The cottage is loaded with original art and Tanzanian baskets, beautiful textiles and rugs, handmade solid timber furniture and vintage pieces, all gathered together with the kind of style you are born with but cannot buy.

I was nicely settled into my daily routine of coffee, monkey spotting and local exploration when Charley popped over to walk me to the stables on the property. She stood at the back door looking like a flipping photoshoot in a pressed, white collared blouse, khaki trousers, bush hat and sandals. She’s like the model in the brochure but she’s the bird who runs the place.

Charley was born in Botswana, raised in Tanzania, schooled in South Africa and eventually landed in Sydney for university. She shared a very sad story about how when she arrived in Australia, all her Masaai jewellery was incinerated at customs.

She comes from a long line of conservationists and safari stock. Her great grandfather was the first game warden of Tanzania and drew the boundaries for Serengeti and Ngorongoro National Parks. He died in a plane crash in 1938.

Charley lives here on Acacia Grove with her fiance, whose family owns the entire forest. Her future in-laws bought the land in the 1990s when it was treeless and harsh. The forest appeared naturally after fencing stopped grazing and woodclearing. Now it is full of birds, mongoose, monkeys and antelope called Dik-dik. It’s magic, I tell ya. Each of the four adult children and the in-laws own an 11.3 acre allotment and Charley’s mother-in-law runs the horse stables.

Charley casually mentions that much of the art in the cottage is hers and I say, ‘Oh yes, I noticed the photography,” and she says, ‘No, those are pencil drawings.’ Either I need to go to Specsavers or those are some incredible drawings.

She describes herself as an artist and chef but she is so much more. Charley is an ambassador for conservation, slow travel and the preservation of traditional Tanzanian culture and art. She’s an impeccable host and has gathered a team of local staff who she pays properly and trains well. Paid maternity leave is not a thing in Africa, but it is at Charley’s place.

She walks faster than me as we head towards the stables and she tells me all about the plans she has for the private retreat she is creating here for guests like me. She has a website to rebuild, photoshoots to do, wishes the hedges would grow faster and has plans for another freshwater fish pond. All I can see is how much she has already created in the last three years.

There are two luxury tents in the forest and she takes me to see them after we have been to the stables. I jog to keep up. Both tents have magnificent outdoor jungle bathrooms and are so romantic I would consider remarrying so I could honeymoon in them.

There’s a central lounge bar and badminton court, ponds and pathways, and beautiful native gardens. It all has Charley’s class – and I’m guessing a lot of her fiancé’s muscle – behind it.

On my second last afternoon in Arusha, Charley hosted a cooking class for me with her two trainee chefs. She’s trained safari camp chefs all over Africa and tells me a story of how in Rwanda the guests left to track down gorillas, all determined and on a tight schedule like so many travellers do. While they were gone the gorillas came to camp, spending the day close by. They scampered just before the guests arrived home having hiked for hours without a sighting.

‘People forget that the word safari means journey,’ says Charley while we are having our Tanzanian feast. ‘You have to take it slow, enjoy the quiet and then the magic happens.’
It’s not often I meet someone who makes me think I could have had a different life, but Charley Swinnerton is that kinda lady.

Links:
https://www.acaciagrovetz.com
https://www.instagram.com/charleyswynnerton
https://www.charleyswynnerton.com