It's January and very hot when I turn off the D1042 and follow a farm road into the dunes. Green shoots grow from the red sand, proof of recent rains, and the threethorn trees are covered in white flowers. But it's still dry for this time of the year.
21 Dunes Campsite is on the crest of one of the Kalahari's famous red dunes. There are only two stands and the other one is empty. I'm alone in a rust-red sea.
I light a fire at dusk. Rain clouds have been threatening to burst all afternoon; now a few soft drops begin to fall. I take off my shoes and wiggle my toes into the sand where the heat of the day still lingers. It's so quiet I can hear each raindrop landing on the earth.
LEKKER BEK TUISGEBAK
Kotie Viljoen's home industry is open from 9 am to 8 pm. She sells takeaways, but she'll provide plates and cutlery to tourists who are staying in town – you have to return them before you leave.
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“I'll give you breakfast before we talk,” says Debbie Bester, owner of 21 Dunes, the next morning. Over a mutton chop and eggs, she tells me her son, Riaan, built the
