Highlights of the Makgadikgadi, Botswana

By Roxanne Reid
The white Makgadikgadi salt pans cover a vast Switzerland-sized patch of Botswana. This was Africa’s largest inland sea a million years ago, before tectonic movement to the west transformed everything. Rivers changed course and water evaporated from the lakes, leaving condensed minerals and salt behind. Today the pans fill only with rain water then dry again to a salty crust.

I first visited Nata Lodge in 2005 after camping rough in the Moremi Game Reserve. I remember it as a welcome oasis of cool and calm. In 2008 there was a devastating fire but the lodge rose again from the ashes in 2010, its wooden cabins as lovely as ever with their freestanding indoor baths and outdoor showers. The lodge is a good place to stop over on your way to Chobe National Park, either in a chalet or at the campsite, and a kick-off point to the community-based Nata Sanctuary. The lodge’s guides take tours to Makgadikgadi pans and the local village of Nata.

Nata Sanctuary

It’s an easy drive (less than 10km) from Under One Botswana Sky’s Nata Lodge to the Nata Sanctuary, which is managed by a trust for the benefit of the local communities of Nata, Manxotae, Sepako and Maposa. We saw a few swirling dust devils in the distance, wildebeest, jackals and a number of bird species but there were no flamingo, the water in the main pan still too deep for them to feed when we were there in May. We did see great white pelicans on a far shoreline and flying overhead. We loved the quiet solitude and the flat, open space where it felt like we could see forever. There’s a small campsite near the entrance gate and a viewing platform about 7km away on the edge of the pan.

A giant aardvark 

This giant aardvark on the road between Nata and Gweta in the Makgadikgadi marks the entrance to Uncharted Africa Safari co.’s unusual Planet Baobab camp, with its traditional Kalanga-style huts, its baobabs and its funky bar – think chandeliers made of beer bottles and bar stools that look like African drums. I’m told that the little town of Gweta nearby was used as the location for filming the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency TV series.

Kalanga huts

These huts at Planet Baobab are delightful, built in the style of the Kalanga people. Each has a different painted design on the outside, a built-in cement-framed bed and a small walled yard surrounded by baobab trees. Activities you can do from the camp include game drives to Nxai Pan or Makgadikgadi national parks, a visit to habituated meerkats, and a spectacular sleep-out under the stars on the vast Ntwetwe salt pan.

Baobabs

Naturally, the baobabs were a highlight at Planet Baobab. Thousands of years old, 15 or 20 of them are dotted around the property, among the Kalanga-style huts and in the campsite. Some are lit up at night so you can walk along the winding paths from your hut or campsite to the pub or dining area and still enjoy their presence.

Cement chairs

You may wonder what was special about this sitting area at Planet Baobab. Well, the chairs and tables were all made of cement, then painted with the blue and brown patterns. With a cushion under your butt and just cement at your back, the chairs were surprisingly comfy. The ‘carpet’ was a cement floor with painted patterns, making it one of the most unusual and quirky sitting rooms I’ve ever been in.

Safari camp

Camp Kalahari is one of a quartet of Uncharted Africa Safari co. camps in the Makgadikgadi. It had a traditional safari atmosphere with ticking bedspreads, kelims and big wooden chests in the tents, and lots of wood, colourful sofas and camp chairs around the fire in the common area. In a jam-packed two days we ate well, went quad biking on a flat and featureless salt pan, walked with meerkats and learned some of the ways of the Zu/’hoansi Bushmen.

Zebras on the salt pans

According to Camp Kalahari guide Fanuel Shava more than 20 000 zebras migrate here in search of good grazing after the first summer rains, but I’ve seen figures that are even higher. The zebras particularly enjoy the Kalahari spike grass with its visible salt crystals. When we visited in May the pans were drying out and most of the zebras had already left but lots were still preparing to leave for their trek north again.

Quad biking

When you drive out on to the Ntwetwe salt pan on a quad bike with Camp Kalahari guides, it’s better than any quad biking you may have done before – nothing around you for miles and miles, just salt-encrusted dry earth, dust and a lunar landscape. Listen to the lesson in tying a kikoi Lawrence-of-Arabia-style and your hair and face won’t get too dusty. Guide Bart told us to walk out some 100m in different directions to experience the sunset in eerie silence, not even the chirp of a bird or insect. Soulful. When it grew dark, we revelled in the entire southern hemisphere’s stars and planets from horizon to horizon, without interruption.

Walk with meerkat

During our visit to Camp Kalahari we got the chance to follow a habituated clan of eight meerkat on their daily activities. They were wild but habituated enough to ignore us, knowing we were no threat. Two-month-old little ones kept up a constant chittering, begging for food from the adults while digging aimlessly, just for practice. The sentries were happy to use humans as termite mounds, giving them a better view of the surroundings.

Learn from Bushmen

Visit Camp Kalahari (or Uncharted Africa Safari co.’s San Camp or Jack’s Camp) and you’ll get the chance to learn from the Zu/’hoansi. We’ve been tracking wildlife across the Kalahari with the Khomani San so for us this experience felt less authentic, but people who hadn’t interacted with Bushmen before enjoyed it. The Zu/’hoansi showed us how they trap birds, make fire and even tame scorpions (this man is ‘cleaning the scorpion’s eight eyes’!). We watched singing and dancing games, tasted tree gum and berries, and discovered just how important and versatile a digging stick can be.

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