Safari-lovers go to Africa to see game, to walk in the wild and to relax while surrounded by nature. But Sabora, a tiny dot of a camp in the 350,000-acre private game reserve owned by American philanthropist Paul Tudor-Jones, also supplies a dose of the most decadent old-school glamour. During the Great Migration, the wooden decks of the nine tents become surrounded by thousands of animals, bleatingand harrumphing (even watching as you serve on the unfenced tennis court), making Sabora the perfect spot to soak up Africa. The big, lavishly decorated mess tents are lined with silk Persian rugs; there are sun-bleached animal skulls, glossy tortoise shells and giant seedpods to examine, and leather-bound safari photography books to pore over on a feather-stuffed sofa.
The vast tented bedrooms – as close as you’ll get to an Out of Africa film set – are scattered with antique mahogany carvings, silver brushes and mirrors, and dominated by wooden four-posters. After a massage in the shade, a G&T in a crystal tumbler, and slow-roasted marmalade guinea fowl followed by raspberry souffle in the twinkling light of silver candelabra, all that’s left to do is gasp at the vastness of the Milky Way above. Or – this being a private reserve – go out on a night drive to spot a leopard stalking an impala, or listen to the chilling whoop of hyena on the hunt.
