Jack’s Camp and San Camp in pictures

The tea tent at San Camp is furnished with antique furniture and rugs

The white canvas of San Camp blends effortlessly with the salt pan

Holden Frith
As the summer rains approach, zebra and wildebeest migrate to the pans

... and the predators soon follow them

Permanent water holes have attracted a growing population of lions in recent years

Lions and leopard have also benefited from a reduction in cattle ranching on the Makgadikgadi plains

They hunt in the early morning and late evening, avoiding the heat of the middle of the day

A rare sighting of a hyena, waiting for the lions to finish with their zebra

The kill also attracts vultures and jackals

As the temperature climbs, one of the lions retreats to the shade of a bush

This wildebeest has resorted to a mud bath to keep cool

Ostriches are among the permanent, non-migratory residents of the salt pans

... as are meerkats, which live in burrows. This pup is on one of its first trips above ground

Sentry meerkats sometimes climb onto visitors to get a better view of the surrounding area

Guests at San Camp and Jack’s Camp are invited to visit a community of San people, the Kalahari’s indigenous population

Here, one of them demonstrates how blood would be sucked out of a wound if a hunter cut himself with a poisoned arrow

One of the San men displays a scorpion he has dug out from its burrow

Carefully grasping its claws and tail, he cleans it in his mouth to give us a better view

The San are expert fire-builders, and can get a flame using their wooden tools in just a couple of minutes

Their ancestors have been using the same tools for tens of thousands of years

Sunset is a bewitching time at San Camp and Jack’s Camp

At sunrise, the early birds come out in search of insects

... and the human visitors have an early rise too, getting up for the morning game drive

At San Camp, the canvas tents look out over the salt pans

... and inside, they're decorated with elegant four-poster beds

At Jack’s Camp, the furnishings recall grand expeditions of the 1940s

High tea at Jack’s Camp is a meal unto itself

... and a necessary one, before a trip out on the salt pan

After the first part of the journey, we switch to quad bikes

Holden Frith
A new study suggests humans originated from once-fertile Lake Makgadikgadi, now a salt flat in Botswana

It's one of the strangest and most beautiful places on earth