Jack’s Camp is an oasis of style and comfort in the middle of Botswana’s Kalahari Desert. This camp is rated as one of the best in Africby Lonely Planet. It is beautifully authentic, 1940’s style tented safari camp, which includes a private museum, shop, drinks tent and a pool pavilion. Spectacular vistas, creative surprises, expert guiding, old-world safari styling and superb cuisine all come together to create an experience that is completely different to any other.
Jack’s Camp features 7 twin and 3 double tents with en-suite bathrooms featuring indoor and outdoor showers. Spacious and stylish – with an elegant atmosphere.
Activities are varied, and combine wildlife with culture, history, archaeology and geology. Activities on offer all year round include: interacting with incredibly friendly habituated meerkats; walking with Bushmen Guides; game drives to experience unique desert wildlife, Chapman’s Baobab – one of the oldest and biggest trees in Africa, bird watching and night drives.
Location
Quick Facts
- Rooms: 9 early-explorer-style tents (7 twin, 2 double) plus an exclusive 2-bedroom villa, ideal for families or small groups
- History: founded in 1962 by Jack Bousfield, a professional hunter and fourth-generation African, originally called Bushman Bed Camp — one of Botswana’s first-ever photographic safari camps. His son Ralph Bousfield rebuilt and expanded it into what’s there today
- Ownership: owned/run by Ralph Bousfield’s company, Uncharted Africa, which sits within the Natural Selection portfolio (Natural Selection founded 2016) — so it’s a family legacy camp rather than a corporate-built one
- Location: edge of the Makgadikgadi Pans, shares an airstrip with sister camps Camp Kalahari and San Camp
- Activities: quad biking across the pans, extensive guided walks with San Bushmen trackers, night drives, horse riding (extra cost, multi-day options for experienced riders), scenic helicopter flights (helicopter based on-site, seats 3) including trips to Kubu Island and Nata Bird Sanctuary
- Known for: its Kalahari meerkat habituation experience, star-bed sleepouts on the pans, and being one of the most iconic, storied camps in Botswana’s history
Personal Thoughts on Jack's Camp
Jack’s Camp has always been personal for me and I remember Jack Bousfield himself, who was a close friend of my Dad’s and, without question, one of the most wildly eccentric men I’ve ever known. He survived six plane crashes in his life before tragically dying in a seventh in 1992, flying over the Okavango Delta with his son Ralph when the aircraft went down. Ralph rebuilt the camp in his father’s honour, opening it in 1993 and it is pretty amazing. Beautifully done, lavish, and wonderfully eccentric with an old world safari vibe feel thrown in. Jack’s has amazing activities including the meerkat habituation experience, quad biking out onto the pans, and sleeping out under the stars on a star bed and these experiences are genuinely unlike anything else in Botswana. It’s one of the most storied, characterful camps in the country, and I always enjoy sharing a bit of Jack’s history with clients before they go — it makes the whole experience land differently once you know the man behind the name.
Jack's Camp Lodge Layout
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