From the moment we saw the wooden sign with the bright yellow Sandele logo on the side of the road, we knew that we were in for an adventure. Our driver turned in next to the sign and drove us carefully down a lush path, full of vegetation. We were excited to see what awaited us, excited to stay at luxury eco-resort, excited about spending a long weekend in a new place, and as the sound of the waves rose from beyond the palm trees, we looked at each other and knew that we had chosen wisely.
As our car pulled up to the reception area, Geri, one of the two owners, walked over to meet us and to introduce herself. Then came her husband, Maurice, who seemed just as friendly and inviting as his wife. It was 10 a.m. and I was surprised that we were allowed to arrive so early, as hotels tend to be very rigid about check-in and checkout times. We were guided to a table with a sunny yellow tablecloth, given a baobab guangao juice and then asked what we’d like to have for breakfast. After drinking a cup of coffee (him) and a cup of tea (me), we were each given a fruit plate with bananas, apples, and mango on it, then asked if we’d like a full English breakfast. There were many different options for how your eggs could be prepared. I always chose scrambled and they were some of the best scrambled eggs I have ever eaten. My boyfriend always chose an omelet. Knowing him to be a picky eater, I amusedly observed him devour everything on his plate.
After breakfast, our bags were taken to one of the guest rooms. We’d wanted to stay in one of the lodges, but we had booked our stay at the last minute and all of the lodges were full for the first night. The staff was very good about moving us into a lodge the next morning, though, once a large group had checked out.
Our room was spacious, sunny and breezy. I had been quietly hopeful that there would be mosquito netting around the bed (I LOVE mosquito netting. I think it is so romantic) and I was not disappointed. Besides mosquito netting around the queen-sized bed, there was also mosquito netting around a sumptuous daybed full of fluffy pillows. It reminded me of what Marie Antoinette would have napped on if she had come to Africa. I immediately climbed onto the daybed, draped the mosquito netting around myself and fell asleep.
My boyfriend laid on one of the two chaises that had been thoughtfully placed on our outdoor patio, positioned an umbrella over his chair and enjoyed staring off at the ocean in the distance. The sound of the waves was incredibly relaxing, gently coaxing us towards relaxation, towards forgetting the stresses of life outside of Sandele and just giving in to the utter tranquility around us.
We changed into our bathing suits and decided to go down to the beach. As I popped into the bathroom to apply sunscreen to my face, I spent a moment locating the toilet. It was so ingeniously integrated into the bathroom that it literally took me 15 seconds to find it, as the shower wall sort of blocks its location when you are standing in the doorway to the bathroom. As I walked over to the toilet, I picked up a little piece of paper next to it that explained what a composting toilet was. “You are about to make a contribution to Sandele,” the card read. I laughed, pleased at the concept of a composting toilet. I quite enjoyed dumping sawdust down into the toilet and overzealously emptied the sawdust bucket the first day.
Moving on, we easily found the path down to the beach, which was magnificent and deserted, save a few cows. We looked around for beach chairs and umbrellas however, and seeing none, wondered what to do. A Sandele employee immediately came up to us and told us to choose one of the thatched structures in the distance. We walked over to one, saw beach chairs underneath it and comfortably settled in to our private retreat, sighing in contentment at the silence. The employee brought us drinks, and, as we lay underneath this gorgeous thatched hut on our deserted beach, we felt happy. The ocean was crisp and cool. The sand was warm and clean. No one bothered us.
We wandered up to the main restaurant at around 1:30 p.m., where we were told lunch tended to be served at 2 p.m. everyday. Chilled out and relaxed, we sat at “The Big Table”, a table with 8 chairs around it and flipped through books that we took from the bookcase in the lobby. We read books before most of our meals, as we always seemed to turn up before everyone else. We also browsed the local products that were available for purchase, including locally made sunscreen, baobab powder and guangao leaves, and a delicious organic peanut butter.
Other people eventually came and sat down with us. We had interesting conversations with interesting people, including Geri and Maurice, and two of the volunteers working with them, Danieli and Elena. As a vegetarian (pescetarian), I was slightly worried that I might have a hard time finding things to eat on our full-board plan, but that was never the case. I had a delicious tuna sandwich and a yummy chocolate and cream dessert.
