When you are lost in reverie, dreaming about the Kalahari, you may imagine a place to escape to where there is only the peace of red dune sand, long butter-coloured grass catching the sunlight and a vast blue sky. An oryx or ostrich may wander by or a herd of springbok, light on their feet, may pass like a vision. You may hear birdsong, a flurry of sociable weavers waking up from slumber in the camelthorn trees. And you may dream of silence.
This dream became a reality with one of the latest in Gondwana’s Secret Collection, the ‘Reverie’ in the Kalahari Anib Park, where a deep peace settles in your being like a bird descending with large, soft wings.
Flustered, we had arrived at Kalahari Anib Lodge in the late afternoon after a long day on the road as the sun was already dipping in the sky. A game-viewing vehicle was the magic carpet that awaited us for the drive into the Kalahari wilderness. And it seemed that as we set off, all our worries and the busyness of our lives started to blow away with the fresh breeze and we began to pay attention to the new world we found ourselves in. The grass danced, their seedheads shining. Springbok pronked, leaping into the air as they crossed the track in front of us. Oryx watched us pass, a journey of giraffes surveyed the surroundings, a sociable weaver nest adorned a gnarled camelthorn tree and the red sand glowed more intensely as the crimson sun began to set in the sky. We had entered the daydream.
This time we didn’t have to snap back into our busy lives. Cresting a small dune of soft sand, we reached our home for the next two days. As if materialised from another world, the rounded dome palace came into view. I paused as I entered the doorway and looked around me. The space created a ripple of emotion as it touched a chord deep inside me, a place where I remembered how healthy it is to be in rounded spaces. I had felt the same sense of well-being in a teepee, in a rondawel and in the centre of a Himba hut where an animal skin carpeted the mud and dung floor. But here I was in a spacious fluid medley of domes that harmoniously blended into a large, light open living space, beautifully furnished and decorated in the shades of an ostrich egg, accentuated by subtle touches of sienna and green, sky-blue visible through the skylights and, of course, the red sand outside.
This understated space proved to be well equipped with everything that we could wish for. We had entered the dream after all. A fridge with a range of delectable dishes, a wine cooler and drinks cabinet,
a barista coffee machine with a choice of African coffee beans, a selection of good Kalahari reads and a freestanding fireplace in the heart of the home. With the sliding doors open, the long curtains blew gently, adding the finishing touch to the luxurious cocooned space, letting in the Kalahari view like a film screen.
The exploration of all the Reverie’s secrets would have to wait. It was time to uncork a bottle of wine, fill our glasses and salute a Kalahari sunset and all the magic that it holds as the sand is set aglow, as if from a fire deep within the earth’s belly.
As the stars appeared, we lit the wood in the donkey water-heater for the outdoor bath, positioned on a sandy hill above a small waterhole. While the water heated up, we sampled the snacks from the fridge and let our supper sizzle on the braai. When Scorpio and the Southern Cross were spanning the sky with a half-moon blessing us from above, we climbed into the large tub with the clear Kalahari night around us.
Can there be a better way to end a day? Good, peaceful desert sleep perhaps or watching the Kalahari sunrise from bed in the morning with a hot cup of coffee. The reverie continued and we were lost in it.
The next day unfolded with the deep-set calm that had enveloped us as we savoured delicious meals, relaxed and read in our rounded house of dreams. In the late afternoon we were collected for our game drive through the park, a time to be dazzled once again by the natural world and our four-legged siblings. And then we happily padded around our egg-coloured home in the gowns and slippers provided, until we made our way to bathe under the stars again. It was too good an event not to repeat, and we happily pushed play again.
Champagne, stars and a clean crisp Kalahari night.
Life begs celebration . . .
and stepping into a daydream every now and then.
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