San Camp Botswana

With its vintage-style safari tents, four poster beds graced percale sheets, bucket showers, flush w.c.’s and paraffin lamps, San Camp provides a complete desert experience on the edge of the legendary Makgadikgadi Pans.

Six white canvas tents, set in a dramatic location, create an oasis of civilisation in the starkly beautiful environment. Viewed through the tent flaps, the serene salt pans run endlessly into the horizon.

The concession adjoins the Makgadikgadi National Park, with its endless vistas of golden, rolling grasslands, quad bike excursions that venture far into the heart of the wilderness and exploring remote archaeological sites.

Morning walks and game drives accompanied by experienced guides and local Bushmen provide a glimpse of the unique fauna and flora. Once the day’s adventures are over, mouth-watering meals are served in a central dining pavilion or beneath a star studded sky that casts an enchanted atmosphere over the camp.

Imagine a smattering of billowing white tents, shaded by desert palms and surrounded by a thousand acres of shimmering, sparkling nothingness. You’ve just dreamt up San Camp, our impossibly romantic, seven-bedroom camp on the edge of the Nwetwe Pan in Botswana’s Makgadikgadi.

San isn’t a place for frills and fluffiness. The magic is in the minimalism, both at the camp and in the mysterious desert landscape. You can forget the tourist crowds and over-stuffed 4x4s too; it’s just you, the wildlife, and a handful of local San Bushmen, waiting to share their secrets with you.

Of all the Makgadikgadi pans, we think Nwetwe is the most iconic. Meerkats pop up from the desert dust, brown hyaena hide in the grass, and you’ll see red hartebeest, springbok and gemsbok scurrying between them.

But San Camp isn’t just about wildlife-watching – it’s about the atmosphere and the ethereal surroundings. Disappear into a remote world, a million miles from glowing screens and fruit-themed devices, where the 360-degree panoramas are so vast, you can see the curvature of the earth.

BUSHMEN NATURE WALK IN MAKGADIKGADI 
Explore the Kalahari alongside authentic Zu/’hoasi Bushmen and discover an ancient people who braved the desert plains for centuries, expertly navigating the harsh and arid lands.

Unchartered Africa has pioneered the conservation of this fast vanishing culture and proudly hosts four generations of Zu/’hoasi Bushmen at Jack’s Camp in the Makgadikgadi. The tour touches on the life of Bushmen in an authentic Bushmen settlement, as well as the unique skills they have employed to survive, to heal and to prosper in the arid desert.

HORSEBACK SAFARI 
Embark on a three-night horse riding safari and traverse the stark, unspoiled and arid desert-like Laurence of Arabia. Guests are pampered with 1940’s inspired and mahogany furnished luxury canvas tents, featuring en-suite bathrooms and indoor and outdoor showers.

Excursions stretch across the desert and include interactions with meerkats, thrilling trips to the middle of an ancient lakebed, sightings of the illusive ostrich and other wildlife and a trip to Chapman’s Baobab. End a busy day of riding with a romantic night gazing into the vast, glimmering skies.

MEERKAT INTERACTION 
The Kalahari’s ongoing Habituation Programme at Jack’s Camp and San Camp in Botswana’s Kalahari Desert presents travelers with the unique opportunity to interact with the animated meerkat, made famous by the Lion King’s Timon.

The charming meerkats inquisitively look out onto the plains of the desert, noses firmly in the air, eager to touch base with willing visitors. The habitual meerkats are not tame, but will gladly snuggle up to travelers on chilly mornings or climb atop heads that are promptly used as viewing posts to aid in later foraging excursions.

QUAD BIKE EXCURSION
Enjoy an afternoon tea session before mounting a roaring quad bike to discover the vast and endless plains of the Makgadikgadi Pans. During the dry season travellers can race across 1 600 square kilometres (200 square miles) of untouched land, with the only sound the smooth purring of your quad’s engine.

Lounge under a gold-streaked sky as the sun disappears beneath the horizon, beckoning on the slate-dark night, illuminated by stars that dominate the wide expanse like shining diamonds. Revel in the wide open spaces around you as you fall asleep in the embrace of ancient baobab trees.

SAFARI GAME DRIVE IN MAKGADIKGADI
Game drives in the Makgadikgadi Pans are unparalleled, featuring wild open plains that are stark and hypnotic, the closest thing on the earth to the rugged surface of the moon. Encounter especially adapted wildlife as they expertly navigate through the arid desert in search of food and moisture in this seemingly hostile environment.

Day trips pass herds of springbok, gemsbok, and red hartebeest, while night drives brush by packs of the edgy brown hyena, bat eared foxes and the elusive black-maned Kalahari lion. Open 4×4 drives perfectly illustrate the mesmerising appeal and pull of the desert.

Rooms: 7

Price: from 3.150 EUR per night

Source: www.andbeyond.com