I Went to Sashwa for Safari. I Left with Hippo TV.

Written by: Dotsie Bausch

There are places you visit, places you remember, and then there are places that somehow work their way into your collection of stories, the ones you find yourself telling people about months later. Sashwa is one of those places.

I came to South Africa expecting the extraordinary animals, the sweeping bush, and the curiosity of safari. What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with a stationary bike, a couple of hippos, food that looked like artwork, two remarkable safari guides, and quite possibly the best massage of my life.

Let me explain. Every morning, I would head to the gym, climb onto the stationary bike, put Ed Sheeran in my ears, and begin what became one of my favorite rituals of the entire trip: Hippo TV.

Forget Netflix.

From the bike, I could watch a mother hippo and her baby in the river below; playing, moving through the water, disappearing and reappearing, and generally going about their hippo lives while I pedaled away above them. It was mesmerizing. Ridiculous. Beautiful. And one of those moments when you realize that no luxury amenity on Earth can compete with nature when nature decides to put on a show.

There I was, getting my workout in, Ed Sheeran providing the soundtrack, while a mother and baby hippo danced through the water.

Then there were the safaris. Our guides, Beggy and his friend, were simply phenomenal. I have been around exceptional athletes and experts for much of my life, and I have always been fascinated by people who know their craft so deeply that their knowledge seems effortless. These guys were like that. They didn’t just spot animals. They understood the entire living system around them.

A track in the dirt meant something. A broken branch told a story. A plant I would have driven past without a second glance had a purpose, a history, a relationship to the animals and the people of the region. Their knowledge of wildlife was extraordinary, but what surprised me just as much was their command of the plant life of the bush. They made the landscape come alive.

You stop seeing “trees” and “grass” and start seeing an interconnected world where everything is communicating, adapting, surviving, feeding, hiding, healing, and depending on something else. I could have listened to them for days. And their pop-up Safari snacks and wine at sunset, well, that was fabulous too.

And then, after all that wildness, Sashwa would feed us and OMG!

As someone who has been vegan for 15 years, travel can occasionally mean preparing yourself for the inevitable plate of grilled vegetables and the well-intentioned salad. NOT AT SASHWA!

The colors. The textures. The layers of flavor. The presentation. Ingredients arrived looking like they had been invited to a party and dressed accordingly. I experienced combinations and flavors I hadn’t encountered before, and meal after meal reminded me how imaginative food becomes when plants are allowed to be the stars rather than the supporting cast.

It was abundant, joyful and surprising, the kind of food that makes you slow down because you want to figure out what you’re tasting.

And somehow, Sashwa still had one more surprise for me. The massage.

I need to establish some credibility here: I was a professional athlete. I have had a lot of massages. Sports massage, recovery massage, luxury-spa massage, the kind that hurts, the kind that heals, and the kind where you spend 90 minutes wondering why you paid for someone to gently move lotion around your back. But the massage I had at Sashwa? Possibly the best I have ever had.

There is something wonderfully disorienting about Sashwa. You can spend your morning watching wild animals in their natural habitat, your afternoon learning about an ecosystem so intricate it makes you rethink how much you actually know about the natural world, and your evening eating food that completely blows apart the tired notion that vegan cuisine requires sacrifice. And somewhere in between, you can apparently have the massage of your life.

But what stays with me most is the feeling of the place.

Sashwa understands something that many luxury destinations miss; luxury isn’t just beautiful surroundings or impeccable service. Real luxury is access to stillness, to wonder, to knowledge, to extraordinary food, to nature, and to experiences you simply cannot manufacture.

You cannot schedule a baby hippo to dance in the river while Ed Sheeran sings in your ears. You just must be lucky enough to be there when it happens.

I was.

And I will forever be grateful to Sashwa for introducing me to the finest television programming I have ever seen.

Five stars for Sashwa. Six for Hippo TV.

Cover Photo photographed by: Cory Williams