While on a trapping expedition in the Makgadikgadi Pans during the 1960s, hunter Jack Bousfield stumbled upon a site that so captured his imagination that he set up camp under an acacia tree and lived there until his tragic death in an aircraft accident in 1992. The choice of such a striking locale owed much to his taste for the savage beauty of a forgotten Africa. As homage to the vision of his father, his son, Ralph, with his partner Catherine established Jack's Camp.
Jack’s Camp was refurbished at the beginning of 2003 using a traditional East African 1940’s safari style. Ten roomy and stylish canvas tents have en-suite bathrooms and indoor and outdoor showers for those who want to feel the Kalahari breeze on their skin. The tents are set into a palm grove creating an oasis of civilisation in what can be the harshest of stark environments. Persian rugs underfoot and cool cotton sheets form a striking contrast with the rugged wilderness viewed from the comfort of one's own veranda. The camp's hub, a romantic canvas pavilion is where everyone meets for lavish and elegant meals at a long communal dining table.
A relic of one of the world's largest super-lakes, Botswana’s Makgadikgadi dried up thousands of years ago as a result of the continued shifting of the earth's crust. When the lake was formed, some five to seven million years ago, its shores were the setting for the mysterious transition from ape to man. On four-wheel-drive quad bikes guests can venture far into the centre of Botswana’s Makgadikgadi. Remote archaeological sites can be found, periodically discovering never-before-documented fossil beds of extinct giant zebra and hippo. The fact that you can travel across the pans at great speed and still arrive nowhere only underlines the pan's immensity. There is nothing out there, absolutely nothing. No outcrops, no features, no grass, no trees, no sound but the crunch of your boots in the crust. Botswana’s Kalahari Desert is its own universe.
A safari to Jack's Camp is also a complete desert experience, focusing on species unique to the area such as aardvark, gemsbok and springbok. It is the only place where guests are virtually guaranteed to see the rare and elusive brown hyena and are able to walk through Botswana’s Kalahari with a gang of habituated, yet wild meerkats (suricates)!
During the wet season the landscape transforms. Clouds of flamingo and other migratory birds descend from the heavens to decorate the watery grasslands. Herds of zebra and wildebeest materialise, drawn by the lush grass, and for several months, the desert is teeming with game and predators.
The guides at Jack's are often graduate students who combine research with guiding; they team up with a small group of Zu/'hoasi Bushmen to guide guests on walks and game drives. Offering a window into the past, the Bushmen teach us how they have survived in this harshest of environments, using ancient knowledge of plants, animal behaviour and survival skills.