Camp Figtree

Imagine a colonial style luxury lodge up in the mountains with magnificent views, no television or other distractions and top class service.  No, this is no cliche advert because this place really exist.  Camp Figtree is situated up in the Zuurberg Mountain just over an hour outside Port Elizabeth and within a stone's throw from the Addo Elephant National Park.

I've known about the lodge for a while now but haven't had an opportunity to visit it until a couple of week ago.  What a magnificent surprise it had in store for me up in the mountain.  The views across the surrounding mountains are breathtaking doesn't matter whether you're sitting on your private balcony, on the deck or even inside the pool.  My favorite spot during my stay was on the verandah outside the lounge paging through a nature magazine while taking in my environment. 

The rooms are huge and very comfortable with big four poster beds and insect netting that gets closed up when the beds are folded down in the evenings.  Returning to the room after dinner (which consisted of Kudu steak by the way) it was nice and cosy thanks to the gas heater blazing away in the corner.  My only concern though is that there aren't aircon's in the rooms so they may just get a bit hot in summer. 

If the bathrooms had lockers in them you could probably use them as change rooms for sports teams.  I can't remember when last I had seen so much space in a bathroom plus there is the fact that the toilet still is separate from the bathroom as well.  In addition to this there is a changing room so if they really wanted to they could have split the space and made two bedrooms.  But they didn't and they are the better for it.

Other than the colonial decor there is also a strong presence of Jock of the Bushveld throughout the lodge, not that its anywhere close to the bushveld but because the owners are decedents of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick who wrote the book.  To me one of the stand out aspects of the lodge (and some people may not like it but I loved the idea) is that they don't have electricity and run off a generator.  The generator gets turned off after 10pm and then the lodge is lit by lanterns and candles.  Sitting outside after "lights out" I looked up and thought to myself that I can't remember when last I had seen so many stars.