At the beginning everything is amazement. Landing in a clayish desert and driving toward a line of tall and skinny palm trees. Sharing a long communal table at Mess Tent on a sunny afternoon for the first time. Looking up at your tent’s lilac canvas ceiling with geometrical shapes and feeling like a kid in a vintage carillon. Dark wood, matt military khaki green canvas, ripe-peach pink velvet, rust, brass and silver create a stylish romantic post-colonial atmosphere. Jack’s is first and foremost one of the most authentic tent camps in Africa. Hour after hour, day after day the amazing experience of a safari that is thought through in every detail and totally exclusive will become a desirable and irreplaceable part of your routine like you would have never imagined before. Coffee delivered to your tent in a silver jug at 5am, a petrol lamp for the dark, a collection of rare books and family photos. The first herd of black and gold zebras, crossing the Pan, the deep yellow and pastel green of the grassland, the wheels of the jeep sinking in grey sand and running along the Pan, the watery and luminous horizon of a terrestrial paradise. Sharing delicious meals at the long table, getting to trust your guide (ours was a man with a prophetic name, Super, simply irreplaceable), the Bushmen language and the quiet outdoor swimming pool looking over the immensity of the Makgadikgadi savannah. This is certainly not the only place to stop on a trip to Botswana, nor the most popular, yet this desert together with Jack’s camp (or the twin San camp with a total white look) is one of the best-kept world’s secrets.  “Give them what they never knew they wanted” – claims the camp strap line. Nothing more true. A history of 5 generations of safari, adventurous, extreme, bitter, enchanting and wonderful.

Words and pictures Meraviglia Paper.  Thanks to Uncharted Africa Safari Co., Ralph Bousfield and Catherine Raphaely, Super Sande (our guide), Simona Quaglia, Heide Pautch and Andrea Hojem, Verena, Davin and the whole camp staff.