• The view from Tatu’s bed, past the mosquito net and across the deck to the treetops and the sea
    Tatu Treehouse

Treehouse Tatu

Treehouse Tatu’s thatched roofs and pool deck among the trees above the shore of Chole Island

Our third house, Tatu, is known as “the house on the rocks”. You reach it through a tunnel of foliage, and after dark the trees around it glow with fireflies, like stepping into another world. No other house sits closer to the ocean. Crabs and mudskippers scuttle about on the shore just meters below, and at high tide, you might see schools of fish swimming beneath the house.

Tatu is built on two levels, each with its own roof, so it feels like two houses in one. The main house sits on the rocks beneath a tamarind tree, close to the ground. A staircase leads down to the second house, which hovers over the beach among the mangroves. Here you’ll find Tatu’s private plunge pool, one of only three at the lodge, set on its own sun deck: a place to cool off after a morning at sea, or to float as the afternoon light fades over the trees. Between the two levels is a central deck with the toilet and two sinks, and the open-air shower is at ground level, under the sky.

Like every house at Chole Mjini, Tatu was built by hand by Chole craftsmen (“fundis”) using traditional hand tools, from locally sourced wood, makuti roofing, reed mats and coconut rope, with no concrete.

The lantern-lit tunnel of branches leading to Treehouse Tatu at night A wooden sign reading Tatu at the entrance, with the bed under its mosquito net beyond Tatu’s king-size bed under a mosquito net, on a wooden deck open to the trees A blue hammock strung across Tatu’s deck under the thatched roof Tatu’s twin room: two carved wooden beds and a tea tray on a low brass table Tatu’s central deck seen from the stairs, with the bathroom counter and flowers Two basins on a wooden counter in Tatu’s bathroom, open to the trees The toilet in Treehouse Tatu, enclosed by woven palm-leaf panels Tatu’s open-air shower at ground level: a round stone floor inside woven palm-leaf walls, under the sky beside a cycad Sunset over the sea seen from Tatu’s bathroom, past a thatched roof and the treetops Treehouse Tatu from above: thatched roofs, a blue plunge pool and a sun deck among the trees Treehouse Tatu on stilts among palms and cycads, reached by wooden steps from a sandy path

Details

Sleeps: 4

Amenities

  • Ensuite toilet
  • Ensuite sinks (2)
  • Open-air shower
  • Plunge pool