There is nothing more pleasing than the song of elephants' stomachs rumbling. It's a gentle, calming sound and extraordinarily musical.
I sat on the wooden veranda of my glass and bamboo eyrie and watched the small herd directly below. The rumbles were interrupted by the munching and crunching of pachyderm teeth and the rustles of stretching trunks. There were two calves so small that they slipped beneath their mother's stomachs.
Singita Lebombo, a private camp, is in the prime part of the Kruger National Park. Of course, there are those who will say every part of Kruger is prime and they could be right.
So much did my third son Jamie love Kruger that he and his wife honeymooned there and when their daughter was born, she was named Satara after the camp in which she had been created.
Singita Lebombo is within a private concession area in the eastern south-central part of Kruger. A game-filled spot indeed, known for its elephants, lion, giraffe, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest. Interesting, because the last two species are plains game and this is rocky, treed and bushy veld.
Singita lodges are what my kids call super-schmaltz camps in that they are not five-star but closer to 10-star. And that's no exaggeration.
We Lazars have always done our own bush thing in our ancient 4x4 with an equally ancient tent named Horace. Now that they're older with their own families, the kids still escape to Kruger or Botswana this way.
When you have travelled throughout Africa on your own, pitched your own tents, baked bread in a potjie and braaied chops and wors over your own fire, you tend to become snobbish about larney lodges. It's natural. Huh, that's not the real Africa, you think to yourself. That said, nothing could have prepared me for the exquisite simplicity of Singita Lebombo.
The exclusivity, the beauty of the wall-to-ceiling glass cube chalet covered here and there with natural stick-like strips.
So much part of the bush that each dwelling was barely visible. And the luxury within was understated, yet superb.
As I lay in my extra-long bath, I felt part of the bush and indeed gazed upon vervets watching me.
My view was more inspiring than theirs. Certainly more colourful, as my privates are not that brilliant blue and wouldn't be, even if I was just a male.
There were two showers, fully glassed, one within, the other outside. The joy of hearing hippo splashing nearby made me want to leap off the stoep and go exploring.
Not, I think, a good idea. For hippos are not happy should you cross their grazing space, which is why this large creature is to blame for more deaths than any other animal in our country, excluding humans.
And, I must add, it's not the hippos' fault. It's the fault of drunken folk who at night wander into them.
In my glass eyrie hung a chandelier. Why on earth have a chandelier in a bush lodge, I wondered. But when it was lit, it looked like grass waving. It was exactly right.
I have been to many private lodges and each has its special attraction. For me, it was the minimalism of the glass cubes that thrilled and being in the middle of the bush, but sheltered. The feeling of green everywhere.
Then there were the visitors. The bushbuck couple that came right up and ignored me as I sat mesmerised.
The baboons and monkeys watched wide-eyed for crumbs I might drop from the home-made rusks that came with the coffee. But it was an unexpected bathmate that enchanted.
I heard a thrumming in the bath and, when I looked, found a bird on its back, unable to right itself. Gently, I placed a towel around it and carried it out to the table on the stoep, then left it there. It didn't move.
Indeed, it was frozen with fright.
It had been so long that I'd visited Kruger that I'd forgotten the names of even the most simple of birds. Okay, I could identify a fork-tailed drongo, a saddlebill stork, a lilac-breasted roller and a martial eagle. But this tiny bird? Nada. So I took some photos and walked along the boardwalk to the main lodge.
Here, waiting for me, was Deirdre Opie, ranger extraordinaire. Known as Dee, or Didi, she was our ranger for our two-night stay.
I showed her the photograph. "It's an emerald spotted dove," she said and I felt like a cretinous halfwit. Of course, I should have known that.
"It's sitting in shock on the table," I told her. "I hope it survives."
Later, Dee checked on the little bird and, as she said, "it took off like a jet".
I was overjoyed.
There are quite a few Singita camps, four in Tanzania, two in Zimbabwe and four in South Africa. Each is small and exclusive.
Lebombo was actually one of the larger lodges. It can accommodate 30 when full, while Sweni, a short drive away, can have 12 visitors. But Lebombo is so cleverly designed you could be entirely alone.
Dee mentioned that the entire Lebombo Lodge could be dismantled within a month and nobody would know that it had even been there.
We flew in on a Wednesday afternoon, in time for a late lunch set on a simple patio.
The pool resembled a pregnant lap pool in front of the dining room beneath the thatch. After high tea at 3.30pm, you take to the bush in your open 4x4. That's if you're not going on a walking trail, a mountain bike ride or for a spa treatment.
Dee carried an enormous shotgun (it might have been a rifle - I don't know guns) but it looked as if it could have brought down an elephant or three. God forbid.
She did say she'd never had to use it other than for target practice.
In the front hot seat (the one on the bonnet) sat Sydwell our eagle-eyed tracker. And eagle-eyed he proved to be.
