Travelling to the wilderness feels like exiting captivity and tuning in to your deepest nature. Your senses and balance realign and you feel you’re exactly where you were meant to be. This sense of freedom is invigorating, and to really heighten the sensation, you won’t beat a safari sleepout.
Having washed away the dust of the day’s adventures you’ll retire to bed and gaze at a ceiling of stars, except this is no ceiling – it’s the universe, and there’s nothing more spectacular. Constellations dance across the skies, stretching deep into the indigo beyond. Calls and rustles through the night skies will lull you to sleep, before the African warms your face with its comforting embrace.
This is how nights should be spent, and this is where you can do it:
Skybeds, Khwai Private Reserve – Botswana
Each of the three rooms at Skybeds is actually a three storey raised platform, overlooking the wildlife-spotted plains of Khwai. The vast double bed at the top of the platform is completely open to the stars, and below is a dressing area and a bathroom so there’s no need to compromise of comfort.
Khwai Private Reserve is well known for its abundance of wildlife and the game here is plentiful. In one night at Skybeds we’ve seen African wild dogs, lions, elephants and hyena! To make this experience even more. spectacular, you could arrive by helicopter.
Kwessi Dunes Star Rooms, NamibRand Reserve – Namibia
Deep in the NamibRand Desert, a corner of the world that becomes shrouded in darkness when night falls, sits Kwessi Dunes. Each suite here has a separate ‘star gazer’ room, completely open to the sky, and the perfect spot from which to watch the celestial theatre show above. The star gazer rooms are attached to the suites themselves so all your amenities are on hand.
When you emerge from your star-studded slumber and return to the rest of your accommodation, the views across the desert are just as dramatic.
The Makgadikgadi Pans from Meno a Kwena – Botswana
Guests at Meno a Kwena are able to head out into the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans where they’ll spend a night camping out in total desert silence. Here you’ll enjoy absolute serenity and the cinematic romance that only the desert can provide.
Settle in for the ultimate night in the wilderness, lit by lanterns and lulled to sleep by the sweet song of the wild. This is a night of minimalism to maximise the quality of experience.
