The Safari Cafe & Homestay

In December 2015, my husband and I started a small cafe at the edge of Corbett National Park. Both of us are foodies who love to try new things but also appreciate the classics. As there are hardly any restaurants in Corbett, we saw an opportunity to start our own where we serve simple homemade cooking both Indian and International cuisine.

A Swedish Mudcake (Kladdkaka). The name of our place is The Safari Cafe & Homestay and we are located at the edge of Corbett National Park in Dhela village.

At the beginning we thought it would be necessary to be where the crowd is to show our presence and become a success. During the initial year we quickly climbed to number one position on restaurants in Corbett National Park on TripAdvisor but we still didn’t feel quite happy over our location. The Dhikuli area of Corbett is filled with hotels and shops with a national highway running through it, which means the traffic can be quite noisy and disturbing.

After a year in Dhikuli, we had noticed that people don’t mind traveling that extra mile for good food and ambience and since Dhikuli area was not a place where one could get a feeling of tranquility and being close to nature, we decided to shift the cafe to our home in Dhela village. At the same time we decided to open up our home for guests and our homestay was born. We can now host 8 people comfortably at our homestay.

The view of our homestay and cafe seen from the field in front.

We offer four clean and simple rooms, two bathrooms on sharing basis and a hot water shower. In every room there is a double bed and one extra bed. Depending on the season, there are fans and heaters available as well.

Our four simple and clean rooms.

There are common seating areas both downstairs and upstairs. Upstairs is where we reside together with our three dogs Zuzu, Sheru and Bo and where the cafe is as well.

The cafe upstairs.

Seating downstairs.

We also grow our own herbs and vegetables. One of the things I always miss when being in India is freshly picked lettuce and other salad ingredients. So being able to grow it myself guaranties that is is as fresh as it can be! If needed, we only use organic insecticides as well.

At the moment we grow onions, cauliflower, cabbage, green bellpeppers, green chillies, tomatoes, broccoli, beetroot, fenugreek, spinach,  lettuce romaine, lettuce lollo rosso and iceberg salad. On the herb side, we grow lemongrass, thyme, mint, marjoram, lime basil, sweet basil, holy basil, sage and coriander.

Another thing that I am very particular about is waste. As you who have been to in India know, there is trash everywhere, which is kind of unavoidable since there aren’t any proper waste management systems in a country of over a billion people. In the village there is no garbage collection so at home, we separate our own trash and take it to Ramnagar to a waste collection centre. Our food waste is composted, we have recently acquired a Trustbin and so far it is doing great. No smell and easy to maintain. We have just filled up our first batch of compost, so in about a weeks time we will know more about how it has worked.

We separate our garbage into organic waste (food waste), Carton, Plastic, Glass and dry non-recyclable ( meaning wrappers, soft plastic, and other stuff that can’t be recycled). In addition, we collect separately our metal cans, lightbulbs and battery waste. Broken glass and ceramic is also collected and but into a separate bag.

So if you like food and are genuinely interested in wildlife and the environment and would like to learn more, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us!

 

Hope you enjoyed this little post about our place=)!

-Sofia