Jack’s is one of Africa’s most storied and iconic camps and just one of just three in a one million-acre private wildlife reserve. The only camp in Africa with a swimming pool tent – and a tea tent!
A blockbuster of activities, including quad biking, horseback riding, bushman walks, traditional game drives and meerkat encounters with some of the best and most experienced guides in Botswana.
50,000 zebra and wildebeest migrate through the area from January to April. Year-round wildlife includes zebra, wildebeest, springbok, steenbok, elephant, brown hyaena, oryx, Kalahari lion and cheetah.
The camp has one of the most comprehensive collections of ancient artefacts in Botswana, collected by the Bousfield family over decades.
There aren’t many camps in Africa quite like Jack’s. The ten, Bedouin-style tents are scattered below a soft canopy of molokwane palms, each one an ode to safaris of old.
Expect Persian rugs atop polished floors, vintage lithographs and muslin-draped walls, and the comfiest four-posters the hotel has ever slept in. Outside, private verandas and velvet-clad chairs look out over the ethereal landscape, where glittering salt and sun-baked plains stretch as far as the eye can see.
And then there’s the bathrooms. As exquisite and quirky as a bathroom can be, you’ll find free-standing, copper bathtubs, splashy sinks, and wooden throne toilets. At the mess tent, a museum of vintage artefacts, maps, photos, and manuscripts all collected by the Bousfield family, is the centre piece of the 1940s-style canvas pavilion.
Separate tents contain an antique pool table, library, and a bar with an excellent selection of fine wines.
And if you weren’t already completely and utterly blown away, wait until the hotel's staff mentions the sleek swimming pool tent, and the fact that it’s the only one of its kind on the continent.
Jack’s Camp is a Kalahari Desert camp, located in Botswana’s Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, the remnants of an enormous super-lake that used to cover most of Southern Africa.
Jack Bousfield himself described the area as the “savage beauty of a forgotten Africa”, and truly, the Makgadikgadi is like nowhere on earth.
It’s a landscape of space and remoteness, and the spectacular, otherworldly vistas, unique desert wildlife, and old-world glamour of Jack’s Camp all come together to create an experience that is unlike any other on the continent.
The desert is never a place of abundance.The Makgadikgadi is full of elusive species and desert-adapted animals and the perfect complement to Botswana’s traditionally game-rich areas, like the Khwai Private Reserve and the Okavango Delta.
The brown hyena is a symbol of what’s to come in the Makgadikgadi. There are only 8000 of these special hunters left in the world, and there aren’t many other places you’ll encounter one.
Other carnivores that know how to eke out their survival here include aardwolves and bat-eared foxes, honey badgers and black-maned Kalahari lion.
Then there’s aardvark, gemsbok, springbok and black-backed jackals to look out for on game drives, and perhaps even an elephant or two. And last, but definitely not least, the meerkats.
Take game drives and night drives in custom built 4x4s to see the unique desert wildlife.
Embark on an adventurous two-hour horseback safari (for all levels of riders; additional charge, but one two-hour safari included if staying for three nights or longer).
Witness the second largest migration of zebra and wildebeest in Africa (and it’s also the last remaining one in Southern Africa).
Take a radical sabbatical and quad bike across the salt-crusted pans to Kubu Island.
Lie out on the pans as the sun sets and watch the planetarium of stars unfold above you.
JACK'S CAMP
Kalahari DesertBotswana