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Makgadikgadi Pans> Jack's Camp
Jack's Camp
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Makgadikgadi Pans
Jack's Camp 
Jack's Campis furbished using a traditional East African 1940's safari style.
Jack 's camp's hub is a romantic canvas pavilion of low spires and finials, with a fluttering valance beneath its eaves. Three poles support the main chamber where everyone meets for lavish and elegant meals at a long communal dining table.
Tenroomy 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 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.
Accommodation at Jack's Camp:
Room Details
Traditionalcanvas tents
Access to tents through a zipped door
En-suite bathroom facilities including shower, basin, flush toilet and outside shower
Camp Description
Dining tent with adjacent library and drinks tents
National museum housed in dining tent
Tea tent with Persian carpet floor, chess set and wind-up gramophone.
Inclusions / Exclusions
Rates Include:
Fully inclusive tariff includes accommodation, all meals, all activities, park fees and all drinks (except premium imports)
Rates Exclude:
Imported drinks and tips/gratuities
Extra information
Safaris, Game drives and other activities
Venturing far into the centre of the Makgadikgadi, on 4-wheel-drive quad bikes, we 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 pan's immensity. There is nothing out here.
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 hyaena and are able to walk through the 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 an erudite breed. Often graduate students who combine research with guiding, they team up with a small group of Zu/'hoasi Bushmen to guideguests on the morning walks and game drives.
Game Viewing
Year round: unique desert species - Suricate (meerkats), Brown hyaena, aardvark, aardwolf, gemsbuck, springbuck, etc.
Wet season: Flamingo, Stork, Wattled Crane, Waterfowl, annual Wildebeest and Zebra migration.
Activities Available
Wet Season:
- Game drives in open 4x4 Landcruisers - the camp has 3 custom designed vehicles with 2 rows of seats behind the front row thus seating max. 5 guests when allowing each guest an outside seat
- A morning spent with the suricate (meerkat)
- Bird walks to observe migratory waterfowl breeding / feeding sites.
- Very limited usage of 4WD quad bikes and vehicles on the pans - weather permitting and if the pans are dry
- Night drives to view migration and unique desert wildlife.
- Game walk with Bushman trackers.
- Visit to Chapman's Baobab (the campsite of Livingstone, Selous and Baines)
- Visit remote area dwellings / cattle posts to gain insight into local tribal tradition and culture.
- Explore undocumented archaeological sites to search for stone tools and fossils of extinct mega fauna left in the area by early settlements, weather permitting.
Dry Season:
- Extensive usage of 4WD quad bikes
- Explore undocumented archaeological sites to search for stone tools and fossils of extinct mega fauna left in the area by early settlements, weather permitting
- Night drives to view unique desert wildlife
- Game walk with Bushman trackers
- Visit to Chapman's Baobab (the campsite of Livingstone, Selous and Baines
- A morning spent with the suricate (meerkat)
Children
Children over the age of 4 years welcome
Laundry
Laundry is done on a daily basis and inclusive in the nightly tariff with the exception of 'smalls' i.e. underwear, which are not washed due to local customs. There is washing powder in the tents.
Climate
Botswana's climate is semi-arid. Though it is hot and dry for much of the year, there is a rainy season, which runs through the summer months. Rainfall tends to be erratic, unpredictable and highly regional. Often a heavy downpour may occur in one area while 10 or 15 kilometres away there is no rain at all. Showers are often followed by strong sunshine so that a good deal of the rainfall does not penetrate the ground but is lost to evaporation and transpiration.
Summer (Rainy season)November - March
It usually brings very high temperatures. Cloud coverage and rain can cool things down considerably, although only usually for a short period of time.
Winter (Dry season)May - August
Virtually no rainfall occurs. Days are invariably sunny and cool to warm; however, evening and night temperatures can drop below freezing point in some areas, especially in the southwest.
The in-between periods - April/early May and September/October - still tend to be dry, but the days are cooler than in summer and the nights are warmer than in winter.
What to take
- Light clothing and swimming costumes in summer
- Sun hat, sunglasses and sun block
- Warm clothing and jackets in winter and summer night drives
- Walking shoes
- Cameras and binoculars
