Tswalu Kalahari, Loapi

Loapi is six private tented homes on Tswalu, each standing on its own in the red dune country, for up to 12 guests across the six. You do not walk past anyone else's door. At Loapi, as everywhere on our journeys, the vehicle, the guide and the timetable belong to your party.

We use it for the last four nights of The Wilderness South Africa, and we give the Kalahari four nights because it is a place you should take slowly. You have come from the Kruger and the Sabi Sand. The Kalahari is quieter, wider and drier, and the animals are different. Your guide tracks the black-maned lions with you. One morning you go out before dawn to the habituated meerkat colony and sit in the sand as it wakes. Another day your guide walks you to the San rock art of the Korannaberg.

On one evening the vehicle stops on the crest of a dune an hour before sunset. Below, in the hollow, a long table is laid with linen, camelhorn chairs and wine from the Tswalu cellar. By the time the first course arrives the sky is full of stars.

Your Pilatus PC-12 flies you west across the country from the Sabi Sand to Tswalu's airstrip. When you leave, an Embraer Phenom 300 takes you to Johannesburg or Cape Town, whichever suits your flight home.

Good to know

• Malaria-free, so no prophylaxis is needed.
• Kalahari summer days are hot and winter nights are cold; The Wilderness South Africa runs year-round.

Country: South Africa