Makgadikgadi Pans, Botswana

No landscape on earth is like this. Once an enormous lake, the Makgadikgadi Pans are now three immense salt pans (the largest on earth). During the sizzling heat of late winter days, these stark pans take on a disorienting and ethereal austerity. All sense of space and direction is completely destroyed by heat mirages as imaginary lakes shimmer and then disappear, and ostriches take flight, while stones seem to turn into mountains floating in mid-air.

During annual rains, the hollows in the pans form temporary lakes. The water turns fringing grasses green, and animals and birdsarrive in huge numbers for the party, giving you plenty to see on your africa budget safari.

Activities:

The world’s largest salt pans

Game drives

Night drives

Nature walks

Walks with bushmen (San people)

Flamingos

Meerkats, brown hyena and gemsbok

Quadbiking

Sitting in the peaceful silence of nature

Baines Baobabs

Star-gazing

Related Articles:

The San Bushmen