eBusiness Weekly
Tawanda Musarurwa
Walking in the forest in the midst of the dense riparian woodlands and numerous sandstone cliffs, you will most certainly miss it.
Camouflaged in the environs of the base of a picturesque range of golden cliffs within Sentinel Ranch is the Sandstone Camp.
This is a beautifully designed stone-and-thatch camp that blends aesthetically into its surroundings amongst towering baobabs and giant boulders at the foot of magnificent sandstone cliffs.
Sandstone Camp is a microcosm of Sentinel’s broad landscape — untouched Africa.
The picturesque thatch-and-sandstone camp is almost invisible among the surrounding baobabs and boulders.
I certainly like the way the campsite is almost built into the rock. It’s probably the closest thing to sleeping in a cave, but with all the modern amenities.
The camp is electrified, but a generator is on stand-by for the occasional load-shedding.
It’s the perfect way to unwind after a strenuous Safari drive.
Says Vanessa Bristow, one of the owners of the Sentinel Limpopo Safaris:
“Most meals are served in a cosy sheltered dining room where, in winter, a fire blazes in the rather unusually positioned fireplace.
“Or, in summer, meals can be served in the garden under the trees where you can watch birds, daisies, klipspringers and baboons get on with their day on the hillside and cliffs above.”
She says Sandstone Camp can accommodate a total of eight people in the four thatched chalets (one double, three sharing).
The chalets are all equipped with a bathroom-en-suite with hot and cold running water (that is very much safe to drink) and a shaded veranda for moments of solitude and tranquillity.
The rooms are attractively decorated, private and comfortable.
Most visitors tend to worry about mosquitoes; however, these are not much of a problem around this camp.
Nevertheless, the chalets’ windows are screened and each bed has a mosquito net above it, giving the room a bona fide safari ambience.
The central terraced dining and living rooms are open-fronted and built under a sprawling thatched roof with bar and fridge within easy reach.
In front of the living area, a spacious rock terrace and fire-pit overlooks the flat-topped Pimwa Mountain, a tree-studded plain and a not-too-distant waterhole that is typically frequented by elephants and antelope.
Drinks around the camp-fire at night afford one of the best views of the Milky Way to be found in the southern hemisphere, and one is lulled to sleep by echoes of grunting leopards and whooping hyena in the distance.
Some of the best tourist destinations around Zimbabwe :
Victoria Falls
Mana Pools
Hwange National Park
Matopos National Park
Lake Kariba
Great Zimbabwe
