Safari Style | Melissa Biggs Bradley
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Intro: Welcome to the one and only interior design book podcast Decorating by the Book hosted by Suzy Chase from her dining room table in New York City. Join Suzy for conversations about the latest and greatest interior design books with the authors who wrote them.
Melissa Biggs B...: I'm Melissa Biggs Bradley, and I've just released a book called Safari Style: Exceptional African Camps and Lodges.
Suzy Chase: Before diving into this book, I'd like to thank my new sponsor Bloomist. Bloomist creates and curates simple, sustainable products that inspire you to design a calm natural refuge at home. I'm excited to announce they've just introduced a new tabletop and kitchen collection that's truly stunning. So surround yourself with beautiful elements of nature when you're cooking dining and entertaining and make nature home. Visit bloomist.com and use the code decorating 20 to get 20% off your first purchase or click the link in the show notes. Now on with the show.
Suzy Chase: Safari style takes us to 21 properties in seven different countries to capture destinations with three key features in mind. Environmental conservation, local connections, and architectural masterpiece. Can you just talk a little bit about that?
Melissa Biggs B...: I have been lucky. I went on my first safari when I was 12. So I've been to Africa, dozens and dozens of times because of my career as both a travel journalist and the founder of a travel company and over the course of 40 years that I've been going to Africa, I had noticed a real evolution in the kinds of safari experiences that you could have. And at my company, Indagare we advise people on how to make the most of their travels and safari is often one of those. So I looked for many years at matchmaking people with the right lodge and the right destination and the right kind of experience if they were going for their honeymoon or with their family. And I was with one of the people who runs Vendome, the publisher of the book a number of years ago. And just talking about how the safari experience has gotten so interesting over the years in terms of its diversity. And yet really is probably the best example of the positive power of tourism that I've seen anywhere. In terms of really making sure that the travelers impact on the destination impacts the environment and the community in a positive way and so that led us to having a conversation about could I pick examples of the lodges that best exemplify or celebrate that? And so that's really where those three pillars came.
Suzy Chase: So safari is the Swahili word for trip. And as you just mentioned, you went on your first expedition at 12. This book was born out of your long love affair with safari.
Melissa Biggs B...: So I went with my grandmother, my grandmother had gone on safari with my grandfather in the 60s when Kenya had first opened up to photographic safari. And they just fell in love with being in the wilderness and spending their days watching animals. And after my grandfather died, my grandmother's wish was to wait until all of her grandchildren... There were more than a dozen of us were old enough to go on safari with her. And so when I was 12, she took the whole extended family, her three sons and all of their children to Kenya for a month. And we went all over the country and I was lucky to be her roommate for a lot of that trip. And it just, it made me fall in love with being outdoors and being amongst the animals and the kind of bonding experience that one has in the bush. But also sort of the sense of discovery when you are really plugged back into nature.
Melissa Biggs B...: And you're getting up at the sunrise to go and see animals. And you're walking with Maasai warriors who really know how to read the landscape in a way that we have really lost touch with. And in many ways, civilization has moved us to such a degree away from the natural world that we've lost the language of the planet but when you go on safari, you spend time with people who haven't lost that language and who can really read the natural old world in a way that is just fascinating. So I fell in love with it.
Suzy Chase: And in the book, you talk about how your grandmother was at ease on safari in a way that she was never at ease in New York City.
Melissa Biggs B...: Yes, yes. Part of being civilized in some ways is following the rules and the etiquette of the worlds that we live in. And a lot of that to me is about restraint. And when you go on safari and you go back in the bush and you are removed from civilization, from technology, from so many of the trappings of the civilized world, I think you actually can be pure in your... Not just in your perspective on things, but also in your joy and your emotions. And so that's what I witnessed for sure with her is that, there was a much easier joy and authenticity and happiness that happened when she was on safari.
Suzy Chase: I'm interested in learning just a little bit about the evolution of safari tourism in the past 30 years.
Melissa Biggs B...: Okay. So I would say that, and there's a lot that's change from if we go to those pillars. The first one being architecturally, the safari used to be quite simple camps. You slept under canvas, you had bucket showers and you were in the middle of nowhere, those were great comforts. But over the last 30 years through technology and even sustainable ways of generating electricity and purifying water, the comforts now available are much, much more refined than they were, and as is the design. So now there are really stunningly, beautiful sort of houses and lodges and villas that leave no permanent footprint on remote areas, but deliver a lot of comfort. So that's one way that they've changed. And another really important factor is that they've become much more community based.
Melissa Biggs B...: So initially, in Kenya, when safari started, it was a lot of colonial expats who were taking people on photographic safari. And not necessarily interacting closely with the resident communities. Now, all of the lodges in my book, the majority of them are owned by the communities or are in partnership with the local communities. Most of the staff at the lodges now are locals. And that really has brought a much more authentic and indigenous aesthetic and culture to each of these lodges. So that's when I talked about the diversity, how people in Rwanda cook, how they dance, how they express themselves with art is very different than what you'll find in Namibia or Zimbabwe. And those are now really expressed in the lodges in a way that they weren't 30 years ago. And then I would say the other really important point is that the lodges 20, 30 years ago were extractive.
