We never take two parties at once. The camp is yours for the week, which means the fire, the kitchen and the PH's attention are not being shared with anybody else's safari.
The camp sits on a rise above a year-round waterhole, far enough from the hunting areas that the noise of the day never reaches them, and close enough that you are not spending an hour in the vehicle before you start.
It is comfortable without pretending to be a five-star lodge. The showers are hot and the water pressure is real. The air conditioning works. The beds are proper beds. And the boma is set up so that the two hours after dinner are the part of the trip people remember.
We are in a malaria-free part of Limpopo, which matters more than most people realise when they are travelling with family.
Thatched, stone-built and spaced far enough apart that you hear nothing but the bush. Each sleeps two, with air conditioning, a proper hot shower, a ceiling fan for the nights you would rather not run it, and a private veranda facing the waterhole.
Where the day gets talked through. Dinner is served here most nights when the weather holds: game from the property, coals rather than gas, and a bar that stays open as long as anyone is still sitting at it.
Kudu fillet, impala loin, oxtail potjie and a Sunday braai. Our cook has run this kitchen for eleven years and will happily work around any dietary requirement you give us in advance.
A properly run trophy shed matters more than most hunters realise. Capes are salted the same day, horns are tagged against your trophy sheet, and everything is held in cold storage until it goes to the taxidermist.
A 300-metre rifle range with benches and standing sticks, and a set of 3D archery targets out to 60 yards. Every hunter shoots in on arrival, without exception, whether they brought their own rifle or are borrowing ours.
A swimming pool that gets used every afternoon between November and March, satellite internet in the main lodge, and enough shade on the deck that observers rarely complain about being left behind.
Before light. Nobody says much.
To the area, then off and on foot.
Through the worst of the heat. Most people sleep.
The best three hours of the day, every day.
Game off the property, over coals.
Stays lit as long as anyone is still sitting at it.
Reduced daily rate, a seat on the vehicle, and photographic drives, spa days or a Kruger excursion on the days they would rather not sit in a blind.