After lunch, we went back down to the beach and saw that three other people had joined our shady retreat. Everyone was reading a book or relaxing in the silence, and my boyfriend and I didn’t mind their presence at all. A guy working at a juice bar down the beach came over to introduce himself to us and to let us know about the juices that he offered, but he was kind and in no way intrusive.
I swam out into the ocean and played in the waves for half an hour, as my boyfriend stayed behind in the shade and read. Once I felt tired out from the ocean, I went back to get my boyfriend, and we returned to our room. The sun was starting to set at this point and we enjoyed watching the sky turn all sorts of lovely pastel colors. There was an old couple sitting at the next patio over, and they seemed to be enjoying the calm end to the afternoon as much as we were.
An employee came around and asked us what we wanted for dinner. We had a list of options to choose from and they all looked delicious. We made our selection then sat out on the patio until the last ray of sunlight faded away. We took a solar-powered shower than went to dinner.
At dinner, we chose to sit alone, at a table for just the two of us. After eating our appetizer, we were pleasantly surprised to see a local band set up. There were 3 men, playing traditional instruments, and a woman who sang in the most hauntingly beautiful way. I was spellbound at the magic around me. I was eating a good dinner with someone that I love, listening to almost hypnotic music and watching the local woman dance around as she sang. She had a little baby tied to her back. The baby slept the whole time, swaying on his mother’s back as she danced. All seemed right with the world.
That night, I slept without earplugs for the first time in 7 years. The sound of the waves lulled me to sleep. I slept deeply. I slept well.
The next morning, after breakfast, we were transferred to our own lodge. I was hopping up and down as we were led over to it - that is how excited I was. The design was unique, both African and Moorish. I’ve never really seen any other round structure like that besides the Pantheon in Rome, so I kept muttering, “The Pantheon. This reminds me of the Pantheon.” Being inside of it, inside of a gigantic, circular bedroom with an oculus in the center of the dome, was an incredibly unique experience. The bed seemed even more comfortable than in our previous room. My boyfriend remarked that he would like to buy whatever brand mattress they had. We also liked the pillows and the fact that the mosquito netting was even more voluminous than in our previous room. We pulled the mosquito netting down around us and my boyfriend said, “I feel like I am in a womb.” We both felt incredibly relaxed, to the point of seriously discussing incorporating a room like that into a future house.
We explored the lodge. The layout was just like the Pantheon, as I mentioned before. A series of windows spanned half of the room and 5 feet in front of every window was a white curtain billowing in the breeze. Behind one of the curtains was a table with 2 chairs. Behind the other curtains was a walkway around the edge of the room. It was a nicely designed space.
Walking out of the bedroom, down the curved hallway to the bathroom, we came across a closet for our things, with plenty of hangers and areas to store our things. Moving into the bathroom, the shower was big enough for two people and we had more than enough towels for two people (always better to have too many towels than not enough). The bathroom was the same as we had had in our guest lodge.
There were stairs leading up to the roof of our lodge. We walked up there, exploring, and were treated to a lovely view of the ocean. Back down the stairs, we walked around the lodge and came across a little pool, a plunge pool that we shared with the people in the lodge to our left. We had a lovely sunbed that we immediately dragged into the sun and vegetated on until we went off to lunch. We then returned to the sunbed, gave our menu preferences for dinner, and then vegetated on the sunbed until dinner. It was idyllic, silent, and perfect for two people that wanted to do nothing more than read in the hot African sun with a bottle of cold wine and the sound of the ocean in the background.
We ate dinner at the big table that night (our second night). I was already starting to feel sad about leaving the next morning, as I was having such an intensely relaxing time.
The next morning, after breakfast, my boyfriend said, “Right. One more day then?” We spent that day exactly as the day before, completely contented, enjoying both being alone together and spending time with other people at meals. The food was consistently delicious and the company was consistently fascinating.
The next morning, Sunday, we seriously talked about extending our stay by another day, but decided it would be too difficult waking up early enough on Monday morning for my boyfriend to be back at work on time. That said, we stayed until 4 p.m., enjoying one last lunch with all of the kind people that we met.
Geri wished us goodbye and we drove away to the sight of all of the staff smiling and waving at us. We felt like we were leaving family. We felt like we were leaving a new home. We’ll be back as soon as we can.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
