Tswalu Kalahari, Tarkuni

Tarkuni is a homestead on Tswalu, the largest private game reserve in South Africa, and it is booked for one party at a time. It sleeps up to 10 and comes with its own chef, guide, tracker and vehicle. Nobody else's plans touch yours.

This is where we put families and small groups who want the Kalahari properly. You leave before first light to sit by a habituated meerkat colony as it wakes. If you stay still, a meerkat will choose your shoulder as its lookout and stand there scanning for eagles. Later your guide and tracker go after the black-maned lions. A helicopter lifts you over the Korannaberg Mountains, and on foot your guide walks you to the San rock art in the same hills.

Two nights stand out on The Cape Circuit. One you spend on the Malori Sleep-Out Deck, a bed in the open with the Kalahari sky above you, after riding out on horseback through the dunes at sunset. The other is dinner at a long table set among the red dunes, camelhorn chairs and wine from the Tswalu cellar, as the light goes gold and then dark.

Golfers arrive from the Winelands in a Citation XLS+. Before landing, the pilot makes a low pass over Tswalu's strip to clear whatever has wandered on. Families on our multigenerational journeys fly in from Lanseria, Madikwe or the Sabi Sand.

Good to know

• Tswalu has a minimum stay of two nights, three in peak season.
• Malaria-free, so no prophylaxis is needed at any age.
• Klein JAN restaurant takes guests aged 12 and over; younger children eat at Tarkuni with the private chef.
• Kalahari summer days are hot and winter nights are cold.

Country: South Africa