Jacks Camp, Botswana, Safari, Kalahari, Luxury

Jack Bousfield's oasis of civilisation was created in the 1960's amid the vastness and isolation of the salt pans in order to offer a complete desert experience - with just a touch of the 1940’s ‘bel epoch’ styled luxury.

Set in a small Palm grove on the edge of the vast Makgadikgadi salt pans, Jacks Camp really epitomises the luxury safari. This outpost of civilisation was established in the early 1960's in memory of Jack Bousfield by his son because Jack stumbled on this site many years before and it so catured his imagination that he laid out his bed roll right there on the edge of the vast inhospitable Kalahari desert. The result today is an extraordinary juxtaposition of man’s ideas of luxury and nature’s untameable wilderness.

Jacks remains in the family and Ralph Bousfield continues in the family tradition, creating an elegant, authentic and supremely comfortable safari in the ten, classically designed tents which comprise the camp. Each sits on a wooden deck, under the shade of the palms and is extremely spacious, furnished in antique safari style. There are bathrooms en suite with indoor and outdoor showers, flush loos and hot & cold running water.

Days are filled by safari encounters with the desert-adapted life here - spend a morning with a family of Meerkats, see the shy brown hyaena and the plains game - but also, quad bike out into the distance and wait until after sunset...then the guides come to collect you and the experience of quiet, calm and (slight) fear will all contribute to your understanding of the desert.

For the seasoned safari hand, this is one of the ultimate experiences - Wolwedans in Namibia, Tafika in Zambia, Greystoke in Tanganyika - these are the hardest-to-get-to, most worthwhile of all. Jacks Camp remains one of these greats.