"Rhino," he said five minutes into the drive and there, within metres, were three portly square-lipped rhino.
Right behind them were some zebra, a lone buffalo bull and, in a tree, a white-backed vulture groomed itself.
The rains have been late coming to this part of Kruger and the acacias looked drier than usual. The Lebombo mountains brood over the horizon and everywhere there are euphorbias - candelabra aloes. Each bend held another animal strutting its stuff.
We were four visitors. Two Americans "in the film business", they said and a colleague, Leigh Robertson, from a highly respected lifestyle magazine. Each bend in the road held another thrill. Here a side-striped jackal, there some buffalo bulls contemplating the world.
It was on one of the late afternoon drives that we came upon a most extraordinary sight. A section of Kruger literally wall-to-wall carpeted with lion. There were, I think, 11 males and one female (lucky girl) and each one was fast asleep. They're not real, I thought to myself, but Dee, ever respectful, drove upwind of them and, as we watched, we saw them occasionally twitch a tail, straighten a leg, shift their testicles, sneeze.
They had obviously eaten something large for each had a swollen stomach. In the silence of the bush, we could hear the odd snort, grunt or tail twitch. It was surreal. I should mention that Sydwell had retreated across the bonnet to the front seat of the vehicle where he sat beside Dee.
"Although they've just eaten, we won't take a chance," murmured Dee. The Americans trembled.
In the bush, food has not been terribly important to me, but the dining and wining at Lebombo was something to savour. My colleague, Leigh, a foodie and expert on wine, was extremely impressed. I was overwhelmed.
I couldn't believe that we were experiencing such culinary delights in the middle of the Kruger Park. Fresh fish is brought in every second day from Mozambique, I was told by Goodness, our server with a smile as wide as the menu.
A massage had been booked for me at the Singita African Village where the spa and shops are situated. My massage began at noon and, an hour later, I was so relaxed that I could barely make it to the poolside lunch. While tasting crisp salad, lightly grilled fish and a crème brulee to die for, I watched a herd of elephant come down to drink beside the saddlebill, two yellow-billed storks and the small flock of Egyptian geese. Okay, so you can see Egyptian geese on the lamp posts at Zoo Lake. It's not the same, I promise you.
Kevin Pongola - he who knows truly everything about wine - discussed the superlative wine supply with my colleague while I drank it all away. Sometimes, ignorance has its advantages. Why waste good drinking time on talk?
Singita Lebombo has a cellar of at least 200 different fine wines. Did I mention that on one night drive I skipped my usual beer and instead had champagne. Watched by a herd of skittish impala in the distance, it seemed most appropriate.
On the first night, I slept in the glorious bed within my chalet. However, the following night, they made up the bed complete with mosquito net on the veranda.
I fell asleep to the sounds of cavorting hippos and roaring lion that sounded so near that even the mosquito net quivered. Only to be woken by a thunderclap and downpour. So inside I scuttled and fell asleep once more, only to be woken by the 6am call for the early morning drive.
Our American film visitors had left and on this morning we were joined by a charming young honeymoon couple from Los Angeles. Bright-eyed, though they couldn't have had much sleep the night before, they were excellent spotters and between them and Dee and Sydwell, we saw virtually everything.
Did I mention the sparring giraffe bulls? The giraffe calves just outside the Lebombo gate? The lioness striding through the grass? The aardvark we didn't see. Before I visited Lebombo, my idea of paradise was watching an aardvark doing its aardvark thing. My dream has changed. My idea of paradise will be watching an aardvark from the stoep of my Singita chalet, sipping champagne and nibbling biltong and dried mango.
- Carol Lazar was hosted by Singita Lebombo.
If you go
- NECESSARY: A good pair of binoculars so you can count the hairs on the elephants' trunks. Plus walking shoes and a costume for a swim in the pool. Take only loose clothing because the scrumptious food (three meals a day) and wines are irresistible. Another option offered by Singita Lebombo is horse trails. You, your horse and a herd of zebra. What could be better? You, your horse and a pride of lion.
- GETTING THERE: Fly from Johannesburg to Skukuza, then a pick-up in a smaller plane directly to the Lebombo/Sweni airstrip or drive from Johannesburg and enter Kruger Park at Orpen gate.
- INFO: Singita Lebombo is not inexpensive and you will not have much change from R10 000 a night per person sharing. But everything is inclusive. Both Singita Lebombo and Singita Sweni have special offers including a Singita 'One Night on Us' promotion book three nights and get the fourth free. Alternatively, the three-night 'Singita Sweni for Sweethearts' package offers the ultimate romantic safari. Enhancing the Singita experience are seductive treats such as a sensuous couples massage and, for supreme romantic indulgence, an exclusive dinner for two beneath the starlit sky.