Camp Kalahari is a mobile tented camp of six canvas dome tents along a sandy ridge, under the shade of grove of camelthorn trees and overlooking the Makgadigadi Salt Pans.
Camp Kalahari is run by Uncharted Africa Safaris, and offers travellers a very economic alternative to its more costly and luxurious, sister-camps: Jack's Camp and San Camp. Note also that whilst Camp Kalahari is currently a mobile camp, Jack's and San are permanent.
Camp Kalahari's long-drop toilets and bucket showers mean that it is best suited for more adventurous travellers. However, its stretcher beds with comfortable bed-rolls and 3-course meals make this much more comfortable than the average boy-scout camping expedition!
This site for this camp is located in a communal area, and Uncharted Africa are waiting on the final 'OK' to allow them to erect a more permanent set-up here. For the moment, the camp is erected each time there are visitors and taken down at the end of each stay. A more permanent camp will mean an upgrade of some of the facilities and the addition of a shower and toilet for each tent. For now, the shower and toilets are shared.
Activities offered from Camp Kalahari include half- and full-day 4WD safaris into the Makgadigadi National Park, which is about 20km away, and spot-lit night drives in the surrounding area. The safari vehicle used for these drives is a Toyota twin-cab. The back of this has been adapted to include safari seats under a canvas canopy to allow for good viewing. Unfortunately, the guide remains in the enclosed cab whilst driving. This is not ideal for him to communicate with his guests whilst on the move.
We visited the camp in April 2007, and were told that this is a temporary vehicle. The guide did make the best of the situation; he paused often to discuss wildlife sightings and other points of interest. We are told that once the camp has been made more permanent, an open purpose-built 4WD safari vehicle will be bought for this camp.
A real highlight of Camp Kalahari is a visit to their resident family of merekats (sometimes called 'suricats'). Spending a morning with merekats is completely amazing; they're incredibly cute and very inquisitive, and we stood and sat a matter of a few meters from them for several hours. The meerkat family was one of the real wildlife highlights of this trip to Botswana, as we were able to follow them as they forage across the Kalahari for grubs and scorpions. This particular family of meerkats has been habituated to humans; so whilst they are wild animals, they more-or-less ignore visitors. It is the same family of meercats that is sometimes visited by travellers staying at Jack's Camp or San Camp.
Quad-biking excursions onto the Ntwetwe Pan (which is huge – covering about 6,500 km2) are a real feature of your time here, and they're a great way to travel around the fragile salt crust of these ancient salt pans. Several safari activities are usually done by quad-bike, and these will often include a visit to a site on the pans where stone-age tools and other signs of prehistoric times can be picked up from the surface.
You will also often get chance to visit Chapman's Baobab – which is estimated to be about 4,500 to 5,000 years old. A hole in this great tree was used as post box in historic times, when people left mail to be collected by those passing. When here – note how far the roots extend from the tree – it's amazing!
Ideal length of stay: 2-3 nights. Camp Kalahari's activities are normally designed around a 2-night stay, although they can be adapted to 3 nights.
Central facilities: A 5m x 5m canvas awning, supported by a number of poles and guy-ropes, is the focal point and general 'mess area' for Camp Kalahari. Most meals are eaten under here, with everyone sitting together around a long table. In the evening, people will usually retire with their folding camp chairs to sit around the fire outside.
A cold chest is set up under this awning, in which you'll find drinks which are chilled throughout the day. A separate wooden chest holds a variety of coffee, teas and hot chocolate drinks, for which hot water is always available from flasks.
Directions: Flight transfer in light aircraft from Maun to Gweta Airstrip where you will be met and taken by road on a 10- to 15-minute transfer to Planet Baobab. Change to the safari vehicle for the drive to camp.
Alternatively, we can organize road transfers between Maun to Planet Baobab; you then change into a safari vehicle transfer for a further 1½- to 2-hour drive to camp, which passed mostly through smallholdings of cattle-farmers.
If you are on a self-drive safari (eg: using a 2WD car to get around the main roads of Botswana), then you can drive to Planet Baobab, which is about 2½ hour's drive from Maun, on the main road to Francistown. You can leave your vehicle at Planet Baobab, and be transferred from there.
