DISCOVER
By night, the bush orchestra takes over. Flames flicker against faces made tender by firelight. Someone recalls a story from years ago, another adds a memory the rest had forgotten. In that exchange, something wordless passes between them, the knowledge that belonging isn’ t a place but a practice.
BUILT FOR STORIES What Babirwa achieves, quietly and without declaration, is balance. Its architecture doesn’ t command attention; it gives it. The Club House – long-verandah-ed, shaded, welcoming – becomes a social hinge. Mornings here begin with fresh-baked scones and muffins from Lizzy’ s kitchen; afternoons drift into easy cocktails and unhurried conversation.
It’ s in these transitional spaces that travel becomes communion. A grandparent teaching a child to play cards; a friend pouring another drink not because the glass is empty but because the story isn’ t done. The architecture seems to understand that connection happens in the margins.
Her signature dish, hard-body chicken, is cooked in the old way. Slow, deliberate and guided by intuition more than recipe. It’ s a dish that insists on patience, the kind of patience that modern life erodes.“ You cook it with love,” she says,“ because it asks you to slow down.”
The flavour carries Lizzy’ s Limpopo roots and the easy confidence of someone who has learned through doing. Each meal reflects that same balance. Rooted in tradition, refined through care. Vegetables from Babirwa’ s garden complete the table. Spinach, lettuce, herbs pulled fresh that morning.
Families gathered here often remark how the food feels familiar yet new, echoing dishes from childhood but elevated by intention. For friends, each shared plate becomes a small act of remembering; that community begins, often, around something as simple as a meal.
When departure comes, as it must, the road south toward Johannesburg feels shorter than it should. The hills recede, but the stillness lingers. Not silence exactly, more a recalibration of what matters.
Those who travel together leave carrying small inheritances: a shared rhythm, an ease rediscovered and the reminder that time given to one another isn’ t wasted.
Because when we strip away the noise, what we crave isn’ t novelty. It’ s company. And in the hush of the Waterberg, Babirwa reminds us how to keep it. Find out more on babirwalodge. co. za.
LUXURY OF UNSCRIPTED DAYS Between meals, Babirwa loosens the hours. Days unfold without itinerary: a stroll beneath wild olive trees, a swim between pages of a book, a quiet round at the golf course for those inclined. It’ s not adventure the lodge offers, but presence.
Here, generational differences dissolve into pace. The young roam freely, the elders rest easily, and all meet again as the sun slips toward the horizon. Friends who arrived with city chatter begin to speak in longer pauses. The land itself seems to moderate conversation; less urgency, more listening.
SUMMER 2025 / 26 • rovesa. co. za | 67