Tawi Lodge’s secret lies in the small, ‘hidden’ things

There is something about the moon. It is not as boisterous or temperamental as the sun; it doesn’t demand attention and like a cat, it’s proud because it’s beautiful… and it is beautiful because it doesn’t crave your validation.

At the end of January, I watched a full moon from Tawi Lodge, Amboseli’s latest gem.

We sat in a circle around a burning jiko, looking at Mt Kilimanjaro while we downed bottles of wine.

When the moon is high up in the dark African sky, it illuminates the snowcapped mountain and the snow on its peak glows with a soothing white ember. It’s abjectly surreal!

I knew I was witnessing something supernatural when all the women in the group, all properly muted now (drinks long ignored), stared out hard at the mountain as if under some sort of hypnosis. Tawi Lodge has many of those intimately special moments.

If you are to fly over, you will be hard pressed to locate Tawi Lodge on the eastern entrance to Amboseli National Park, for it is an architectural genius. It’s quite posh without losing its traditional touch.

“We wanted something that doesn’t disrupt the ecosystem, something that blends in with nature,” the owner, Dominique, said.

The design borrows heavily from the African style of building with just the right dash of modernity.

The colour of the lodge is the colour of the red soil of Amboseli.

They didn’t cut any trees. The lodge which sits on a 6,000-acre private conservancy, is built on the migratory corridor between Amboselli and Chyulu Hills with the the aim of promoting and maintaining a harmonious co-existence between wildlife and the Maasai community.

The conservancy is run by the community and the African Wildlife Foundation.

To say Tawi lodge is gorgeous is to risk being suspected of exaggeration. But it truly is enchanting.

And I believe their secret lies in the small things, the attention to minutiae that other lodges wouldn’t necessarily bother with.

So it is no coincidence that every cottage is named after an elephant.

The cottage I stayed in was named after an Elephant that died aged 80 years.

I desperately want to imagine somehow our fates are similar.

It is also no coincidence that every cottage has a view of the mountain, whether you are in the bathtub or in your bed.

You will also enjoy the view from the main hotel veranda’s dining room, and from the outside spa room or the hot spring.

They have a bio-pool (environmental pool without salts or chemicals), the only one of its kind in East Africa, I was informed.

In this pool live tiny little fishes who swim with you as you watch the elephants come to water at a watering hole less than 50 metres from the pool.

To complete this paradise feeling is Bahati, a 10-month old eland that was adopted when it was three days old, after being abandoned by its parent. Bahati is perhaps the friendliest eland you will ever meet.

Dinner was served on a long table under a tree enclosed in a traditional boma that looked like a kraal.

A buffet was kept going. Steak sizzled on the grill. House wine was from their cellar and it’s inclusive of the rates, so drink all you can.

Bahati, at some point, wandered into the boma, and one of the women fed her (I want to believe) salad and not tender steak because that would be like eating your own cousin.

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