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OVERVIEW ON SAN CAMP IN MAKGADIKGADI
San Camp offers a serene atmosphere and beautiful views of the endless Makgadikgadi Saltpans, and for Guests that would prefer to spend a little less time exploring and little more time lounging, San Camp is perfectly adapted The camp’s hub is a romantic white canvas pavilion, with a fluttering valance beneath its eaves. It houses a central dining area where everyone meets for meals at a long dining table, a drinks tent and library tent as well as interesting collections of bones, pottery, stone tools and beadwork in antique display cases. Six classically styled white guest tents with en suite bathrooms, Persian carpets underfoot, cool cotton sheets and mahogany and brass campaign-style kit from the family safari stores form a striking contrast with the rugged wilderness viewed from the comfort of one’s own verandah. San Camp runs almost entirely on solar energy, thus dramatically reducing the use of fossil fuels. Expert guiding, incredibly friendly habituated meerkats, unique desert species, old-world safari styling and superb cuisine all come together to create an experience that is completely different to any other. Facilities include a magnificent mess tent contains a small natural history museum and library, a tea tent spread with cushions provides a sheltering sanctuary and a tented yoga pavilion. San Camp has a reputation for delicious, fresh and original menus. Plated meals are elegantly presented and indulgent, decadent teas are served daily. The perfect place to relax, unwind and retreat.
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Location Of San Camp
San Camp is situated on the edge of the vast and mysterious Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, the remnant of an extinct super lake that once covered most of Botswana. Turn 360 degrees and nothing crosses the eye but the bowl of the sky. This is God’s own minimalism.
Safari Experience At San Camp
During the wet season the landscape transforms. Clouds of flamingo and other migratory birds descend from the heavens to decorate the watery grasslands. Herds of zebra and wildebeest materialize, drawn by the lush grass, and for several months, the desert is teeming with game and predators. The guides at San 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 a morning’s 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 behavior and survival skills. The cunning tricks and survival struggles of the feisty inhabitants of the Makgadikgadi are not certainly without drama and, here, the emphasis is on observing the intricacies of a truly unique ecosystem to which the camp has added a few stylish adaptations of its own. The ancient lake has run dry but, the imagination runs wild.
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Activities At San Camp
A relic of one of the world’s largest super-lakes, the Makgadikgadi dried up thousands of years ago as a result of the continued shifting of the earth’s crust. When the lake was formed, some five to seven million years ago, its shores were the setting for the mysterious transition from ape to man.
Venturing far into the center 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 pans immensity. There is nothing out here. Absolutely nothing.
A safari to San Camp is also a complete desert experience focusing on species unique to the area such as aardvark, gemsbuck and springbuck. It is the only place where guests are virtually guaranteed to see the rare and elusive brown hyena and be able to walk through the Kalahari with a gang of habituated but, wild meerkats!
Activities focuses on
- Wildlife adapted to the desert e.g. meerkats, brown hyenas etc.
- Kalahari and Makgadikgadi geology, archaeology and anthropology
- Experience the vast saltpans on quad bikes (seasonal only during the dry season)
- Cultural Walking safaris with San Bushman trackers
- Game drives
Summary For San Camp
- San Camp offers classic white tents stand majestically on the shore of an enormous sparkling salt pan, each sheltered by a cluster of stately desert palms. Pared down safari elegance with minimal ecological impact is combined with spectacular vistas.
- 6 tents with its own verandah – 4 Twin and 2 double tents
- All with en suite bathrooms.
- Creative menus emphasizing fresh tastes and original cuisine
- Home to a unique small natural history museum and library.
