Branson’s Sabi Sands hideaway
“Would you mind passing the salt?” It’s not every day you’re trading tableware with Sir Richard Branson over a small family lunch at his own safari lodge, but by now I am almost getting used to it. I’d spent the past few days trailing the effervescent, scruffy-haired mogul, along with his wife Joan, son Sam and various orbiting members of his team, around Johannesburg for the centenary celebration of Nelson Mandela’s birth, where Barack Obama had delivered a rousing speech on the future of world politics.
After a busy week, I am here at Ulusaba in the Sabi Sands reserve that borders the Kruger National Park, to inspect its newly renovated Safari Suite. I have brought my father along for company, Branson has decided to drop in on a whim, and now we are all gathered for lunch on a veranda breaking freshly baked bread, feasting on a never-ending succession of pan-African dishes, and tearing through wine from Ulusaba’s extensive cellar.
Dubbed fondly as his “Necker in the bush”, Branson acquired the land in 1994. “The first time Joan and I visited, it was a shack on a rock,” he says.
“We were greeted by two leopards mating and we stayed in a tiny little makeshift treehouse, wobbling high above the plain. I knew I’d discovered another little slice of paradise.”
It’s hardly little, of course. More than two decades later and after several renovations, Ulusaba today covers 33,000ha of bush and hosts two camps with 20 rooms among them, interconnected by way of meandering rope bridges.
The first is Rock Lodge, perched high atop a craggy outcrop, which Branson has a slight preference for. “You can see the enemy coming,” he says, and a flash of mischief crosses his face, not unlike that of the verdant monkey hovering in a tree above him, eyeing up his croissant.
The second, his wife’s favourite, is Safari Lodge, huddled underneath on the banks of the dry Mabrak riverbed, the new star of the show being its 187m² Safari Suite, recently converted from three separate lodgings.
The suite accommodates two guests in a stand-alone residence with views across the fragrant bush. A walled, lantern-strewn, tree-dotted garden with a boma fire pit leads to the front door, and a spacious pinewood deck wraps around the back of the property.
If you’re a party of four, the Safari Suite can be interconnected with the matching Safari Room that neighbours it, also newly renovated and with its own en-suite bathroom – this set-up affording you a private guide and game drive vehicle for the duration of your stay.
Ulusaba’s name derives from the ancient Shangaan warriors who once occupied it, and means “place of little fear”.
“We’ve had leopards who’ve felt safe enough to give birth right by the lodge,” my host is proud to report. – The Sunday Telegraph