Jack's Camp

Jack's Camp began in the 1960s when crocodile hunter and adventurer Jack Bousfield pitched a tent under an acacia tree on the edge of the Makgadikgadi salt pans, and stayed. His son Ralph rebuilt it in 2003 in a 1940s East African style, then again in 2021 after a full renovation. Ten canvas tents, each 270 square metres, now stand on the pan's edge, filled with Persian rugs, hand-carved beds and cabinets of curiosities collected on Jack's own expeditions; each has a private plunge pool looking out over a landscape so flat that earth and sky seem to dissolve into one.

By day, guides track brown hyena, aardvark and habituated meerkat colonies across the pan's cracked white crust, or head out on quad bikes once the desert crust has dried and hardened. The camp runs entirely on solar power and channels 1.5% of turnover into Natural Selection's conservation work, including efforts to reopen ancient migration corridors for the region's zebra and wildebeest. As the light drops, sundowners are served on the pan itself, with nothing but salt and horizon in every direction.