Tswalu Kalahari, The Motse

Tswalu is the largest private game reserve in South Africa, in the Kalahari of the Northern Cape, and The Motse is its main camp. There are nine suites, called legaes, looking out over the grassland and the red dunes. Three of them are family legaes, each with two bedrooms and a shared living space.

We send people here because the Kalahari has animals the bushveld does not. The lions carry black manes. There is a habituated meerkat colony that will use your shoulder as a lookout at dawn. Pangolin and aardvark live here too, though nobody can promise them. And it is malaria-free, which opens it up to families whose youngest or oldest members cannot take prophylaxis.

On our family journeys a family of four takes one family legae, and families of five or six add a second. If you would rather have a whole house to yourselves, that is Tarkuni. Klein JAN, Tswalu's restaurant, takes anyone 12 or over.

On The Great Rift you fly in from Cape Town by Embraer Phenom 300. Your pilot makes a low pass to clear the springbok off Tswalu's strip before landing, and three nights later a Pilatus PC-12 takes you east to the Kruger.

Good to know

• Tswalu has a minimum stay of two nights, three in peak season.
• Malaria-free, so no prophylaxis is needed.
• Klein JAN restaurant takes guests aged 12 and over.
• Kalahari summer days are hot and winter nights are cold; pack for both if you travel in the shoulder months.

Country: South Africa