If the middle of nowhere had a name, it would be the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Out here, you’ll learn the true meaning of remote, wild, vast and open nothingness. This is one of the biggest wildlife reserves on the planet, anchored atop the largest sand basin in the world: the Kalahari Desert.

Here, the skies are huge and tall yellow grasses stretch on forever. Standing under the stars at night, you could easily believe yourself to be alone with the universe, until the distant call of a Kalahari lion tells you otherwise.

Come here during the later green season months (January – April) and the open plains turn a brilliant green against blinding blue skies. Huge herds of white-faced springboks and long-horned gemsbok spill into the open landscape, giving birth to their young while hungry cheetahs and lions follow close by. During the winter (May – October) the landscape fades yellow and brown as antelope herds thin out in search of food.

Sunsets here sink slowly through the sky, growing pink and red the closer they drop to earth. Here, you can watch the sun hit the ground from almost anywhere, with only an acacia tree or two lying between you and the horizon.

The grasslands of the Kalahari are an open stage, changing from hour to hour and, even more dramatically, from one month to the next. A plain lying empty during the morning might be watched over by birds of prey by the afternoon. As the light sets on the day, you might find bat-eared foxes and scavenging jackals trotting across your field of vision instead. Or, if you’re really lucky, you just might catch one of the Kalahari’s big cats strolling past as antelopes freeze into statues waiting for whatever comes next.