by Inia Jardine
On this, our biggest balcony running half of the entire frontage of the penthouse level, I have depicted the varied water fowl and other birds of South Africa. The design is centred around a 2m high purple gallinule, my favourite bird, the colours blues and purples.
‘I knew a bird like this one once, he was named Nathaniel. He was the most intelligent untamed bird I have ever met. He used to run to me whenever he heard my voice and interacted with me. I loved that bird. This was during a time in my youth, in South Africa, when I had the opportunity to meet and get close to a few animals in a zoological garden environment.'
Captivity of any living creature for me is hard to accept. If there has to be a number of animals in captivity due to reasons of conservation of certain species, they should be captive bred in an optimum zoological situation.
The ideal is that only rehabilitated animals who were hurt in some way and would not survive in nature should be on display for educational purposes.
'Wild and free creatures should most definitely never be taken from the wild and incarcerated. Those unfortunate ones already in captivity have to be very well looked after, well fed and their environments as enriched and varied as it would have been in nature. The Little Prince said 'You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed ' and it is so true. OK people enough of the serious stuff. Let's carry on.'
The very light turquoise coloured railings blend into the colour of the hotel edifice for continuity. Fragrant jasmine creepers are allowed to trail down on the outside from the roof gardens. Chameleons, butterflies and little frogs have already made their homes here. 'We like to keep our presence and impact on the environment very low key and we strictly ban the use of any poisons.
Passing marine traffic would barely notice our existence as we have the cove for privacy and lush vegetation all amongst the buildings and pool network. For the safety of our cove marine life and the all-important peace and quiet, no motorised water craft are allowed in the cove. Only sailing and windsurfing together with our soon to be famous solar glass bottom boats. Omar will tell you all about that on the gardens & pools tour.' I smile and continue.
'This is the only one of our suites which can boast two bedrooms, both en-suite of course. It was especially created as such, to enable couples with separate sleeping preferences or two couples vacationing together. As owners we may also allow personal family or friends of ours here on very special occasions. But absolutely no children at all, not even family. No exceptions for the general public, please make that clear in your write-ups. Paying guests of over forty-five will always be our number one priority.'
A few ‘ahhh's’ and ‘nooo's’ can be heard but I just smile in a regretful manner. If our Cynthe or Bella's Olivia ever visits, it will be at our home.
'There must be some reward to getting old don't you think?'
The first bedroom to our left is the Blue Crane Room. 'As you will observe, in every suite we have kept the curtains to a mere decorative feature because there is no need for privacy due to the lanai frontage. I have a personal fascination for billowing soft curtains so when there is a breeze, they will all billow! I have also added aluminium and shell wind chimes to the lanais and that will be calming background music when the wind blows. All are hand crafted by locals and also available in our gift and curio shop.'
The blue crane, South Africa's national bird, is the centre of this mural, where a pair is depicted in a mating dance. The different hues of blue are picked up in the fabrics used on the two double beds and in the huge bathroom. The shades used, graduate from the extra light powdery blue of the padded duvets to the dark, almost indigo blue on the scatter cushions and towels. Lilac serves as little soft accents here and there. The huge bathroom has a round, sunken Jacuzzi bath with very light shades of blue and lilac mosaic tiles depicting sea life. It is soothing and calming and soft on the eye. Two Amarula liqueurs together with small white flowers are visible on the pillows in the bedroom and I see everyone concentrating on that.
'Yes, fine details matter. As you will see in every room, we have complimentary liqueurs from that country, no chocolates on pillows for us adults! We pair them with Valerian flowers which have been proven to have calming powers in order for people to relax and sleep well. We grow those in our greenhouses - when somebody makes me mad I just walk through there and come back renewed and calm.
We also have flowers from every specific country throughout the suite, here, we have two kinds of proteas. The flowers, although extremely authentic, are custom made from a material resembling silk - locally. We have a job creation project in our closest St Thomas community where the crafts displayed in our curio shop are made. We sponsor the materials and a small salary, the locals provide us with beautiful flowers which we sell and split the profits with them. Most of our profit from these sales will go straight back into new materials for the artists.'
Here in the master bedroom we have a mural of the national animal, the Springbuck, shaded in creams and golds and soft browns. Around him the rhino, elephant, giraffe, zebra, cheetah, lion, leopard, armadillo, caracal and hippo in a savannah scene.
'Mrs Hibbert, Albert from the South African Decorators E zine. Who is your artist?'
'Well that would be me. It is one of my passions, drawing and painting on walls. I took the opportunity of being the artist, to highlight my other passion, showing our vulnerable animal species which are being poached and hunted by greedy people to near extinction. There is a link in our brochure and on our website where you can support the anti-poaching units as well as true conservation organisations.'
All over the room on almost every hard surface, small gilded groups of wild African animal and bird sculptures shine under sealed glass domes.
Amongst them are samples of semi-precious stones and rocks found back home like sandstone desert roses, tiger eye and rose quartz. The huge bed is on a raised platform in the middle of the room, draped in swathes of light golden local silk. 'If you look at the centrepiece of the room, the bed, as well as the very carefully selected erotic literature, you will realise that this hotel is absolutely for adults only. It is a sensual getaway for couples to reconnect.'
