Jack's Camp
While on a trapping expedition in the Makgadikgadi Pans during the 1960's, the legendary Jack Bousfield stumbled upon a site that so captured his imagination he set up camp under an acacia, with the unshakeable expectation that others would feel the same. Here he lived until his tragic death in an aircraft accident in 1992.
As a homage to the vision of his father, his son Ralph and partner Catherine established Uncharted Africa Safari Co. starting with Jack’s Camp. This camp is located deep in the Kalahari Desert on the edge of the Makgadikgadi Pans and was refurbished at the beginning of 2003 in a traditional East African 1940's safari style.
The camp's hub - a romantic canvas pavilion - could have come straight from a medieval jousting tournament, were it not a deciduous green. Three poles support the main chamber where guests meet for lavish and elegant meals at a long communal dining table.
Ten roomy and stylish canvas tents with en-suite bathrooms and indoor and outdoor showers (for those who want to feel the Kalahari breeze on their skin) have been fashioned in classical style and are set into a palm grove creating an oasis of civilization 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.
Venturing far into the centre of the Makgadikgadi on 4wd quad bikes, guests are able to explore remote archaeological sites, 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 pans immensity. There is nothing out there. No outcrops, no features, no grass, no trees, no sound but the crunch of your boots in the crust.
The Kalahari desert is its own universe. It is the only place where guests are virtually guaranteed to see the rare and elusive brown hyena and are able to walk through the Kalahari with a gang of habituated but wild meerkats! Other species in the area include aardvark, gemsbok and springbok.
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, and its satellite San Camp, are an erudite breed. Often graduate students who combine research with guiding, they team up with a small group of Zu/’hoasi Bushmen to guide guests on morning 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.
The cunning tricks and survival struggles of the feisty inhabitants of the Makgadikgadi are certainly not without drama and the emphasis is on observing the intricacies of a truly unique ecosystem to which Uncharted Africa Safari Co. has added a few stylish adaptations of its own.
A visit to Jack’s Camp can be combined with a couple of nights spent sleeping out under the stars amongst the boulders and baobabs on Kubu Island, an extraordinary full day journey by quad bike across the Ntwetwe Pan.
Images supplied courtesy of Uncharted Africa
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