San Camp | Kalahari Desert Lodges

Highlights

Get unbelievably up close and personal with the family of meerkats
Walk with Zu/'hoasi Bushmen Trackers
Game drives to experience unique desert wildlife, such as the elusive and rare brown hyaena
A visit to Chapman's Baobab
Lie out on the pans at night and watch the planetarium show unfold overhead with horizon-to-horizon stars
Quad biking
Experience the spectacular migration of zebra and wildebeest

Information

Lodge type; Safari Camp
Location; Central Makgadikgadi Pans
Lodge size; 7 safari tents
Recommended stay; 3-7 nights

Introduction

San Camp offers the Earth, stripped naked. And, such restraint holds its own charms.

San Camp and Jack's Camp are unique in that they are the only permanent camps to offer a chance to explore and understand the Kalahari.

The 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.

And this place could not be more different from everywhere. The Botswana Desert Camp is the Stewart Granger Memorial Collection of 1940s safari tents, with no running water nor electricity.

Rooms and Suites

Seven pale khaki canvas tents twinned with a dramatic location, combine 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!

There are comfortable beds, cotton sheets, paraffin lamps, excellent food and personal service. Bathrooms are en-suite with bucket showers and flushing loos.

Cuisine and Wine

The best beef Wellington you’ve ever had, fresh tomato tartlets followed by a three-layer banana and caramel cake - as an example. This is what meals at San Camp are all about.

Cuisine on offer is delicious and innovative; the camp has one of the best reputations in Botswana for offering up only the finest.

Facilities

A magnificent mess tent contains a small natural history museum and library. A tea tent spread with cushions provides a sheltering sanctuary, and the tented yoga pavilion overlooks a small plunge pool and sun deck.

Activities

Venturing far into the centre of the Makgadikgadi, on 4wd quad bikes, we can 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. 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)!

Child Friendly

Children of all ages are most welcome at San Camp with numerous child and family-friendly activities and accommodation options available. We do however recommend that children be at least eight years and older to enjoy all the activities.

Spa and Wellness

No spa facilities are on offer, but there is a "Tented Yoga Pavilion" available with daily yoga options (perfect for de-stressing and unwinding).