Aquila Private Game Reserve, Western Cape, South Africa

Take a 2-hour drive out of Cape Town to Aquila Game Reserve - a popular safari excursion for a day trip or an over night stay. Let the caveman in you come out, because this is where Flintstones-style goes seriously upmarket. Read what Carrie Hampton has to say in this extract from her latest book, ‘Exclusive Safari Lodges of South Africa’, with photographs by Gerald Hoberman.

Aquila Private Game Reserve is just under two hours’ drive from Cape Town and is the most visited safari destination in close proximity to this seaboard city. The terrain however, couldn’t be more different from the coast.

The Karoo scrubland rises into majestic peaks, with beautiful golden escarpments dipping into sandy valleys mottled with small dark-green aromatic bushes. Aquila is full of the game that used to roam this dry interior. Here you will find the greatest quantity and variety of wild animals in the Western Cape, including the Big Five and a range of plains game.

It is also an area of great habitat diversity: the distinct biomes of succulent Karoo, fynbos and renosterveld, the world’s rarest biome, can be found at Aquila. This ecology is explained fully by the passionate rangers who make a stay at Aquila so special. Let them show you the reserve in a Land Rover or get on a horse or quad bike and feel the freedom of riding through herds of animals.

The Karoo colour palate of greys, ochres, browns and sand is mirrored in Aquila’s luxury cabins, which are constructed of hefty local stone and faded poplar logs topped with a darkening thatch. They blend perfectly into the hillside. The thick, stone walls are tempered by soft cushions and a fluffy white duvet on a gigantic log four-poster. This Flintstones-with-style ambience is further enhanced by carpets on flagstone floors and a roaring fire on cold nights.

Strolling to the main lodge, you may bump into smaller wild animals; the cute meerkat family is the most photogenic. Lunch and dinner are buffet style with superb salad bars, vegetable in sauces, rich stews and great slabs of roasted meat, including local venison like springbok or cholesterol-free ostrich. Forget about watching your waistline at Aquila.