THE RELAXATION STARTS NOW, in Johannesburg International Airport. Few travellers can say that with certainty. The security queues, the bustle around the duty-free shops and the frequent announcements feel distant — because they are. The main passenger terminals lie across the airfield. Here we are in the private Fireblade VIP Terminal, enjoying Nederburg Sauvignon Blanc while our chartered plane waits.
Our flight lasts about 90 minutes, heading southwest. We skim the hazy Johannesburg sprawl and cross expansive farmland. As we descend, the air clears and the earth below turns vivid red, dotted with trees and scrub and threaded with game trails. We are arriving at Tswalu Kalahari, South Africa’s largest privately owned game reserve.
From the airstrip we transfer by open Land Rover to the Motse, one of the reserve’s two luxury camps. The camp comprises only nine thatched legae — the Tswana word for “home.” Our legae sits on the camp’s edge, its veranda looking out over the Kalahari wilderness. Birds dart and sing in nearby acacia trees while two gemsbok, the large straight-horned antelope, amble toward the camp’s waterhole.
We arrive during the mid-afternoon lull. Guests relax in their legae, at the pool or in the lounge where cold drinks and snacks are offered. For the perfect end to an unhurried journey we choose the spa.
True to Tswalu’s ethos, the spa blends with the environment. The décor is elegantly rustic, with unworked walls and reed ceilings. After a brief wait in the lounge we move to the couple’s treatment room: two beds, two therapists. I choose a hot stone massage while my partner tries the Signature Tswalu Touch Experience. Treatments incorporate local elements such as Kalahari red sand, white crystals from a desert salt pan and aloe fibers.
As the therapists work out muscle knots and exfoliate skin, the African bush provides the soundtrack: cicadas pulsing, the rhythmic call of a Cape turtle dove and the rustle of a nyala browsing just outside.
At 4 p.m. we climb into an open Land Rover for a late-afternoon game drive. As temperatures drop the animals become more active. Our aim is to see one of Africa’s most elusive creatures — an animal I had never encountered on prior safaris. Our tracker, Jackson, soon points to a pinkish shape moving through the scrub. Our guide, Nicole, stops the vehicle and we leave the track. Quietly approaching, we are rewarded with a clear view of an aardvark.
Shy and nocturnal, these odd anteaters have become accustomed to people at Tswalu and are often seen at dusk. Tswalu is unusual in that aardvark sightings here are nearly guaranteed.
Haley Newton on the Malori sleep-out deck © RICHARD NEWTON
We pause for sundowner drinks, then continue into night with Jackson sweeping the bush with a spotlight. We glimpse a jackal, an owl and a brown hyena before returning to the Motse for a generous outdoor barbecue — a traditional South African braai — in the dining area.
Before dawn the next morning we set out again. Early on, Nicole cuts the engine and we listen: distant lion roars, an unmistakable sound. She estimates they are several miles off. We head toward them as the sun rises and eventually find a pride resting in a clearing. Even at rest they are imposing; the Kalahari lions are among the largest in the world.
Back at camp after lunch, another short spa session is irresistible. We opt for neck and shoulder massages to ease the stiffness from gripping the Land Rover during rough off-road stretches earlier in the day.
Over three days at Tswalu we collect many memorable moments. On our final morning we spend unforgettable minutes with a group of meerkats as they emerge from their burrows and set off to forage. They stand sentry so close we could almost touch them, alert to any sign of danger. Largely indifferent to our presence, they act as if humans are honorary members of their group.
Earlier that morning Nicole and Jackson had collected us from the Malori sleep-out deck, a simple thatched wooden platform set in open country. We had been left there the previous evening with a radio for emergencies and everything needed for a private braai, plus a cooler stocked with drinks. After dark we rolled the bedding out onto the deck and slept beneath the vast desert sky, accompanied only by the night sounds of the Kalahari. While the spa soothed our bodies, sleeping under the stars proved an even deeper balm for the spirit.
Tswalu Kalahari Reserve
Farm Korranaberg 296
Van Zylrus, 8467, South Africa
tel 27 53 781 9331
tswalu.com