions.

Not that you miss these two animals much, mind you. Game rangers James and Corné enthusiastically traversed the entire reserve for us, letting us triumphantly tick off buffalo, giraffes and rhinos just a few hours after first pulling up to the lodge in our Ford Fiesta 1.6 Sport.

And speaking of ticking things off your list, there are over 380 bird species in the reserve (including the African Broadbill and Pinkthroated Twinspot) and many visitors descending upon Makhasa come for these little creatures alone. Rosy-throated Longclaws and Eastern Nicators aside, however, the major advantage that I see twitchers having is that they can do some of their spotting from the comfort of the shady wooden desks surrounding their chalets, because frankly, any excuse to retreat back to the luxury and comfort of the chalets is a welcome one.

There are only six private thatch roof chalets in the entire reserve, all of them well hidden from one another and accessed via a private path and thick leafy canopy overhead. Understated elegance greets you at the door and follows you

throughout the airy high-ceilinged chalet. The first element of the chalet

that caught my attention was the shower, which is partly indoors (the

top half is open air) and boasts a beautiful rain shower head that literally

sprouts out of a gnarly piece of wood.

This kind of natural detail is echoed throughout, in the beautiful bright colours of the linen and the African animals embroidered on the cushions, for example.

With the glass sliding doors wide open, your feet stretched out across the crisp bed linen and the chance of seeing a red duiker or nyala ambling past your window, an afternoon nap suddenly seems like a waste of good game viewing opportunities.

Should you need to revive your senses however, a lingering shower and kerosene lamp guided path that leads to a three-course boma bush dinner should do just the trick. The exclusivity of the accommodation at Makhasa (and the limited numbers of guests that can stay there, even at full capacity) makes

for a thoroughly personal experience, complete with educational game rides (and the option of going rhino tracking on foot with one of the rangers) and stories of incredible sightings around the fire at night.

Reluctance to leave the place is rather inevitable, but take heart in the fact that a feeling of utter relaxation will accompany you home.

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Friday 30 September 2011.

Enjoy Makhasa Game Reserve and Lodge (Hluhluwe) and Coral Divers (Sodwana Bay) for the ultimate bush-beach escape.

■ The Bush & Beach full package includes six nights, six meals, five dives and three game drives for only R2 100 per person (save R2 490).

■ From Thursday to Saturday, stay at Makhasa Game Reserve and Lodge for three nights, six meals (dinner, bed and breakfast) and three game drives

for only R500 per person per night.

■ Offers valid until December 16, 2011.

■ For more information contact the central booking office on 033-345-6531, email info@makhasa.co.za or visit www.coraldivers.co.za/www.makhasa.co.za.