Fodor's Expert Review Witsand Kalahari Nature Reserve Lodge

If you can't make it to Kgalagadi, stay a few nights in a three-bedroom chalet or a simple bungalow at this beautiful lodge, owned by the provincial government and situated in the southern Kalahari within the 3,500-hectare (8,650-acre) Witsand Nature Reserve at the foot of the Langberg Mountains. Decent thatch-and-stone accommodations sit in thick bush under large camel-thorn tree, and the lodge blends in well with the reserve, which covers vast white dunes, up to 200 feet high and stretching across an area 9 km (6 miles) long and 4 km (2½ miles) wide. In hot and dry conditions, you can experience "roaring sands"—dunes that produce a deep hum when walked on (as the sand moves, air escapes, producing a vibration). Although not easily seen in their natural state, fulgerites, glassy gray tubes reconstituted from melted silica that was struck by lightning, are on display at the information center, as are 500-year-old ostrich eggs that were buried by Bushmen. The variously sized lodgings sleep between two and six people and have self-catering facilities and outside fire areas; you can rent bicycles and sand dune boards, and there are 4x4 trails to explore, for which a fee is payable.