Wilderness Bisate Newsletter – February 2023

Bisate Family

It’s been a big month for the Bisate team. Training has been at the centre of a big push towards bettering ourselves. This came in practical form as well as theory. We started early this month with four sessions of coffee training, covering everything from pouring the perfect espresso (the building blocks of every great coffee) to frothing the milk foam just right for cappuccinos and lattes. The staff’s favourite seems to be the perfect combination of dessert and a digestif, in an affogato.  

The second big training of the month was a wine and hospitality refresher course held by Allister Kreft of Under the Influence. The training started with a big drive to challenge the staff on the “wow” or “plus one” moments – the special touches – that we offer to our guests. We then went into a deep dive of our beautiful wine list, with the team really loving the chance to sink their teeth into a food and wine pairing to end off the training.

We have also had a refresher of our fire safety, with the back-of-house team enjoying a nice challenge of extinguishing controlled fires with handheld equipment as well as extinguishers.

The team continues to grow individually, and every day is a chance to expand our skills. As we grow as individuals, we aim to come together and exercise these newfound skills through teamwork, knowing that our guests’ immersion in the wilderness starts with our hospitality.

Wildlife & Nature Trails

We are very pleased to announce that we have a new member of the Bisate nature trail family, with a reported new side-striped jackal pup being born in the second jackal den. This will be the second new pup in six months with both jackal families now having produced young members.

Our nature guides Jimmy and Gabby are reporting daily sightings of over 10 different chameleon individuals, of every shape and colour that you can imagine. As the vegetation on the property continues to grow and the wildlife entrenches itself, we expect to continue to see the return of native species. We are even more excited to see what Bisate will look like in a year’s time.

Bisate Reforestation

Two large sections of eucalyptus have been removed and, in their place, massive African redwood (Hagenia abyssinica) forests will slowly raise their heads. The redwoods will form the very important future canopy of this beautiful property and the falling leaves will fertilise and restore the ground that the acidic eucalyptus has damaged.

Our guests have played a very big role in assisting us, and the two mixed tree sections of natural forest where guests plant trees are starting to look like a scene from “Gorillas in the Mist”. The distinct Lobelia trees and bee-loving flowers create a very potent combination of cross-pollination for the entire ecosystem, as well as delicious sodium-filled leaves for the gorillas to munch on.