Our new curio shop is getting rave reviews!

Baobab Ridge has added a new dimension to its guest experience with the opening of its very own curio shop, offering guests the chance to do a little shopping in between game activities and find the perfect gifts for loved ones back home.

The vision of owner Nini Gouveris, the new shop takes the space formerly occupied by the lodge library and gives it a new, fresh twist with beautiful antique Zanzibari-style doors and hand carved wood facia for the shelves that complement the Afro-Arabic theme already found in various décor vignettes throughout the lodge. 

"The shop is the finishing touch to our new-look reception area," says Nini. "We sourced the doors and finishes in an effort to continue what we had already achieved with the blue Zanzibari doors on the pool deck and the beautiful turquoise-washed cupboard in the bar area, along with the distressed wooden display cabinet that's home to our hand-made African bead necklaces and other jewellery items that I made myself," she adds.

"Although we had a few items for sale to guests, we never really had the space to offer a proper range of items and gift ideas or share some of the wonderful things we have in the lodge, like the shweshwe laundry bags and the gorgeous ornamental sand-blasted glass beads," adds Nini. "Now we've been able to create this new space for a proper shop we've been able to add to the diversity of the things we stock, from clothing, hats and place mats to scented candles, bath foam and scarves."

On the clothing front there are new T-shirts, ponchos, fleeces, rain capes, hats, socks, buffs, beanies and peak visors as well as a range of cosmetic bags and covers for reading glasses. Woven tote and hand bags are also available.

Nini sources the glass and metal beads from community based producers in Ghana and Ivory Coast and has taken great care to ensure that the products in the shop are as sustainably produced as possible. "We want to continue our ethos of ethical procurement in the shop so I am spending a lot of time selecting items that reflect our commitment to people and planet," she says. 

"Guests can spend time going through our shop knowing that, where possible, we've sourced them locally and that they have a strong connection to both this part of Southern Africa and the continent as a whole. I have actively avoided items that are mass-produced in the Far East for this very reason," she explains.

"When you buy something in the African wilderness it has to resonate with the spirit of Africa and to do that it needs to have been made here in Africa and have the benefits of its sale go directly to the people who made it."