Makgadikgadi Pans & Kalahari Desert, Botswana

Sunset drinks at Jack's Camp, Makgadikgadi

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The Kalahari Desert, which covers 80% of Botswana, is somewhat overlooked by many visitors, who head straight to the Okavango and Chobe. Yet it has its own breath-taking beauty, seemingly untouched by the modern world. Though at certain times, game-viewing can be amazing, it is unpredictable depending on the rains and migration patterns. The main reason to come is to experience a wilderness like no other, a place where you can see the curvature of the earth and listen to the still small voice inside you. Thus you can say that no visit to Botswana can be said to be truly complete without experiencing this 'desert' as well as the delta.

(In fact, the Kalahari is not a true desert, but rather an arid savanna wilderness, which, despite its poor sandy soils, manages to sustain a rich diversity of wildlife that has adapted to the bone-dry conditions.) A popular time to visit is during the rainy season when the wildlife concentrations increase. In the dry season, you’ll enjoy the wide open spaces and the chance to interact with Bushmen people on tracking expeditions.

Our guests tend to visit two distinct and contrasting areas in the Kalahari desert – the Makgadikgadi or Nxai salt pans to the south-west of the Okavango Delta or the Central Kalahari Game Reserve itself. Click here for more on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve...

The Makgadikgadi Pans

The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans (part of the Makgadikgadi National Park) are the legacy of a great lake, larger than Lake Victoria, which once covered most of Southern Botswana about two million years ago. Vast shallow white pans make up an extraordinary landscape - deceptively animated by mirages that shimmer and dance in the heat-blasted air. However when the summer rains come in summer the pans are transformed into shallow lakes and attract spectacular bird life including thousands of flamingos, pelicans and cranes - a majestic spectacle.

With the summer rains (December to April), the pans are transformed into shallow lakes and these rains attract the last surviving migration of wildebeest and zebra in Southern Africa to the surrounding sweet summer grasses. During this time, the lodges offer game drives in 4x4 vehicles, custom designed to suit this terrain. In the dry winter months you may be able to explore the pan by quad bike (if staying at Jack’s Camp or San Camp) and perhaps observe the desert-adapted wildlife of gemsbok, suricate and rare brown hyena. Mornings spent with meerkats, visits to majestic baobab trees used as camp sites by Livingstone, and walks with the Bushmen are all on offer. We recommend a stay of at least three nights.

Boteti River
This game-rich area likes on the western boundary of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park and lies directly in the migration path of the thousands of wildebeest and zebra travelling in vast numbers between the Makgadikgadi salt pans to the east and the Okavango Delta and Savute plains to the north-west. The Boteti river is usually dry (though it started running in 2009 for the first time in twenty years) but has underground water which offers the only water source for the thirsty animals on their migration. From here you can enjoy a day excursion into Nxai pan if you are staying three or more nights. Leroo Le Tau Lodge and Meno a Kwena are two lodges in this area.

Nxai Pan National Park
Nxai Pan is usually covered in short grasses which makes spotting game easy. The best time to visit is in the rainy season between December and April when the zebras and wildebeest feast. From here you can also visit the famous Baines Baobabs seven huge trees eerily gazing over the surrounding salt pans – magnificent for photography. You can stay at Nxai Pan Camp.