With a working knowledge of African safaris compiled mainly from Hollywood films and TV series of the 1950s and 60s, my vocabulary for such was, until recently, limited to words such as 'Daktari', 'Hatari' and 'Mogambo'. Likewise, my imagination was occupied by sweat-stained, leopard-skin hat bands, elephant guns and fatally faulty mosquito nets. Both these shortcomings, though, are being well and truly addressed with a mid-afternoon dry sherry in front of a roaring log fire, by browsing the South African mammals and reptiles checklist supplied at the Tswalu Kalahari Reserve.
While confident in my familiarity with the so-called big five (after mentally replacing the giraffe with the buffalo and the cheetah with the leopard), alarm bells accompany the realisation that more than 20 animals qualify as 'even-toed ungulates'. A further 100 in various categories await ticking off, barely 10 per cent of which I might have stood a chance of recognising - in an identity parade, not through binoculars. The Kalahari tent tortoise, the hairy-footed gerbil and the black spitting cobra might be distinguished by location, appearance and behaviour in that order (rather belatedly in the case of the last), but what of the tsessebe, the blesbok and the nyala? More sherry and another log on the fire.
Tswalu is owned by Nicky Oppenheimer, the billionaire chairman of the De Beers diamond mining company, and his wife, Strilli, who in recent years have stocked the place with more than 20,000 animals to create the most expansive private reserve in South Africa. It is also one of the most luxurious.
Motse, the main accommodation base, comprises eight thatched-roof, finely furnished legae, or villas, each - at the risk of sounding like a travel brochure - containing a spacious bedroom, an en-suite bathroom, indoor and outdoor showers, a large private lounge with an open fireplace and a private sun deck. The main building, of similar earthy design, comprises a lounge area, library and dining room supported by a fine wine cellar and a menu worthy of the best city hotels. (About 30km away, Tswalu's other property, a private house called Tarkuni, offers absolute privacy - as author J.K. Rowling no doubt found to her pleasure on a recent visit - for groups of up to 12.)
But back to the great outdoors. Each morning at 5am (and in the late afternoon), guests are summoned for a drive in a 12-seater converted Land Rover. This being the greener and grassier southern end of the Kalahari, there are certain safari animals absent, most notably elephants, but hefty desert rhinoceros and Kalahari lions make up for this. Tswalu's rangers and trackers (one behind the wheel and one perched, off-centre, hood-ornament-style up front, respectively) seem more conservation-minded than their counterparts at other reserves, some of whom run sightings-at-all-costs, four-wheel-drive demolition derbies. Consequently, those even-toed ungulates (springbok, antelope, wildebeest and the like) receive much more exposure than their more elusive predators, and after a few drives I certainly know my kudu from my impala. And even my tsessebe from my nyala.
Tswalu also operates a well-stocked stable of horses, a game-reserve rarity that suggests profits are not at the forefront of its owners' considerations. An early-morning trot through the savannah is a strong draw for anyone looking for a more traditional aspect to their safari.
On the other side of the country, the similarly upmarket Singita collection of lodges has five properties to choose from: Lebombo and the nearby Sweni in Kruger National Park, close to the Mozambique border; a 15-minute flight away, in the Sabi Sand Reserve, are Ebony, Boulders and Castleton, a private house recommended for groups. While offering levels of luxury and service comparable to those at Tswalu, the Singita properties are more geared towards the visitor who wants to get close to the predator action. I see all the big five (chosen for the difficulty associated with hunting them) - lion, rhinoceros, leopard, elephant and buffalo - in less than 90 minutes here, and each of them at close quarters.