LaBu
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Game-viewing at Sandibe is superlative. We saw almost all the animals for which Africa is famous, including lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, and hippopotamus. The one exception was rhinoceros; during Covid, all rhinos in the Okavango were removed and resettled in the Central Kalahari due to rampant poaching. Our guide, Bob, and tracker, Segale, were expert and indefatigable in finding game.||Sandibe is a luxury lodge, and guests are pampered, at least as pampered as is possible given the 5:00 am wake-up time and the 6:00 am start time for the morning game drives. We had both a butler, Titi, and a butler trainee, Ismael; both were splendid.||The lodge treats guests to a variety of dining venues. We had dinner one night in a high, treehouse-like pavilion, one night on the main deck of the lodge, and one night in a fire-lit boma; lunch one day in the treehouse pavilion and one day privately on the deck of our cabin. Meals are served at individual tables and from a menu, which the head chef comes by to explain. The food is haute cuisine, expertly prepared.||The architecture of Sandibe is spectacular—rounded wooden shapes supposedly inspired by the pangolin and the nests of weavers, but also like something Frank Gehry might create if he worked in wood. The individual cabins are smallish but have large decks, outdoor showers, plunge pools, and abundant storage space.