Why Book this Camp?

• 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.

At-a-Glance

Accommodation & Amenities

• 10 tents: 7 twins, 3 doubles
• Ensuite bathrooms with indoor & outdoor showers
• Swimming pool tent
• Wifi available: No
• Hairdryers: No
• Battery charging facilities: In the mess tent (from 07h00 to 17h00)
• There is no electricity at Jack’s Camp.
• Complimentary laundry service
• Child policy: We welcome all ages
• Disabled access: Please enquire with reservations

What’s included?

• All meals and local drinks; activities (NB some activities at an extra surcharge)

What’s not included?

• Flights; premium brand beverages; tips & gratuities; insurance

Camp dates

Jack’s Camp is open all year round

Please note that Jack’s Camp will be closed for refurbishment between 01 October 2019 and 30 April 2020. From 16 October 2019 to 15 April 2020, Jack’s Migration Camp will be in operation, just down the road

Green season: 10^th January to 31^st March

Shoulder season: 1^st April to 14^th June; 1^st November 9^th January

High season: 15^th June to 31^st July; 1^st September to 31^st October

Peak season: 1^st – 31^st August

Please see our rates sheets for changes to the seasons in 2020.

Activities

Year Round

• Get up close and personal with our habituated meerkats.

• Discover the secrets of the pans with the Zu/’hoasi Bushmen on a fascinating bush walk.

• 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). Multi-day riding safaris are also available for experienced riders – please contact us for more information

• Enjoy a spot of R&R with a spa treatment – we guarantee that it will be the most unique massage you’ve ever had (additional charge, but included if staying for three nights or longer).

High/Dry Season (16th April – 31st October)

• Take a radical sabbatical and quad bike across the salt-crusted pans to Kubu Island (2 night expedition; additional charge. Please enquire with us for more details or have a look at the Quad Bike to Kubu Island Safari here).

• Lie out on the pans as the sun sets and watch the planetarium of stars unfold above you.

 Green Season (1st January – 15th April; 1st November – 31st December)

• Witness the second largest migration of zebra and wildebeest in Africa (and it’s also the last remaining one in Southern Africa). 

Location

Jack’s Camp was the pioneer of Kalahari tourism, and has played an enormous part in protecting this exquisite area that might otherwise have been turned over to cattle. To ensure we’re doing absolutely everything we can for the animals and environment, we regularly host scientists from around the world, specialising in desert wildlife and palaeoanthropology. And whilst our scientists hail from all over the globe, our staff all hail from local lands.

All of our camps surrounding the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park support the Makgadikgadi-Nxai Pans Conservation Initiative, a project aimed at creating optimal conditions for the mammal migration through the area. What is believed to have been Africa’s greatest large mammal migration used to occur here and, over the last decade, we’ve seen its gradual return. But since the migration last occurred (pre-1960), the landscape has changed considerably. This has led to land use incompatibilities primarily due to livestock and fencing, and the safe passage of the migration is not guaranteed. The Makgadikgadi-Nxai Pans Conservation Initiative therefore aims to address human-wildlife conflict around the park through community-informed land use planning and the introduction of sustainable economic incentives for wildlife-friendly land use practices.

When To Go

Jack’s Camp is a year-round destination, yet the two different seasons in the pans couldn’t be more different. The dry season, from April to October, is the desert as you know it. A shimmering whiteness envelops the scorched landscape, like a mirage floating over the crusted salt, and you’ll spot nomadic herds in the distance, as if an illusion. This is time of year for whizzing across the pans on the back of a quad bike, sleeping under the stars, and enjoying the pans in their most iconic, dazzling state.

When the rains start to fall in November, the Makgadikgadi Pans are transformed. It’s a time of plenty (even in the desert), and the salt flats are turned into watery grasslands, almost unrecognisable from the previous months. A layer of emerald-green grass stretches out in every direction, pink clouds of flamingo and flocks of migratory arrive to nest, and Africa’s second largest mammal migration of wildebeest and our black and white striped friends floods the plains. The green season in the desert is one of Africa’s, great unpredictable spectacles, and a magical time to visit.

Rain transforms everything, turning the pans into lush grasslands from November onwards. Animals are on the move and the desert becomes a green oasis teeming with life, notably thousands of zebra and blue wildebeest that feast on the sweet summer grasses. The safari activities are similar in these months although you usually won’t travel as far; on many days you can see the wildlife direct from your verandah. This green season continues until mid-April and corresponds with the off season for tourism in Botswana, making it a slightly cheaper time to travel.

Logistics

Camp Story

In the 1960s, crocodile catcher and legendary hunter Jack Bousfield set out on a trapping expedition in the desolate Makgadikgadi Pans. He soon stumbled upon a site that so captured his imagination that he set up a camp in that very spot, with the unshakeable expectation that others would feel the same… That was the first incarnation of Jack’s Camp, a simple, no frills affair in the heart of the desert, visited by guests as much to see Jack as the otherworldly area.

Fast-forward a few years to Jack’s untimely death in 1992, and Ralph, Jack’s son, along with his partner Catherine, established the Uncharted Africa Safari Company in homage to his father’s vision. Jack’s Camp was refurbished in the nostalgic 1940s style we know today, but kept as authentic and genuine as possible: no electricity, steaming water in gleaming copper jugs, and showers under the stars. The portfolio expanded to include San Camp and Camp Kalahari, each one as quirky and eccentric as the next, and each guaranteeing every guest ‘Real Adventure in Unreal Style.’ Jack would be proud.