Melissa Biggs B...: They basically took from the local community and didn't really give back. And now the safari industry throughout Africa is truly an additive industry. It is empowering local communities. The money's going back into conservation. And most of the great strides that have been made in conservation around Southern Africa and Eastern Africa have been either in partnership with government or in many cases through the safari industry. Where they are really taking the lead in saving wildlife, both in terms of species and in terms of their ecosystems. And that's something that is radically different. And as I said, I think the safari industry is leading the way. And by example, for what I hope many other in the tourism industries will follow in terms of how to really be additive.
Suzy Chase: You included iconic properties, such as Mombo camp in Botswana, but you also included newer ones like Wilderness Safaris Bisate Lodge in Rwanda, which has some really interesting features. Can you talk about that?
Melissa Biggs B...: Yes. I love all of the lodges in the book, and I'm very passionate about, each of the destinations. But there is a space in my heart that Rwanda holds because it is a country that really, is probably the very best example of how you can have a safari industry or a tourism industry elevate people. Because Rwanda came out of a horrific genocide in the early 90s and the country was absolutely devastated. One in 10 people had been killed in this horrible genocide and the current president used tourism as one of the ways to lift the country up. And Rwanda is now the great beacon of hope in many ways for the African continent. In the sense that it is the cleanest, safest country in all of Africa. It has one of the highest literacy rates, one of the highest numbers of women in parliament, anywhere in the world. It's got one of the fastest growing GDPs on the continent.
Melissa Biggs B...: So it's really an incredible success story. And similarly, they have done that with their conservation because the endangered mountain gorillas were, I think, numbered under a thousand in the year 2000. And through harnessing tourism to protect the gorillas, they have been able to increase their numbers. And so it's an endangered species that's actually increasing its numbers as opposed to decreasing. And part of that story to me is Bisate. It's the lodges around volcanoes national park that have brought people to see the mountain gorillas, but in a very thoughtful way. So it's not an inexpensive experience to go see them. It's $1,500 a day to get a gorilla permit. But because those prices are what they are, the money can go into buying back habitat so that there's more habitat for the gorillas to live in. Employing Rangers to protect them because there is still a risk of poaching and it's just been an incredibly successful program. And Bisate has done many things as part of that conservation there's a program at that lodge to replant, because one of the issues around that area is deforestation. So every guest can actually go out and plant trees, or even if they don't go out, some of the money from their stay goes towards planting new trees in that area. But they've also just incorporated the incredible local crafts into the design. The rooms look almost like Weaver's nest they're thatched looking kind of bird nest, things stuck into the side of this mountainous volcano, but it's actually all made out of recycled plastic. So the lodge is eco sensitive design dramatic, and at its heart, it's really doing an enormous amount for both the local community and the endangered mountain gorillas.
Suzy Chase: I'd also love to hear about Phinda Homestead in South Africa and how they raise the bar on what wildlife viewing accommodations could be.
Melissa Biggs B...: So again, all these places are super special to me the Phinda property, which is a large concession in South Africa was where I spent my honeymoon over 25 years ago. And it was one of the first camps in South Africa to raise the bar on safari tourism. They built these little glass boxes in the woods that were just incredibly gorgeous. And one of the founders, I was talking to her about this for the book. And she said, they were coming out of apartheid back then, and nobody had visited South Africa. Nobody knew why one would go to South Africa. And so they very strategically said, "We are going to build these knockout accommodations that the travel magazines all over the world will want to put on their pages. And we will put South Africa on the map for safari." And they did that. They have continued to up the game and Phinda homestead is many years later, a different kind of incarnation where they've created basically the ultimate private villa in the bush for people to have a house with multiple bedrooms, gorgeous areas for outdoor barbecues and eating outside.
Melissa Biggs B...: And it comes staffed with not only personal chef and housekeeping and everything else, but your own team of wildlife experts who take you out on game drive. So everything about it is completely private.
Suzy Chase: Do you go back there often with your husband?
Melissa Biggs B...: No, we've actually not been back together to Phinda. We have been back... We were in South Africa with our children for right before COVID caused the whole world to lock down. And that to me again, is an important point about why the timing of this book is particularly important. Because I mentioned that the lodges are truly great examples of the positive power of tourism. Unfortunately, I have been back to Africa multiple times now since March of 2020, when the world locked down. Rwanda and Kenya were some of the first countries to reopen their borders. And I was there last fall in both places and last winter.
