Today it is time to head to the next private game reserve – Tswalu – in the Green Kalahari. Nestled against the border with Botswana, Tswalu is privately owned by the billionaire South African Oppenheimer family. Committed to restoring the farmland to the native Kalahari setting, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve is a 100,000 hectare property with 9 legaes called The Motse, and a separate house called Tarkuni, which keeps the total number of guests to around 30 at any one time. The biggest attraction is that each legae has it’s own private vehicle and ranger, so there is no shoe-horning of multiple guests into one vehicle.
To get to Tswalu means either a long drive or a 1.5 hour private plan flight from Johannesburg. I’ve opted for the private plane, also owned by the Oppenheimer family. They have recently moved to a custom built hangar at Johannesburg airport called Fireblade aviation, and I quickly realise when the consulting chef from the hangar comes to collect me from the Intercontinental hotel that this is no ordinary aircraft hangar.
Built to exacting and opulent standards, the Fireblade Aviation hangar boasts a small restaurant area, a 1st floor lounge with an all day menu, day rooms, a well-stocked gym, a small art gallery, and a soon to be opened gift shop. Not your average place to keep a small plane, more a luxury facility to cater for the Lear Jet, helicopters and other planes used by the Oppenheimers and their guests.
I don’t qualify for the Lear Jet, but we do have a Pilatus PC12 as the plane to take us from Joburg to Tswalu. Decorated in local artwork, the 7 seater plane today has 3 guests and Teresa (the consulting chef) as passengers. It’s a comfortable flight to Tswalu, and I only contemplate throwing up into my handbag a couple of times during the descent into Tswalu’s airstrip.
It’s a short drive to The Motse, and the leggae is simply palatial. A large mosquito-draped bed, separate indoor and outdoor living spaces, big bathroom with indoor and outdoor showers, plenty of storage space, and a well-stocked (all-inclusive) mini-bar. And yes, a desk with plenty of space to charge cameras and set up laptops. Free wi-fi is also included for two devices.
Tswalu isn’t a venue for safari 1st timers – it doesn’t have the Big 5, but does boast lions, leopards, cheetah, buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe, warthogs, and many varieties of antelope. It also has breeding herds of valuable sable and roan, which are undergoing conservation efforts to restore their numbers in South Africa.
The first game drive is one of orientation. The size of the reserve makes it clear immediately that the search for game sightings can involve long drives through the vast expanse of open savannah. There is plentiful bird life, including the sand grouse, southern yellow-billed hornbill and the sociable weaver nests, which bear an uncanny resemblance to the roofs of the legae.
After dark on the way back to the Motse, we’re lucky to sight an aardvark going about it’s search for termites, but it is too dark for a photograph of this shy animal.
