There are only four people on the flight, said the lady at the check-in desk chirpily. And only four seats, I was soon to discover.
The plane, which was about the length of a Mercedes and the height of a minivan, had propellers and it turned out I was sitting next to the pilot.
We soon got airborne and edged our way to 11,000 feet. Smoggy Johannesburg lay behind us. I was flying with South Africa's Sefofane Airways, a carrier whose motto is We connect you to the wilderness - and it was true. After an hour and a half we began to descend, and the vastness...