Our Stories
Find inspiration and learn more about Tswalu through our stories, written by members of our community as well as guest contributors. Browse by category to read all about our luxury safari camps, what to do and see on the reserve, how your stay positively impacts our sustainability journey, and much more.
Spring flowering at Tswalu: the Kalahari’s thorn trees in bloom
CONSERVATION JOURNAL ISSUE 11 – Late winter into early spring brings a wave of flowering across Tswalu. As the Kalahari's thorn trees come into bloom, the reserve is tracking the season through phenology, nature's own calendar.
Life at Tarkuni: inside Tswalu’s private homestead
Tarkuni is Tswalu's sole-use private homestead, tucked into a secluded valley in the Korannaberg foothills. Five suites, up to 10 guests, and 118,000 hectares of the southern Kalahari entirely to yourselves.
How camera traps, drones and AI are changing conservation
Using camera traps, GPS collars, drones and AI, conservation student Daniel Sacker is spending his year at Tswalu discovering how technology is quietly reshaping fieldwork, from tracking wild dogs to identifying brown hyena from thousands of images.
Regenerative conservation at Tswalu – beyond sustainability
CONSERVATION JOURNAL ISSUE 10 - At Tswalu, conservation is regenerative as well as sustainable. Beyond protecting what is already here, natural processes have been restored and wildlife reintroduced, rebuilding the ecological resilience of the reserve.
What a National Geographic photographer notices after six seasons at Tswalu
Photojournalist Marcus Westberg has returned to Tswalu every year since 2021. He talks through the details that mark a Tswalu photograph, and the frame he almost missed.
Research at Tswalu – a living laboratory
Tswalu is more than a protected landscape. Through the Tswalu Foundation, it functions as a living laboratory, hosting multiple active research projects that build, over time, into a connected body of evidence about how the southern Kalahari works and how...
Elusive species are present but often proving invisible
CONSERVATION JOURNAL ISSUE 9 – Elusive species are notoriously difficult to spot. Exceptional rainfall has made them harder – they thrive but are hidden in dense vegetation. Camera traps reveal populations of bat-eared foxes, Cape foxes, polecats, genets, jackals and...
Tarkuni, reimagined
Tucked into a private valley below the Korannaberg, Tarkuni has always felt set apart. Not just from the rest of Tswalu's vast wilderness, but from the world beyond it. The homestead has recently been refurbished, and the result is a...
Your private Kalahari
At Tswalu, every guest has access to a private guide, a private vehicle, and 118,000 hectares of the southern Kalahari that feels, by design, exclusively theirs. Exclusive-use accommodation takes it further still, extending that privacy from the vehicle into camp,...
