Inside Noka Camp, a luxury Safari lodge stay in South Africa

The sound of free-flowing water can sometimes give the illusion of being closer than it is. At Noka Camp, I searched for the source of this burble only to discover that I’d wandered to the edge of a clifftop and was staring down at the Palala River below as it crashed against the rocks of the Lapalala reserve. It was only when my gaze shifted back to where I’d come from that I realised that the five sandy-coloured tents that were my temporary home barely seemed to touch the rugged ground.

Low-impact tourism, conservation and human development are at the heart of Lepogo Lodges, which runs Noka Camp, just three hours’ drive north of Johannesburg in the Waterberg region. The lodge has been constructed to leave as little footprint as possible, and it is one of few camps to plough 100% of all profit back into protecting the reserve and empowering the communities around it. Sustainability is key to this ethos. It is completely off-grid, so it has to generate its electricity from a 250m-long solar walkway connecting each villa, plus it is also free of single-use plastic and guests can choose from various programmes to offset their carbon footprint.

With fewer humans per square kilometre than any of the ‘Big Five’ wildlife tourism destinations in Southern Africa, nature did most of the talking in Lapalala’s 48,000 hectares of wilderness. The grunts from prankish baboons and the cheery calls of crested francolins made for a comforting soundtrack to the night’s slumber before a knock on the door arrived to prepare me for the dawn game drive. The biting cold jolted me awake; the wildlife took care of the rest.

A pack of lions, shining in the golden hour, passed inches from our vehicle and, once the stars aligned, other members of the magnificent seven – leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, Cape buffalo, cheetah, wild dog – followed. But while the big game is the draw here, there are other activities to calm the adrenaline, such as a leisurely fishing trip along the Palala or a short trek to see Bushman cave paintings and Iron Age sites dating back millennia.

One of the highlights was having post-safari sundowners, which showcased the reserve, its expanse and the changing hues as the sun burns the African sky. Then, having dragged my weary self back to the lodge – replete with unforgettable experiences – a toasty firepit awaited me alongside a three-course meal prepared from vegetables grown just outside the reserve. Finally, there was only one thing left to do: I lay on the sky bed in my room and drifted away under the star-studded heavens to the soothing melody of the Palala’s waters.

Booking information: Nightly rates start from £851 per person on an all-inclusive basis; book at lepogolodges.com

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