Karen Blixen, eat your heart out.

Until now I thought I'd seen the best of what this country has to offer, but then we reached Grootberg Lodge. Charly had said it was his favourite spot on the tour and I now understand why.

 

You climb up through the Grootberg Pass to get here, higher and higher until a simple stone and timber hut is reached on the right. The car is parked and you and your luggage travel the last leg by 4x4. This pulls up outside a beautiful, low-built stone and thatched building with 12 chalets scattered either side, each of which is perched on the rim of the Grootberg plateaux.

I am sat on my veranda gazing out across a vast, wide and sparsely vegetated valley, the floor of which is a kilometre or two below and home to elephants, rhino, zebra and leopard. The only sounds are the wind, birds, insects and, occasionally, baboons on the cliffs. It is one of the most extraordinary and beautiful places I've ever seen.

Frankly, it was worth nine hours on the road with the, by now, unbelievably irritating Shrek, to reach a place as special as this. 

It is so tranquil here.