Including Kubu Island and Boteti River
The Makgadikgadi Pans are located in Central Botswana and are a series of pans covering an area of 12,000 sq. kms, the two largest pans being Sowa Pan in the east and Ntwetwe Pan in the west. The Makgadikgadi Pans lie within the Kalahari Basin and represent one of the largest group of salt pans in the world.
For most of the year the pans are dry with no vegetation growing on them. The fringes are covered in grassland with palm trees and massive baobabs in some places. During and after good rains the pans fill up and attract a lot of game, especially huge herds of migratory zebra and wildebeest. Sowa Pan and Nata Sanctuary are famous for their huge flocks of flamingos during the rainy season.
The hugely popular Kubu Island is a rocky outcrop, a kilometre in length, near the southwestern edge of Sowa Pan. There is evidence of previous Stone Age and Iron Age civilisations on Kubu Island. Most of the roads crossing the pans are not negotiable during the rainy season.
The Makgadikgadi Pans National Park is located in the northwestern part of the Makgadikgadi Pans region and is 3,900 sq. kms in area, consisting of the western part of Ntwetwe Pan and the surrounding grasslands and acacia woodlands.
The Boteti River flows out of the Okavango Delta and forms the western border of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. Until recently this river hardly flowed and was merely a collection of sulphur pools in the Park but is now flowing well and has changed the dynamics of gameviewing here.
Accommodation in this area consists of several luxury camps on the western side, lodges on the Boteti River, a lodge and a hotel near Gweta on the northern edge of the pans, and several private campsites for Mobile Tented Safaris.
The Makgadikgadi Pans fascinates all who visit, the shimmering landscapes evoking a sense of dreamy reality.