The Outdoor Room with Jamie Durie
What I love about South Africa is not only the vast beauty that this country has to offer, but the diversity that lives within it. From the amazing array of plants that have adapted to this unique environment, to the gorgeous spectrum of colours that reveal themselves at different times during the day, I was amazed at how unexpected the thrill of actually being in the wilds of Africa was. The rugged beauty of the landscape, incredible wildlife and spectacular sunsets are memories I will never forget! I was driving through the Savannah and then in the middle of nowhere, a palace just appeared! With rows of life-size Elephant statues welcoming me through a majestic entrance, I knew I had reached the resort of Sun City.
It was such a surreal place in the middle of Africa, I just didn’t expect to find something like that in the middle of nowhere. I had gone there to see the amazing Baobab tree, with its immense trunk full of water and it’s bizarre upside down appearance, and it was well worth the trip for any plant lover! It’s an unusual, sculptural tree, which I found very striking along with the raw, earthy tones and textures of the local gardens I visited.
The African garden seems to be an extension of the natural scrub.
The Outdoor Room with Jamie Durie
The African garden seems to be an extension of the natural scrub itself, with sandstone and rocks used to create feature walls, old branches and logs guiding water into unexplored parts of the garden, and carvings of wood and stone represent the wild Africa found outside the safety of garden walls.
Nothing prepared me for the sheer majesty of the animal and plant kingdom of this land and how truly awe-inspiring it is to see Africa in the wild!
We were driving through the Madikwe Game Reserve, and as we turned around a corner, a few meters from our open truck was a male lion, the king of the jungle just sitting there, completely ignoring the fact that we were right next to him. As we turned the next corner, we found ourselves face to face with a magnificent African elephant…then giraffes…then zebra…then rhinos!
Just when we thought it couldn’t possibly get any better, Mother Nature rendered me speechless with a breathtaking show of deep, burnt orange, red and gold of an African sunset on the horizon!