Safari Oasis

Combine thrilling game drives with soothing spa treatments in South Africa.

- Richard Newton

THE RELAXATION STARTS NOW, in Johannesburg International Airport. Not many people can say that. The lines for security and boarding, the hubbub in and around the duty-free shops and the customer announcements — all seem distant. And they are. The main passenger terminals are out of sight on the other side of the airfield. Here we are in the exclusive Fireblade VIP Terminal, snacking and sipping Nederburg Sauvignon Blanc while our private plane awaits.

Our flight takes 90 minutes, heading southwest. We skirt the hazy sprawl of Johannesburg and fly across vast swaths of farmland. As we descend, the air is clear and the earth below is vividly red, speckled with trees and bushes and laced with game trails. We are arriving at Tswalu Kalahari, South Africa’s largest privately owned game reserve.

We transfer by open Land Rover to the Motse, one of the reserve’s two luxury camps. The camp consists of just nine thatched legae, the Tswana word for “home”; ours is on the camp’s edge, with a veranda looking out onto the Kalahari wilderness. Birds flitter and trill in the nearby acacia trees. Two gemsbok — large, straight-horned antelope — amble through the brittle grass toward the camp’s waterhole.