San Camp
(Kalahari Desert - Botswana)
San Camp - A Botswana Safari Lodge
San Camp offers the Earth, stripped naked. And, such restraint holds its own
charms.
San Camp comprises of six pale khaki canvas tents twinned with a dramatic location, combined to create
an oasis of civilisation in what can be the harshest of stark environments. The
result: One of the most romantic camps in Africa!
And this place could not be more different from everywhere. The camp is the
Stewart Granger Memorial Collection of 1940s safari tents, with no running water
nor electricity but with comfortable beds, cotton sheets, paraffin lamps,
wonderful food and personal service. Bathrooms are en-suite with bucket showers
and flushing loos.
Jack's Camp and San Camp are unique in that they are the only permanent camps
to offer a chance to explore and understand the Kalahari. Our concession adjoins
the Makgadikgadi National Park with its endless vistas of rolling golden
grasslands. Desert palms line the horizon. Through the tent flaps, the
Makgadikgadi Pans run over the horizon like the mother of all Norfolk beaches.
Venturing far into the centre of the Makgadikgadi, on 4wd 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. Absolutely nothing.
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 hyaena and be able to
walk through the Kalahari with a gang of habituated but, wild meerkats (suricates)!
The guides at San Camp and its satellite, Jack's 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 our 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.
Mkgadikgadi Pans
The Makgadikgadi pans consist of two major basins, relics of a massive lake
and swampland that existed over much of northern Botswana between about 2
million and 40,000 years ago. On the edge of the western basin, also known as
the Ntetwe Pan are Jack's and San camps.
Jack's is situated on an isolated island filled with tall fan palms and
commiphora trees. Named for the legendary Jack Bousefield, who was a pioneer of
these remote wastes, Jack's Camp remains one of the most intriguing and
mysterious places in the Kalahari or Kgalagadi. Owned and designed by Ralph
Bousefield and Catherine Raphaely, Jack's and nearby San Camp offer guests
access to a completely unique area.
During the summer months (November to April) the focus is on the thousands of
zebra which have migrated from the Boteti River and Makgadikgadi Pans National
Park immediately to the west. During these same months, the pans fill with water
and attract numerous species of birds from flamingos to wattled cranes and
pelicans. During the dry, or winter months, the migrations move westwards to the
water available in the Boteti River but many desert-adapted creatures remain
resident.
This is the domain of the brown hyaena, a shy and elusive creature, as well as
suricates, aardvarks and small bustard species. Ralph Bousefield and his guides
have made many important finds in the field of palaeontology, with stone
implements and other evidence of Stone Age dwellers.
This is an extremely fragile environment filled with fascination and interest.
The management and guides have an approach of maximum care for the environment,
and this is a destination for the true lover of remote experiences.
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