The bed linen and curtains in this room are all in shades of gold and cream. A dusty moss green accent is highlighted in the scatter cushions, bathroom towels and lamp shades. The bathroom, where we have taken for inspiration the fragile paper nautilus, are all soft white spirals and curves, just highlighted here and there with cream and moss green. It is extremely indulgent with round sunken Jacuzzi bath for two, spiral wall sconces and as in all bathrooms, muted Leonard Cohen, Seal and Barry White music can be played on demand.
'Mrs Hibbert, Janice from Arumvale Reporter. Who do I have to bribe to win the lucky draw? I would absolutely love to stay in this paradise, even for one night. And it is so warm here, not like back home!'
I smile and jokingly suggest that she 'couples up' with whichever reporter wins a stay in this room in our lucky draw.
We leave the SA suite and turn to the other penthouse suite. Dedicated to our previous home the United Kingdom and especially to Elizabeth and Enoch, our famous ghosts, the lounge features a castle mural with a river scene. The weeping willows and swans plus a rose covered trellis look so restful. I like to imagine them here and not in the ground. Not suffering and dying for love like they had to.
'I painted Elizabeth and Enoch here as gauzy, misty figures, exactly the way I saw them. Their story is in the brochure if you want more information about them. She is not around anymore though, she has passed over into the light together with Enoch, the love of her life and Jonah's many times great grandfather.'
Our colours here are mostly shades of light pinks and whites for the local silk roses, blended with light robin’s egg blue in honour of the robin, on the linen and drapes. 'The room is our biggest and the bed, well, see for yourselves.' It sits in the middle of the room, resembling an actual summer house or garden gazebo with a hexagonal white rattan trellis. Si
x pillars surround it and it has a 'roof' complete with trailing bougainvillea and wisteria plants (local silk). It is a white heaven of gossamer netting appliquéd with tiny local silk roses twisted in amongst the plants. The sunken bed, two steps down, is saturated with soft white fluffy pillows in honour of the swans.
'There are miniature bottles of Summer Fruit Cup liqueur, one of the British speciality liqueurs, on the pillows.' Scattered throughout the room and on the lanai are more pillows of different sizes. Displayed in the glass domes here are samples of Derbyshire spar 'blue John', a number of fossils and porcelain items unique to the UK. I also included a few pieces of mosaic tiles from our famous crater.
Here I add: ' You would think that we used swan's feathers or goose down for our pillows and duvets, but please make it clear that no animal products were used in this hotel. We do not approve of the cruel practise involved in obtaining down or feathers, instead we use products which are non-cruel, sustainable and environmentally friendly. If you see feathers it would be those naturally shed by birds and picked up from the ground. It would have been wrong of us to refuse to serve animal products in our restaurant but then use other cruel products. We like fake and faux!'
The bathroom is fit for a queen, white marble, rose quartz and gold fittings. The centrepiece is the round Jacuzzi bath surrounded with greenery (local silk) and mosaic tiles in shades of rose and blue.
We reluctantly leave the splendour and go down one floor to the next five rooms.
First on this floor is India with its bright jewel colours. Depicted in the mural is their national bird the peacock, with colours royal blue, metallic orange, bright fuchsia pink, gold and emerald green. Gold tassels, coins and brightly coloured Indian fabrics make this one of our most vivid rooms.
'Here, the liqueur of choice is SomruS.' The lanai is decorated with visuals of their endangered tiger as lead motif and local silk lotus flowers strewn throughout that and the rest of the suite. We used lotus shaped light fittings, taps and door handles here in honour of the national flower. The bathroom has a lotus shaped Jacuzzi bath with brilliant jewel coloured mosaic tiles surrounding it.
As we move further along to the following room, Brazil, I hear reporters chatting excitedly about the uniqueness of our hotel and some plan to book personal stays as soon as the tours end. I am relieved that we are such a big hit and wonder to myself what they would say about the lush gardens, pools and our cove. It will only enchant them more I believe, and they will hopefully get their excitement across to their readers. The photos will also tell what a thousand words could not. Well, all of the journalists will hopefully be positive except David. I must make a note to contact his editor and invite another journalist over.
We continue our Brazil suite tour observing the Carnival masks, amethyst and aquamarines under the glass domes. The huge mural of the rainforest with a jaguar, Rio parrots and Cattleya orchids in the trees affect the journalists deeply. I sure had fun painting this scene and it is ‘alive’. Here you feel like you are inside the rain forest, with shades of green and blue with local silk plants everywhere. The tiny liqueur bottles on the bed are Cachaça, a sugar cane liqueur. The rich jewel blue, red and green together with the gold touches makes this a very happy and bright room. The bathroom adds to that by resembling a grotto pool with lush green local silk ferns and a proper waterfall shower faucet.
