Our family of four enjoyed our time at Jackal and Hide. We saw so much.. three different leopards, lions, wild dog, hyena and of course so many elephants. The Khwai Private Reserve is so nice because you have thousands upon thousands of acres to yourself and you can go off road as you chase wild dogs on the hunt or a shy leopard as she finds her cub. You won’t see massive herds of game but you will see so much variety.. seemingly a surprise around every corner.

We also enjoyed a professional photographer in camp who outfitted me and my 13 year old son with excellent camera equipment and quick instruction on how to use it. What a bonus!

The amenities are somewhat on the simple side for camps in Botswana but we enjoyed them nonetheless. My teenage sons who’ve never done safari said it was the greatest place on earth. The tents and main dining area overlook a beautiful flood plain that often held elephants, hippo, and lechwe while we were there. Distant roaring lions and whooping hyena sang us to sleep each night.

The staff were very friendly and accommodating. Our guide was informative and worked very hard to make our experience a great one. Thanks Daniel!

A few other notes.. night drives were listed as an option on their website but when we arrived they were not an option. Natural Selection is the marketing company but it was Khwai Private Reserve who operated the camp.

We spent three brilliant nights here as part of a Pangolin Photo Safari (camp is now/soon to be in the Natural Selection stable).
Welcoming staff, comfortable accommodation (with enough luxury - including en-suite bathroom and hot water bottles in your bed at night - to remind you you’re not camping!), great food, super-knowledgeable guides and photo guides, and a good range of animals and birds.
The camp is in the Khwai Private Reserve, an area on the edge of the Okavango delta which is semi-arid yet punctuated by enough flowing streams to support extensive wildlife. We saw leopard, lion, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, zebra, ostrich, giraffe, wildebeest and a great variety of birds. A highlight of our stay was seeing an elusive honey badger as we headed to the airstrip on our last day.
We did two three-hour safaris a day - one early morning and another in the mid afternoon, in Landcruiser 4WDs with four guests, a driver/guide/tracker and photo guide.
Our guide, Steez, was excellent - and his ability to track animals impressive. We had the services of two photo guides over our visit, Danny (a Canon guy) and Barbara (Nikon specialist), and both were excellent.
A highlight of each Safari was being welcomed back into camp by manager Thomas, who was waiting with a smile and hot towels to wipe the safari dust off our faces.
Food was terrific, a good variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks were included in the package, and gin and tonic sundowners in the bush were a nice way to finish the day.
Jackal&Hide was a brilliant experience and highly recommended.

Camera tips

Our package included the use of Canon D80 digital cameras and 150-600 lenses.
If you’re taking your own gear (I did) and search the web for safari lens recommendations you’ll see lots of references to the 80-400 as being ideal for safaris. It may be in other parts of Africa, but my feeling is 400mm would have been a bit short in Khwai. I used my Nikon 200-500 at 500mm for most shots on a crop sensor D500 (equivalent field of view 750mm). A lot of sites also recommend a second camera body and lens (I used a full-frame Nikon D810 and Tamron 70-200G2) for closer work (eg: group shots of elephants or hippos) and that was useful. Khwai is very dusty so don’t change lenses if you’re on a game drive or you’ll end up with dirt on your camera sensor.