Faru Faru

Faru Faru has a relaxed, Zanzibari-inspired feeling. It’s along the side of a hill overlooking a river course, with 2 pools, a spa, and gym. When we arrived, word had spread from the previous camps that we enjoyed cocktails and our new barman insisted we tried his margaritas. He had reason to be proud.

Singita is just so good at details like that – their staff knows your preferences before you’ve even arrived. Lunches were a highlight for us – gorgeously presented meze platters of fresh crunchy salads, prawn and fish skewers and fresh bread, looking out over the pools and African bush. Perfectly relaxed for hot African days, and healthy too.

The suites are strikingly modern, like long cubes perched just above the riverbed, clean contemporary decor and huge glass windows looking out. They’re quite spaced out along the river so it’s a bit of a walk from the main camp, but that gives privacy. And a small sala below our suite was a wonderful space for quiet time.

The area around Faru Faru is hilly, and some of the hills have amazing 360-degree views over the Serengeti, great places for sunset drinks. When we were there, the area had big herds of giraffe, zebra, buffalo and elephant, and lions in the riverbed. We also did some good birding and spotted black-and-white Colobus Monkeys, which I’d last seen climbing Kilimanjaro when I was a student.

Faru Faru is on the edge of the same vast private concession as the more formal Sasakwa and Sabora, and the mobile tented Explore camp. It’s a favourite of friends of mine as it invites you to kick back on a lounge and really enjoy the daytime hours between drives – it has a great relaxed feel, but with Singita’s exacting standards.

Singita Explore

Singita has 4 camps in its Serengeti concession which is called Grumeti.

Explore is the most basic (relatively speaking, when you consider Conde Nast Traveller rated Singita Grumeti as the 3rd best hotel in the world), a simple tented camp in the middle of the African savannah, which moves a few times a year.

There’s an open fire in the middle, a dining and lounge tent with comfortable furnishings, and the bedroom tents. It has an honest and intimate team feel, enhanced by the approach of making it exclusive use for 4 or more guests. Food is cooked over the fire, and they conjure up remarkably tasty and healthy meals. There’s something about food cooked like that and eating it out in the fresh air which makes it all taste so good.

The furnishings are perhaps best described as Hemingway style – a combination of proper furniture and romantic camping accessories, which enhance the sense of adventure. And they even supplied paints and brushes. When you need a hot shower, tell the staff and they’ll fill up the hot water from the fire. Snuggle under the sheets at night, listening to the sounds of the African night – there’s nothing more than canvas between you and Africa.

As for game drives, it’s fantastic – you’re far from other camps, so you’re unlikely to be disturbed by other vehicles. The game is all around – there’s no need to drive to an area which has the game. It’s typical Serengeti savannah – fairly flat, mostly grassland, tall flat-topped acacia trees. If the migration is in the area, you’ll be right in the midst of the vast herds, and the lions and hyena which follow.

But don’t be under the impression that migration is the best or only time to visit – when I visited, the herds had yet to arrive, and we were treated to a much greater variety of game – species like giraffe tend to move away when the herds come through.

Explore has an honest and intimate team feel, enhanced by the exclusiveness – if you are 4 or more guests, you have the whole camp to yourself, and that’s a really special experience. There’s a strong sense of teamwork amongst the small team there, they really work hard to make sure you’re looked after. It makes a great combination with one of the other, more lux Singita camps, for a bit of pampering afterward – but Explore will give you the bigger memories.

Singita Sabora

My favourite time of day on safari is at first light, when the studded black sky turns pale blue from the east, before the warm colours of sunrise. We woke up then in our tent at Singita’s Sabora camp and I ran a bath. It’s a really big tent, lined in fabric, and the bath has a view through the gauze windows. It was full moon, so the vast Serengeti landscape was illuminated in ghostly white. A few hundred thousand wildebeest and zebra stood a distance away – they knew the lions had been in camp last night. We’d seen them from our dinner table.

Lying in the deep Victorian bathtub (Sabora camp is done up 1920s style), I watched 2 jackals scurry across the grass, and some buffalo came into view. The lions must have moved off. A tented camp is great for the sense of closeness to nature, the sounds of birds all around and a breeze off the plains. After the bath I put on one of Singita’s white gowns, grabbed a big cushion and went out onto the deck for a sunrise meditation.

Alan was packing the bags, as we’d decided to break the normal routine and leave early to take a few hours drive to the next camp. One of many wonderful things about Singita is their flexibility (many game reserves have quite fixed routines, which gets a bit tiring on a longer trip). Other guests had their pasties and coffee, but our waiter Samuel, something of a maestro on smoothies and cocktails, had prepared mango and spinach smoothies for us, and the African maizemeal porridge I love. The kitchen had been up early to make a packed breakfast.

Then we were off on the Land Rover. The Grumeti concession lies between the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara – they’re all part of the same ecosystem, with no fences so the 3 million head of game can migrate across. But this is a private concession, so there are only Singita’s vehicles, and they’re allowed to drive off-road.

And although we stayed at 4 camps, our ranger Godson stayed with us, staying at the different camps too. That morning he was looking for those lions, and he found them quickly – a magnificent pride of 5 brother males, 2 females and 5 cubs, all in perfect condition. Suddenly there was a commotion in the bushes as two of the male lions chased a hyena – and then attacked it. The cubs craned their necks to watch, the lionesses looked alarmed. Our ranger was wide-eyed, he’d never seen anything like it, the hyena pinned down and killed, just a few feet from us.

Singita Sasakwa

When we walked onto the lawn at Sasakwa and saw the view, we canceled our game drives. I love a view, and this one is so extraordinary I didn’t want to leave, for a moment.

I’d rate it Singita’s smartest camp – built in the style of a magnificent colonial-style manor house at the edge of a cliff, looking out over lawns and gardens to the Serengeti plains – you literally see thousands of animals, far below, out to the horizon. There are two tennis courts, pools, wine cellar, gym, library etc. Lots of places to idle away time, drink tea or a glass of fine wine (there are some great South African vintages in the cellar). I could’ve stayed for days.

Rooms are in separate villas, furnished in a formal style with lots of dark wood – four poster beds, ball-and-claw bath, lavish lounge, private plunge pool (we were visited by baboons at ours, but they were pretty friendly). Very different to the other camps on the reserve, but that’s part of the experience.

The food is remarkable, I’ve attached a photo of a menu, to give you an idea – zucchini and mint soup, beetroot orange and herb salad with marinated goat’s cheese, honey poached pear with pistachio ice cream were on this one. They make fresh fruit sorbets every day which would rival those of a chef in Rome. The quality and freshness of ingredients is amazing, and a tribute to the work Singita have done in developing suppliers in local communities.

Some friends of mine aren’t fans – they feel it’s too grand and too removed from the wildlife and the feeling of the bush. They have a point – being up on a hill like this, surrounded by such opulence, is quite separated from the savanna below. But I thought it’s one of the best places I’ve ever stayed. I was glad it was our last stop – we’d stayed at other camps which were on the plains and close to nature. At the end of the trip, this was the best treat ever.