Africa

MAKGADIKGADI PANS GAME RESERVE

It is said that both “kalahari” and “makgadikgadi” stem from the same ancient San word for thirst-land. Both share waterless flat rolling grasslands and scrub, but the Makgadikgadi, which ironically has more water in the wet season, has a particularly desert-like ambience.

The area referred to as the Makgadikgadi Pans is composed of two huge salt pans, Ntwetwe and Sowa, and their associated grasslands. Only a tiny section of this vast area – said to be the biggest salt pans in the world – is actually designated National Park. You probably wouldn’t even know when you’re in the National Park and when not, since the area is not fenced. The actual surface of the pans is a flat layer of bleached sterile silt that develops a glue-like texture when water is added.

So why on earth should anyone want to visit the area? Well, generally they don’t. This is not a prime tourist destination as the Okavango, or Chobe or the Linyanti are. Makgadikgadi is regarded as an interesting addition to a tour, a nice contrast to other more lush wilderness areas. Very few tourist actually make the Pans their principal destination. And those tourists who do are usually specialists: birders, four-wheel drive enthusiasts or wilderness devotees.

However, there is a growing trend towards wilderness experiences, and more and more people are being drawn to the sometimes deeply spiritual feeling that deserts invoke. There is a special fascination in deserts. It’s got something to do with a sense of space and self. It has to do with vast horizons, the huge inverted bowl of the sky, the uninterrupted sweep of simple landscape beneath it – as featureless as a saucer. With you at the centre. It is both humbling and centring. You realise how puny you are, and at the same time that you are all there is. As American poet E.E. Cummings says ” – when skies are hanged and oceans drowned,/the single secret will still be man”.

Man has been around these pans from time immemorial. There are bushman hunting shelters probably built and used in the 20th century, made of calcrete boulders that contain fossilised antelope bones and embedded stone age tools. The shorelines of Makgadikgadi, for it was more than once a vast inland sea, are littered with the archaeological relics of continuous but scattered human presence. Even when the waters finally receded and left these shallow depressions of saline clay and silt to catch the sparse summer rain, the rich herds of wildlife – zebra, wildebeest, eland, gemsbok, springbok, hartebeest – would ebb and flow across the plains in their ceaseless pursuit of water and grazing, drawing their inevitable following of carnivores – lion, cheetah, leopard, wild dog, hyena – and of course the early hunters.

During the dry season today’s diminished herds of game tend to concentrate in the west, in the vicinity of the Boteti River. With the onset of the rains they usually disperse to the east and the north, to Nxai Pan and beyond. It is not an uncommon sight to see game, far out on the pans eating the mineral-rich silt, as if up to their knees in water as the heat shimmers a mirage across the surface of the pans.

The birdlife is a specialist’s dream – whitebacked and lappetfaced vultures, bateleur, ostrich, kori bustard, black korhaan and bronze winged courser, four species of sandgrouse and a startling variety of larks. In the wet season flamingos, pelicans, avocet and a huge range of ducks move into the area. Sowa Pan near the town of Nata, is a birdwatcher’s paradise when in water.

Although there are many “islands” in Makgadikgadi, very few of them are rocky. Most of these occur in Sowa Pan and all have unique qualities that make them places of special interest. The most magical and best known is Kubu (or Khubung) Island which is located in the south-west corner of Sowa Pan.
To the south of Kubu on the southern shore of Sowa Pan is a low escarpment some 50m in height. Perched on the very edge of this and commanding a magnificent view across the pan is one of the most spectacular archaeological sites in Botswana.

There is very little game to be seen around Sowa Pan, however the birdlife is considerable, and the Nata Sanctuary at Sowa Pan is a particularly important birding spot. It offers an unusual mix of species invariably augmented by passing migrants, which add a special interest. Close by is the Nata Lodge, which is a busy, well-run and convenient stopover point en-route to northern Botswana. Situated at the junction of the road to Maun and the road to Kasane, it has a nicely appointed camping ground, some A-frame chalets, a swimming pool and a restaurant. They will organise 4×4 safaris to anywhere in the Makgadikgadi.

