Londolozi

In 1969 the family land in the Sabi Sand was bankrupt, and Dave Varty, aged 15, refused to sell it. He and his brother John started a safari company on it instead, with 53 rand and one broken Land Rover. It had been a hunting property for 45 years; from 1971 the rifles gave way to cameras. The five camps sit along the Sand River under ebony and matumi trees, built of stone and thatch, with a lounge open at one end to a deck above the treetops. All 32 suites have plunge pools of their own. In one, a deep white bath stands out on the decking over the riverbed, with the bush for a bathroom wall.

Recommended for anyone who has come for the leopards, and the camps divide neatly between couples and families. Tree Camp and the Private Granite Suites take no children under 16 unless a party books the whole camp, and the Granite Suites add heated pools and a sunset bar over the river. At Pioneer, Varty and Founders, children from six go out on the drives and the Cubs Den is included. Everything turns on the two game drives, one at dawn and one at dusk, out with the rangers and trackers. Between them, the Healing House does treatments and the photographic studio rents out cameras and teaches Lightroom, so a leopard seen at dawn can be edited by lunch. A daily flight from Johannesburg lands on the reserve's own airstrip, which saves six hours on the road. Londolozi takes no day visitors, so everyone at a boma dinner under the stars has come to stay.