What Jack’s Private Camp is
Jack’s Private Camp is a two-tent exclusive-use retreat on the Makgadikgadi salt pans, run as a private annexe to the long-established Jack’s Camp. It is taken as a whole rather than by the room, with a private guide and a full staff complement dedicated to the party in residence.
Where it sits
The camp stands on the edge of the Makgadikgadi Pans, an enormous salt flat left by a prehistoric lake, in country the operator describes as a landscape of perfect silence. The Makgadikgadi is one of the strangest places in southern Africa: flat to the horizon, blindingly white in the dry, and transformed by the rains.
Two rooms, taken privately
There are two rooms. The camp is designed for multi-generational families, adventurous families, privately guided small groups, and travellers who simply want a desert safari away from other guests.
The style
It carries the signature Jack’s Camp style — the Persian rugs, the campaign furniture, the museum-cabinet sensibility — applied at a private scale, with what the operator calls desert opulence.
Private pool and deck
The camp has its own pool and deck, used exclusively by the party in residence. On the pans, where the middle of the day is fiercely hot, a private pool is not a luxury detail so much as a structural part of the day.
A private guide
A dedicated guide works with the group for the duration of the stay. That is the single biggest practical difference from a standard camp: the day is built around what the party wants rather than a fixed schedule shared with other guests.
A private chef and staff
A full staff complement, including a chef, is on hand to curate each day. Meals, timings and activities are all set by the group.
The Makgadikgadi
The pans support a very particular set of experiences: meerkat habituated to people, brown hyena, quad biking on the salt in the dry season, and the zebra migration that arrives with the rains. The landscape itself is the attraction as much as the wildlife.
Who it suits
Families travelling together, small privately guided groups, and anyone wanting the Jack’s Camp experience without sharing it. It is the most expensive way to see the Makgadikgadi and also the most flexible.
When to visit
The camp is open year-round. The dry months open the pans up for driving and quad biking; the green season brings the zebra and wildebeest migration onto the grasslands, along with flamingos on the pans in good years.