Accessible by: Self-drive or Fly-and-Transfer
Key personnel
Owner: Ralph Bousfield - Uncharted Africa
Staff: Guide: Oyapo – very knowleadgable on the area including plants and birds. He knows a lot about the history of the pans and has worked in the area for quite a few years.
Food & drink
Usual board basis: Full Board
Food quality: All the meals at Camp Kalahari are cooked on a camp fire or using a metal 'box' surrounded by packed coals creating an oven. Using this technique, the camp's freshly-made bread, muffins and rolls were delicious.
Breakfast usually consists of a good mix of cereals, yoghurts, juice and fruit. When served in camp, there will also be a cooked breakfast. However, if you are leaving early for a morning safari, then you'll have a picnic breakfast to take with you.
Lunch is normally eaten back at camp, and typically include a main dish, like a quiche or a pie, supplemented by a large fresh salad and fresh-baked bread. Something of an African theme is apparent in many dishes, which is often very interesting.
Later in the day, around 4pm, afternoon tea is served before yu go off on your afternoon activity – which is normally a choice of drinks with fresh-baked cake, muffins, biscuits or similar treats for the sweet-toothed!
Dinner is a fairly substantial 3-course affair, typically starting with a home-made soup. Our main courses were fillet of beef with spiced butternut, corn-on-the-cob, other vegetables and roast potatoes. This was usually laid out for us to help ourselves (there was no shortage of food!). Sweet followed – like a roasted fruit kebab, glazed with honey and cinnamon!
When we last visited this camp, in April 2007, the standard of the food was good for the most part. The chef, KB, had obviously been trained on the camp menus, and then been given some scope to be creative. Generally this worked very well – but things were a little erratic! Some dishes were very good, others didn't work so well. On one occasion desert consisted of grated carrot with warm milk, sugar and butter sauce – which was very imaginative, but nobody asked for the recipe!
On that trip, our meals were not quite up to the high standards of some of Botswana's mobile camps, although Camp Kalahari did redeem itself with some of the best fire-baked bread we've tried, and plenty of fresh vegetables and salads.
Dining style: Group Meals
Dining locations: Indoor and Outdoor Dining
Room service: No
Cost of meal e.g. lunch: Included
Drinks included: Included. Though the bar is limited, most popular drinks are available including most spirits (vodka, gin, whisky), mixers (tonic, bitter lemon, ginger beer), soft drinks, beer, wine and bottled water. Tea, coffee (instant) and hot chocolate are available in camp throughout the day.
Special interests
Wildlife: Visits to a family of meerkats are an amazing experience here. Meanwhile, during the rainy season (Dec–Apr), zebra can often be seen here in their thousands as they migrate in search of new grass. Throughout the year, lions and brown hyena frequent this area although the general wildlife densities are low due to the lack of water in the environment.
- See more of our suggestions of the best places for Wildlife
Children
Attitude towards children: All ages welcome.
Age restrictions: None.
Activities: None.
Equipment: None.
Generally recommended for children: Although Camp Kalahari welcomes all ages, we would recommend it for children over about 10 years old. There are a variety of activities, but you may have to drive a distance in search of wildlife, and there is no swimming pool to keep younger children amused during the hot hours between activities.
Notes: There are no triple tents, so younger children must share with an adult and are under the full responsibility of their parents. Children under the age of 16 can only ride the quad bikes with an adult.
Central communications
Power supply: None
Communications: Camp Kalahari is in radio contact with Planet Baobab, Jack's Camp and San Camp.
TV & radio: No
Health & safety
Malarial area: Yes
Medical care: Guides are trained in first aid and each guide travels with a first aid kit. Emergency evacuation would be by plane or helicopter to Maun.
Dangerous animals: High Risk
Security measures: There is always at least one staff member watching over the camp whilst guests are out on activities.
Fire safety: All tents open directly to the outside.
Extras
Disabled access: Not Possible
Laundry facilities: Possible on request if guests are staying more than 3 nights.
Private Camp in Kalahari
Our experience at the Kalahari Camp were also very good - the meerkat "shows" , the quadbike trip made us really happy.
A warm thank you to Masego (manager) and Ndabona (the guide and dri...
Useful links...
We want you to understand more about Camp Kalahari. We're also confident that a trip there with us cost you the same or less than booking it any other way, even directly. So follow the links below.
Camp Kalahari's direct webpage For information and pictures on Camp Kalahari, please click on this link to access their direct website.
