Though the farm is just 48 km from the town of Grootfontein, you are deep in the Kalahari here with sandy plains dotted with acacia trees, makalani palms and the great open skies of a vast, uninhabited realm.

Accommodation at this guest farm is in cool and spacious brick rooms with stone tiled floors and large en suite bathrooms. The main living area is an open-sided hall with a bar, dining area and sparkling swimming pool. The grounds are well tended with a soft green lawn all around, shady trees and a playground to entertain the kids.

Feeling more like a home than a lodge, dinner is in a cozy dining room with a fireplace - Kalahari winter nights can get nippy - and being on a game and cattle farm expect a variety of venison and top-class steaks on the menu.

Dornhügel farm produces cattle, sheep and horses on 11,000ha of private land and mingling with these domestic animals is an impressive diversity of wildlife including eland - Africa's biggest antelope - as well as giraffe, zebra, oryx, kudu, several small antelope, warthogs, jackals and, if you're very lucky, leopard, cheetah and lynx. The birdlife, as in all of Namibia, is astonishing.