Tswalu Kalahari Reserve

Tswalu covers about 114,000 hectares of the southern Kalahari in the Korannaberg hills, making it the largest private game reserve in South Africa. It was assembled from cattle farms and a hunting operation, fences removed and land rehabilitated, with a stated aim of restoring the Kalahari to itself. What separates it from other luxury reserves is what people come to see: not the big five but the desert's difficult species - pangolin, aardvark, aardwolf, brown hyena, meerkat groups habituated to people, and black-maned lions. Several of those are nocturnal and rarely seen anywhere, and the reserve's research programme means guides know where to look. A restaurant on the dunes and a scientific centre are part of the operation. Guest numbers are deliberately tiny relative to the area, which is the reason the sightings work and also the reason it is one of the most expensive places to stay in Africa.

History

Stephen Boler created the reserve by buying dozens of farms and bringing back lions, rare antelope, giraffe, buffalo, black rhino and zebra. The Oppenheimer family, who took it on after him, banned trophy hunting and removed old fences and farm buildings (Wikipedia, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve).

What's there

• The difficult species - pangolin, aardvark and aardwolf, rarely seen elsewhere.
• The habituated meerkats - groups that go about their morning with people sitting nearby.
• The scale - 114,000 hectares with very few guests at any time.
• The restoration - cattle and hunting land returned to Kalahari over decades.

When to go

April to September; winter mornings are best for aardvark. Three to four days.

Practical notes

This is at the top of the market - all-inclusive rates that put it out of reach for most travellers. Access is by air or a long gravel drive. Winter nights are freezing and morning drives are cold. Even here, pangolin sightings are luck rather than schedule.

Nearby

Kuruman and its spring are south-east; the Kgalagadi is north-west.

Key facts