A tour of Makgadikgadi pans in north eastern Botswana describing the flat surreal terrain, zebra migrations to Ntwetwe pan, flamingos on Sua pan and the boababs particularly on Kubu island.

Most travellers speed past the wedge of Botswana bounded between Orapa, Francistown and Maun roads. Most are on their way up to the Okavango Delta or north up to Chobe. A pity as this area known as the Makgadikgadi Pans is worthy of a stopover or visit for its own sake. These salt pans are remnants of an ancient superlake and are formed of vast shallow depressions with layers of salt deposits and soft clay. Solitude and wide open spaces with mirages and disappearing horizons to be explored by 4x4 or quad bike and nights to be spent under a heavy bank of stars.

We forded the Limpopo at the Zanzibar border crossing into Botswana. The water level was quite high after the recent rains but we followed the line of the concrete strip across the riverbed which could just be made out through the flow of water. We had a stopover in Francistown and after spending what seemed like an entire morning at the Francistown Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) office we got our booking into a campsite in the Makgadikgadi National Park. (Park bookings should be done at the Maun and Gaborone DWNP offices but neither town was on our route). We then raced along the Maun road expecting to reach the Khumaga campsite via the Khumaga gate on the western perimeter of the park. With minutes to spare before the gate closed at 7pm we turned onto the track to the Khumaga gate and were pulled up short by the high water level in the Boteti River. There is no bridge. For a desperate moment we considered trying to ford the river in our old Discovery but soon realised it was a no-go and that we would have to turn back. The options were to press onto Maun or back on the Francistown road to Gweta. We took the latter option; praying that there would be diesel in the Gweta fuel station the next morning.

The absence of game fences means that migration is possible between the Makgadikgadi National Park and the smaller Nxai Pan National Park on the north side of the Francistown to Maun Road. This movement of animals can be a bit alarming for motorists especially at night as the elephants loom up as large ghostly grey shapes in the headlights and decide to plod across the highway... in their own sweet time...We drove slowly past and sometimes between the elephants and reached Gweta at a late hour. We turned into the village following various conflicting signs for Gweta Lodge. We found it to be closed for a family gathering over the Christmas week however we were welcomed in and given a bed for the night. Over drinks in the bar we were regaled with tales of vehicles sinking through the fragile crust into the soft mud of the pans and drivers spending days digging themselves out; we also heard more about the zebra migration that takes place into the pans at this time of year; “the largest zebra migration outside the ‘Mara” was how it was described. Clearly a sight we must see.

The next morning we set off for the main gate to the park and once inside we headed west for the Boteti river bank and the Khumaga campsite. Although tatty the campsite is a good base from which to explore the area. (Be careful of the monkeys at the campsite as they can open zipped up tents and are quite aggressive when chased). We spent a pleasant day exploring the Boteti River valley with its cliffs and pools that are home to numerous birds and hippos as well as a sizeable elephant population.

To the southeast of the Makgadikgadi National Park is the large Ntwetwe pan, the destination for the annual migration of zebra and wildebeest herds. The zebra herds consist of female headed family groups and can be seen filing along the tracks to the depressions in the salt pans that in the wet season have filled with water to form temporary watering holes. We set up camp at Planet Boabab and then drove down to the pan to search for the zebra. No sign of them so we drove onto the pan surface and skirted the edge studying our tracks in the rear view mirror. Being the wet season the crust on the pan can be a bit too soft to support a vehicle. Looking at our deep tyre tracks we reluctantly decided that spending Christmas day digging our vehicle out of the soft mud would not be fun especially once our supply of water had run out. However a fortuitous invitation over Christmas drinks resulted in a Boxing Day flight over Ntwetwe Pan and a bird’s eye view of the lines of zebra trekking the braided pathways across the pans to the various watering holes (Thanks Prospero !).

To the east of Ntwetwe Pan is the smaller Sua Pan which can be reached from the north through the town of Nata. The Nata Bird Sanctuary takes in an area of the northern part of Sua Pan and as you approach what initially appears as a pink horizon turns out to be a seemingly endless flock of flamingos. Get closer and the sweet sickly smell and racket of thousands of croaking flamingos fills the air. A small neighbouring pan is a temporary home to a few ducks and a large flock of pure white spoonbills. A birders paradise.

The edges of the Makgadikgadi pans are surrounded by Mopane forest and the occasional solitary or cluster of Boabab trees. These fantastical and some might say grotesque trees have captured the imagination of artists and adventurers over the centuries as they passed through on their expeditions into the continent’s ‘interior’. Baines Boababs, a cluster of some seven boababs on the edge of Kudiakan pan in Nxai Game Reserve was painted by Thomas Baines who accompanied David Livingstone’s expedition around 1860. Another explorer on this expedition; James Chapman gave his name to a particularly old Boabab on the northern edge of Ntwetwe Pan. Chapman’s baobab has a trunk with a circumference of 25m and is thought to be around 3000 years old. Green’s Boabab is named after Joseph Green who accompanied on an expedition by the famous hunter Hendrik Matthys van Zyl ‘discovered’ this baobab tree in 1858 on the road that leads south from the town of Gweta towards Ntwetwe Pan.

Kubu Island in the south western part of Sua Pan has a group of majestic and ancient boababs rooted into the granite bedrock. This granite intrusion into the evaporite deposits of the salt pan is a phenomenon in itself. It forms an island or a rise about 1km long and 10m high above the flat white surrounding salt pan; quite a surreal sight. Kubu means Hippopotamus in Setswana and from a distance it can look like the top half of a submerged hippo. The island is considered sacred by some and is also thought to have been a southern outpost of the Great Zimbabwe civilisation, possibly used for circumcision rites. The island is classified as a National Monument and the camping is now controlled with the proceeds going to the local community; each pitch beautifully positioned close to one of the amazing baobab trees.

Another place to gaze at boababs and also to base a stay in the Makgadikgadi pans is at the uber-cool Planet Boabab; a beautifully designed collection of stylish Bakalanga huts, decorated inside with bantu-chic and scattered amongst a grove of baobab trees to the east of the town of Gweta. The paths between the tall boababs are cut through the long grass and lit by endless lines of paraffin lamps. Quite an ethereal sight with the ungainly boababs behind silhouetted against the night sky.