Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

We were here in January, which is their peak season as the rains bring wildlife. The rains were late this year, so we did not get to see as much wildlife as I would have liked. The bat-eared foxes are my favorite, but it's hard to get them as you have to stay on the roads and they are shy when they hear a vehicle approaching. The zebra and wildebeest were starting to come out in droves, and they did attract some lions. Compared to other parks I visited in Botswana, this was lacking in wildlife. But, its size and limited lodging options make it a great choice if you're looking for that remote, bush vibe.

The Makgadikgadi Pans are an outstanding safari destination. I like this region because it remains largely untouched and provides intrepid visitors with adventure, unique wildlife sightings and even more unique landscapes. Indeed, it is one of those places where you can camp and not see another visitor for several days! The highlight is to witness the two different ecological zones - The Boteti River is the dry season range for thousands of zebra and the "Greater Salt-Pan" region (and its grasslands) are the wet season range for these large herds. The best way to experience the park and to understand the animal movements (indeed to WITNESS these movements) is to "mobile camp" in both seasonal ranges - the idea being to be "mobile" in order to find the concentrations of animals. One of the best experiences I have ever had in the park: After looking for the "zebra migration" for several days, we were woken at night by the constant calls of zebra all around us....at sunrise we woke to find our campsite completely surrounded by uncountable numbers of zebras! Sometimes, we find all sorts of surprises out in the pans: large gatherings of flamingos and water birds, eruptions of thousand of bullfrogs or lines of zebra and wildebeest kilometers long moving between water points and grazing.

I love spending a night out on the salt pans of Botswana, it's an out of this world experience. Nothing really seems real. Imagine spinning around and around and around and the view simply not changing at all, just a white expanse of nothingness. This is what it is like out on Makgadikgadi Pan. There are a few places in the world where you could describe the view as 'nothing', and the salt pans of Botswana are one of them. There are a number of places to go and stay, wonderful lodges in the middle of nowhere with a vast expanse of nothingness surrounding them, quite inspiring really. Makgadikgadi is an area the size of Portugal and largely uninhabited by humans. It's stark, flat, featureless terrain stretches to eternity, meeting and fusing with a milky-blue horizon. A vast sea of white - flat as a pancake and exceptionally difficult to ascertain how far you were looking, maybe it was 400 m maybe it was 4 km, I couldn't really tell. There was nothing to gauge distance. Makgadikgadi is an out of this world experience in a vast sea of white. Memorable.

We chose to drive out around 100 miles to a place called Kubu Island. The high grasses on the bottom of the hot car made me a bit nervous - you'll drive through a lot of it to get there, and stopping can be a bad idea if you don't find a bare space. Mud and dodgy signing didn't stop us. GPS is, of course, a good idea. I'm still a map and compass guy, to the annoyance of an older British gentleman we ran into. We saw no other vehicles in this immense grassland. The drive to Kubu Island is beautiful, and the place itself is a great place to camp. On the edge of a massive salt sea (drive on this at your own risk...it gets sketchy fast, and I believe it isn't allowed), Kubu is made of very interesting rock forms. You can't see the edge of the see, and watching the sun fade from beneath the gnarled old trees here feels like you're exploring some new planet. There's the frame of an old sail-car there for using on the sea, if you want to bring a sail and some patience. The wildlife is a bit sparse, but the draw here is being off the map in the heart of Africa. You'll emerge with a different idea of space.

The Makgadikgadi is to Africa what Salar Uyuni is to South America, an amazingly vast stretch of salt flats. One of only three major salt flats in the world (the third is in Utah) the pans are a truly remarkable sight and an unmissable attraction when travelling to Botswana. I’ll start by saying that we were there at totally the wrong time, although I admit we’d actually planned it that way. The rains had started early in November and whilst we knew that too much water would make them impossible to cross with our Landy, just a little water would be fine AND would mean a greater chance of spotting wildlife. In short, it worked...but only just! We got stuck plenty; the tracks were pure sludge, but our Land Rover managed most of them with a little sweet persuasion. YES we did spot plenty of furry and feathery ones, lots of zebras, wildebeest and an endless ocean of flamingos, which was just astonishing. But, to be honest, what really WOWed us was the scenery of the pans covered in water. We ended up seeing plenty of other wildlife in South Africa but THIS spectacle could not be repeated anywhere else in the world. Driving on the pans (and their outskirts) on a gorgeous sunny day after heavy rains makes it seem as if you’re gliding on a sparkling mirror. The sky, clouds and birds are reflected in such a splendid way it makes the whole place utterly surreal. The Makgadikgadi Pans is also supposed to be a bird lover’s paradise, so if you are that way inclined then you’ll have that to look forward to as well. We are, unfortunately, utterly ignorant when it comes to birds and can barely tell the difference between geese and ducks, so there was no hope for us! Never mind... We stayed at Planet Baobab Camp for two nights on our way out and really digged this place, even with its dodgy showers; the pool was just an absolute dream. Whether visiting during dry season to enjoy the splendour of the salt flats or flying over them during wet season to take in the wildlife and the astounding scenery, do make sure you add this park to your safari list, you won’t regret it.