'Our middle suite on this floor is Germany, where most people would most probably expect swastikas, bratwurst and beer' (laughs all around). We concentrated on German nature and depicted the Lorelei on her rock next to the Rhine, a golden eagle flying by and white storks in a field of blue cornflowers. There is aquamarine and pieces of the Berlin Wall under the glass domes.'
The colours blended in the room are muted blues, golds, white and soft green. ‘This suite is dedicated to seduction by the female as a siren, similar to Lorelei in the relationship, so we have given her tools to work with. She has a small stage in the corner of the room complete with a selection of veils to do seductive dances for her lover. In this hotel, Germany is the room to book if you want to ensure that your partner asks the big question. The Pushkin Blackberry liqueur will assist in relieving that nervous tension!' The bathroom is serene and romantic in white and soft blue.
'Our second last room on this floor is Greece. We have our mural with the nine muses: Calliope (poetry), Clio (history), Euterpe (lyric poetry), Thalia (comedy), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dance), Erato (love poetry), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), and Urania (astronomy). I took inspiration here from our love for the musical Xanadu.
Don't ask, if you are old enough you will know about it! More info in the brochure. The soft music piped in the bathroom is the soundtrack from that original movie. Our colours here are rich blues, from lapis lazuli to the grey blue of their national animal the dolphin – yes, how many people knew that?
I enjoyed painting the Corinthian columns with the acanthus mollis motif, those are also the local silk plants you see in this room and lanai. We have them in our gardens too - real ones. The liqueur native to Greece is Kitro of Naxos.' The round Jacuzzi bath is surrounded by pillars on which trailing vines of ivy are twisted and which hang down over the bath. Local silk of course, not natural as they would not grow so well indoors.
The last room on the third floor is the Belize suite. The mural depicts the lovely but shy tapir, with its young who almost resemble watermelons and a jaguar looking out of the foliage. They are in a forest scene with black orchids and keel billed toucans and a Mayan temple in the distance. It is a very colourful room with soft yellows, blues and greens. A red accent picked up from the toucan is used in small detail like the tassels on the pillows. Absinthe Verde, the Green Fairy liqueur is the complimentary liqueur here. Under the domes are samples of moldavite, statuettes of the Maya people and a cassava tuber with dry tapioca to indicate where it comes from. Tapioca is a favourite of Jonah's.
We go down one more level to the second floor where we will meet up with Jonah halfway to show them the other eight rooms. 'The next room is our Cuba room, dedicated to Henri Coelho who is Cuban.’ We used the white, deep blue and red of their national colours. They are depicted by the white mariposa lilies on the mural, surrounded by trogon birds (in the three colours of their flag) in a free flying social unit. They signify the freedom of both the birds and the Cuban people.
'The trogon is a bird who will die of sadness when caged, making freedom imperative.'
We have toned the colours down for a more relaxing atmosphere and there are about ten different subdued shades of red used in the linen and drapes of this room. 'Under the domes we have cobalt, nickel and of course tobacco in the form of Habanos. The real product is available in our curio shop, as is the Legendario Elixir de Cuba, the liqueur of choice in this room’
‘The last room on my part of the tour, Trinidad & Tobago, is the country of Jalade Granville, our chef and partner of Henri Coelho, the owner of this estate.' Their national bird is the scarlet ibis depicted on the mural with the chaconia wild poinsettia and the exquisite blue Morpho butterflies. Similar to Cuba this room is all about shades of red and blue, but both softer and more feminine than its next door neighbour.
'These two adjoining rooms can be booked by couples of the swinging variety, or couples who would like separate rooms as they are interlinked. You will also notice that the beds are even bigger than most and have mirrored canopies. Guess why? These are the only two rooms in the hotel with these special features. You can even share your Cocoa Liqueur with your neighbours!'
I hold my hand out to Jonah and smile with contentment. 'And with that my friends, I hand you over to Jonah for the next rooms. Enjoy visiting the last eight rooms and we will see you for the draw and cocktails in the lounge at four.'
My first group follows Jonah toward the DRC room, where the mural depicts Dian Fossey with Digit and her gorillas in a forest scene. An okapi is seen peeping from behind a bush and the colours are greens and browns. Soft green gauze
with tanzanite tear drops is draped over the canopy of the lush bed, lending it that misty forest air. I have always admired Dian and what she has done for the magnificent mountain gorillas, starting out in the Congo and later in Rwanda.
It always makes me sad to think of the many unique and wonderful animals who were, and still are, being killed to satisfy the greed of man. His quest to overpopulate and destroy the earth has gone too far. To counter the sadness, the guests would have to partake in the native Palm Wine. The bathroom in DRC resembles a river scene complete with curved bath and a waterfall shower. Misty greens are used as accent.
From there they will move to Madagascar, where the mural depicts a ring tailed lemur sitting in a baobab tree. Sadly, this country has also been overpopulated and stripped of most of its natural forests and the lemurs have almost run out of habitat. Lemurs are very loving, have tongues that feel like velvet when they lick you and they have a fondness for flowers. I gave this lemur and his friends lots of hibiscus flowers and vanilla orchids to surround them - artistic licence as those obviously don't grow in baobabs!
