Makgadikgadi is part of the Kalahari basin and has some of the largest saltpans in the world. The shimmering, cracked crust doesn’t look as if it could support any form of life. After good rains, however, this desolate landscape transforms when new grass attracts thousands of animals. As the pans fill up, flocks of pelican and flamingo settle in as well.
The Makgadikgadi (meaning “vast, lifeless land”) Pans are some of the largest salt pans in the world, spanning 16,000 sq kilometres. Lying south-west of the Okavango Delta , surrounded by the Kalahari Desert, it forms a unity with the Nxai Pan National Park to the north.
Nutritious grasslands attract the largest zebra migration after Tanzania, however, it is an area of low rainfall and the Boteti River, which forms the border to the west, rarely flows to capacity. Everlasting pools however attract waterbuck, bushbuck and hippos. There is also a very special, habituated clan of meerkats, which have been studied by scientists for years and who featured in the TV series Meerkat Manor.
Kubu Island, an igneous rock island at the edge of the Sua Pan, contains a number of incredibly photogenic baobab trees, and is protected as a national monument.
June to DecemberBest for viewing at the river
July to OctoberThe park never gets crowded
Good concentrations of animals at the Boteti river
Huge flocks of pelican and flamingo in the wet summer months
The Makgadikgadi Pans can be visited throughout the year.
It’s a seasonal park and wildlife migrates through it. The actual pans attract wildlife in the wet summer months, from December to May. However, most of the park facilities and lodges are concentrated around the Boteti river area, which is best visited for wildlife viewing in the Dry season from June to December.
Birding is phenomenal in the wet summer months, especially if the pans fill up and flocks of lesser and greater flamingo, accompanied by pelican, come feeding in the shallows. The flamingo breed on the pans when the water is high enough to protect their nests from predators.