The unfenced National Park includes only a small section of the north-western part of Ntwetwe, but there are numerous small pans scattered through the park. On the western side of the Ntwetwe Pan itself, hundreds of small islands seem to thicken until they form the erratic edge of the pan. Each of these is a stabilised sand dune, clear evidence of climate change in relatively recent times, showing that desert conditions returned allowing sand dunes to be formed on the surface of the pan. Rain may have stabilised them, and given grass a toe-hold, helping to anchor the dune in place. With greater flows in the Boteti River and perhaps higher rainfall, the pan filled once more. The dunes became small islands, their sloping sides clearly showing fluctuations in lake levels in the form of wave-cut platforms with a distinctive flat surface of spiky salt-tolerant grasses. As distance from the pan increases, more grasses appear. In some areas, usually gentle hollows in the old lake bed, nutrients concentrate and isolated patches of acacia and other trees grow. Salt-tolerant palms tower above the landscape like a string of party balloons, demarcating more changes in soil chemistry. The now consolidated National Park, comprised of the old Makgadikgadi Game Reserve and the now extended Nxai Pan National Park, is located centrally in northern Botswana about 150 kilometres east of Maun, and accessed by the tarred road between Maun and Nata. This slices the park in two, but since it is not fenced does not represent a barrier in any way. The park is strategically located between four other protected areas to allow the free movement of wildlife, though much of this important survival mechanism is counteracted by the extensive network of veterinary cordon fences. Free movement does still happen in the north of Nxai Pan through a substantial gap, some kilometres wide, in the east-west cordon fence. Since the main economic activity around the Pans is cattle production, the cordon fences separate the so-called disease-free central and southern regions from the northern regions, which are known to have foot-and-mouth disease. The park is under-used, due to a lack of facilities. Visitors must be entirely self-sufficient. There are two small public camping sites at Nxai Pan which have basic ablution facilities and water. Although walking is permitted, care must be exercised due to the presence of large predators and the fact that it is very easy to become lost in such a featureless landscape. The areas of vast open grassland are one of the main attractions to the Pans National Park, but to the north vegetable-ivory palms (Hyphenae pietersiana) dominate the scene. To the west are occasional acacia woodlands, especially towards the Boteti River – once a strongly flowing perennial river, now diminished to an irregular string of pools in the dry months.

The Nxai Pan section of the park is on the northern side of the Maun-Nata road and the old cattle route to Pandamatenga on the border with Zimbabwe used to pass right through this area – parts of the old rough track can still be seen. The vegetation is mostly open savannah woodland, acacia tickets and mopane woodland, with large sweeps of open grassland. Scattered stands of acacia on the pan provides browse for giraffe. Fluctuating populations of red hartebeest, blue wildebeest, Burchell’s zebra, eland and springbok may be seen. Impala are sometimes seen, and very occasionally buffalo and elephant. Keep an eye out for the delightful insectivorous little bat-eared fox, a common but shy resident. The big predators will follow in the wake of the herds, lion, leopard, cheetah, both spotted and brown hyaena and the endangered wild dog. The melancholic cry of the jackal is often heard at night. Approximately 250 species of bird are present, including a variety of birds of prey. Ostriches are common. Usually the best chance of seeing large herds of game is during the summer at the outset of the rains, roughly in December through to March. Near Nxai Pan and overlooking Kudiakam Pan is the well-known, much photographed clump of trees called Bains’ Baobabs. These elephants of the plant kingdom, which contribute so much to the surrealistic feel of the area, were first recorded in a painting by the Explorer / naturalist / artist / engineer Thomas Bains in May 1862. A photograph taken about a century later shown no discernible change in the trees.

An exhilarating way to experience the pans is by chugging around on a four-wheeled motorbike. These are always guided safaris and may be organised to go anywhere, but a favourite is to travel to Kubu Island from the Northern Shore of Sowa Pan. The lightness of these vehicles allows you to venture far into the middle of the Pans, in itself an almost surreal experience, and you will be able to explore remote archaeological sites and perhaps discover new ones. Kubu itself, a rocky granite island studded with baobabs, is one of the most beautiful spots in Makgadikgadi. It is also close to what is probably the biggest flamingo breeding site in Southern Africa.

This trip will give you a chance to truly understand the Pans, their ecology, formation and history. Your experience will be one of real adventure and active involvement as well as the sense of vast almost incomprehensible space as you drive across seemingly endless white pans. Jack’s Camp, named for one of the almost legendary pioneers in tourism to this area, offers an intriguing balance between stark wilderness and bedrolls under the stars, and the luxury of hot showers and superb meals on damask cloths set with bone-handled silver.