Responsible travel is helping to empower local people, protect wildlife and preserve traditions in the Southern African country of Botswana

A whisper of wind strokes my face and wakes me gently from my sleep. For a moment, I forget where I am, until I open my eyes and see the silver pixie dust of the Milky Way shimmering overhead and the faintest glow of a dying campfire low on the horizon. It’s 3am and I’m snuggled under a duvet in bed, but there are no walls or canvas surrounding me, no ceiling above and, underfoot, no carpet or rug.

Tonight, a dome studded to infinity with twinkling stars forms my roof and a crunchy, shell-scattered layer of crystalline earth is my floor. I’m sleeping out on Ntwetwe, one of three vast salt pans that cover 12,000 sq km of north-eastern Botswana and form the Makgadikgadi Pan, one of the largest salt flats in the world. As a star streaks through the inky sky, I make a wish, before the desert’s sound of silence soothes me back to sleep.

This most magical of days began at Leroo La Tau, one of Desert & Delta Safaris’ stunning camps, on the border of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. Twelve thatched lodges overlook the Boteti River, which provides a lifeline for the thousands of zebra and wildebeest that migrate between the salt pans and the mighty Okavango Delta, in what is widely considered to be Africa’s second-largest wildlife migration (the first being the legendary Great Migration in Tanzania and Kenya). From my elevated terrace at Leroo La Tau, I have a front-row seat for the action, as enormous African elephants join the dazzle of zebra at the river below to drink, while I sip my morning tea, mesmerised.

Before breakfast, I head out on a jeep tour across the river for a close-up view, slowing to watch elephants browse and zebras kick up the dust in the national park. Translating from Setswana as ‘lion’s paw’, Leroo La Tau offers opportunities to see these iconic big cats, along with leopards, cheetahs and some of their favourite game, such as impala, bushbuck and kudu.