Melissa Biggs B...: And unfortunately to see the impact of tourism disappearing on these lodges is devastating because it is at estimated that every employee of a safari camp supports 10 other family members. All the camps in my book are still open and functioning, but many other wonderful camps have had to close or reduced staffing. And that means that not only are people suffering because they don't have any kind of employment. But in addition, girls are dropping out of school and poaching is increasing and wildlife habitat is being deforested at greater length. Unfortunately people have called it sort of the COVID neglect moment when people... Because there aren't as many Rangers out there is all sorts of illegal poaching and extraction on lands that are happening. So it is particularly important for people to go back on safari and to support what the industry does for all of us in terms of protecting wildlife and wild places.
Suzy Chase: So I want to go on safari and I'm a longtime fan of Joy Adamson's writing and artwork. What lodge do you think would be the best for me?
Melissa Biggs B...: Well, I would start by saying that Joy did most of her work in East Africa, in Kenya. So that's probably where you want to base yourself for the safari. And I think it's important to note that the lodges in my book are really just representations of what many of the best lodges around Africa have done in terms of community empowerment and conservation as really the forefront of their driving principles. And so I would probably say you should go to Kenya. I would suggest you spend a lot of your time in the Maasai Mara, which is where Joy spent a lot of her time. Again with most safaris I think it's important to have a variety of landscape and... Because animals behave differently in big open planes than they do in areas around water. So I would suggest anyone going on safari mixes up within one destination, the kinds of experiences they're having.
Melissa Biggs B...: So I would probably say go to the Maasai Mara, there's some wonderful great planes conservation camps there. There's a camp called Angama Mara there. That's fantastic. You're going to have great cat feeling in that part of the world. And you're going to see the Maasai ma or the grand Serengeti ecosystem. Which is really what most people think of when they have that iconic idea of out of Africa or even the Lion King. That was the particular area that that was shot in. And then I would probably say go up north to a place like Lewa Downs also in Kenya with amazing cat viewing and experiences. And I think Joy would be very happy with that kind of an itinerary.
Suzy Chase: The photographs in this book are extraordinary. Can you talk a little bit about the process and the photographer?
Melissa Biggs B...: Yes, no. I was very lucky to work with an incredibly talented photographer from Milan named Guido Taroni and he is someone that I have known over the years, traveling to Milan. We have quite a few mutual friends and we've been lucky to do some wonderful day trips around Lake Como together and he did another book before this on Tangier, which is incredibly beautiful as a sort of a travel lifestyle book. And so I wanted someone for this book who was going to have both an appreciation for nature and interiors. And most importantly, be somebody who was excited at the idea of spending days in Africa, traveling huge distances to get to remote lodges and wake up super early and be willing to jump right in and Guido took, I think it was three trips almost a month long each to be able to cover all of the different lodges. It was like a logistical war plan that we came up with to try and knit everything together. Because there were a lot of border crossings and small flight, but he did an incredible job. And I think really captures the beauty and the really unique sense of place at each one of these lodges.
Suzy Chase: So you mentioned something called deep race memory in the book, a strange feeling of homecoming. I've never heard of that. What is this fascinating concept?
Melissa Biggs B...: So I agree with you. It's a fascinating concept and I heard it after I had actually experienced it. Which is why it resonated so much with me. Because not only when I am in particularly East Africa, do I feel this odd sense of familiarity and almost like a very deep deja vu. But a lot of other people over the years in coming back from their safaris, will have told me that they had a similar experience that they felt oddly at home in a place that they had never been before. And so when a South African friend of mine mentioned this a number of years ago... And the theory is that on a genetic level, we resonate with where we all came from. And that on some very, very deep level, we can recognize that this is where mans sprang from. I don't know obviously whether or not it's true, but it resonated with me in the sense that I had had that sense of deja vu.
Suzy Chase: This book has definitely broadened my vision of safari. What do you think your grandmother would have thought about this book?
Melissa Biggs B...: I think my grandmother would've been thrilled with the book, not only because it captures so much of the beauty of Africa. But I think she would've been thrilled that the way that safari has evolved is really in a way that emphasizes what she loved most about it. Which is the purity of the communities and the environment. And yes, they're beautiful places to stay now, but what mattered more to her was taking care of the animals and the environment. And I think she'd be thrilled to see that that has happened. And that hopefully this will inspire a lot of other people to fall in love with Africa, the way she inspired me to do that.
Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?
Melissa Biggs B...: I am online. The best way to find me and what I'm up to and what the company's up to and lots more Africa news is at indagare.com. I-N-D-A-G-A-R-E.com, which means to discover or seek out in Latin. And we are on Instagram @indagaretravel. And my personal Instagram is @IndgareCEO. And so all of my travels are there and we want to get as many people out to Africa in the right kind of way and staying in the right places where they will have a positive impact, not just for their own lives, but also on the lives of the people that they visit.
Suzy Chase: To purchase Safari Style and support the podcast head on over to DecoratingbytheBook.com. And thank you so much, Melissa, for coming on Decorating by the Book podcast.
Melissa Biggs B...: Thank you so much. It was a real pleasure to be with you.
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