The remnants of an ancient lake, the Makgadikgadi Pans are considered the largest collection of salt flats on the globe. They spend a majority of the year dry or covered in a film of algae while the unpredictable rains of the wet season turn the flats into an oasis offering a welcome respite for migrating animals from the surrounding The Kalahari Desert.
Visitors will find themselves spellbound by the dry season’s barren glaring white flats, the odd movement only being on account of small reptiles, ostriches, and plovers. The rainy season descends and water fills the pans, turning the marshy outer edges and surrounding shrubland into a feast for zebras and wildebeest passing through. The seemingly bloated baobab trunks and their halo of spindly tendrils mark the landscape while the arcane rocky outcrops of Kubu Island provide the only elevation.
Visitors can stay on the fringes of the pan or in the Makgadikgadi itself in permanent camps or on Kubu Island. The area can be explored on a 4-wheeler while searching for old fossil remains, game-watching, visiting flamingo nesting grounds, or getting better acquainted with the local meerkat population. Nothing is quite comparable to roaming across the desolate haunting beauty of this unique landscape by day or observing the mesmerising night sky lit up in all its splendour after dusk.
Highlights
- Known for being the largest collection of salt flats in the world
- Enclosed by the Kalahari Desert, the Makgadikgadi Pans offer excellent game-viewing in the wet season
- The expansive wasteland best explored by 4-wheelers in the dry season
- The pans are the remains of the ancient Lake Makgadikgadi, home to prehistoric man
- The mysterious Kubu Island is a rocky island in the pans which has been declared a national monument and is sacred according to the indigenous tribes in the area
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