Makgadikadi Salt Pans of Botswana

 

 

Jeremy, James and Richard from Top Gear might have crossed the Makgadikadi Salt Pans from one side to the other, but for everyone else it is advisable to stick to the tracks that cross this area, travel by 4x4 and undertake the journey with a convoy of a minimum of two vehicles.

If you haven’t got the ability or the inclination to do so, it is possible to get a taster of Makgadikadi area and what it offers in Nata Sanctuary.

 

Four local communities – Nata, Maphosa, Sepako and Manxotae – have turned this 250 sq km area into a community based conservation project by voluntarily moving 3000 cattle out of the area and creating a sanctuary for local birds and wildlife.

Our guide from the nearby Nata Lodge gave us a three hour taster of Nata Sactuary.

For an hour or so, we drove through the surrounding grasslands and salt marshes. The sand here is bizarre, unlike any I have seen before. It’s grey and sticky, made up of lumps rather than the tiny sand grains I am used to seeing on beaches. The whole area is covered in this grey muck only interspersed by wades of grasses glowing orange in the setting sun. Every so often we see blue wildebeests, one of the few mammals who can survive in these salty marshes. Our guide tells us ‘Blue wildebeests are divided into two groups: a bachelor herd, made out of males, and a breeding herd, made out of females and one dominant male. There is always friction in the bachelor herd and they fight, the one who wins has an opportunity to challenge the dominant male in the breeding herd. If he wins, he can take over the breeding herd. The dominant male who lost will remain alone for the rest of his life and will become a meal for predators.’

 

Then he stops to show us the Kalahari Christmas tree, known commonly as sicklebush. It looks rather unremarkable at this time of year. It’s leaves are small, finely divided leaflets, giving them a fern-like appearance. ‘It is used as an anti- venom for scorpion bites and snake bites. You chew the leaves, cover the bite with them and you’ll be fine. Or go for the roots, mix them with water, boil, then drink the concoction.’

Another plant standing nearby is a cactus. ‘This is Hoodia Gordonii Cactus. Used by the local San people to suppress hunger during hunting trips. Now it is used in weight loss medicine.’

 

The name ‘Makgadikgadi’ means ‘vast open lifeless land’. This, however, is not entirely true, for when the clay crust of the Makgadikgadi fills up with rainwater, this area becomes a haven for birds. Rainy season starts in November and the torrents that come down, keep the pans filled up until April, May. However, for the past three years, the water hasn’t evaporated, and the pans have retained their water the whole year round.

 

 

Soon enough we arrived at the edge of Sua Pan. Along with the Nxai and Nwetwe, it is one of the largest of Makgadikgadi Salt pans. Here, the water stretched out as far as the eye could see. At this time of year, there shouldn’t have been any, it should have been just a dry stretch of grey sand. But due to the larger than usual downpours, there is water here even in the middle of the dry season. That is good news for hundreds of lesser flamingos and greater flamingos. As well as the white pelicans. Their cries lift up to the skies in a noisy symphony.

 

 

It’s a perfect way to end the day – watching the sun set over the vast Sua Pan painting the sky in the most magnificent bright tones of red and orange, hearing the cries of hundreds of birds and watching them seamlessly lift up in the sky, fly around and land back down in a beautifully choreographed dance as I cuddled my husband and daughter closer and waited for the sun to slip down beyond the horizon.