The Makgadikgadi Pans are salt pans in northeastern Botswana, left by an ancient lake. In the dry months they are a flat white expanse, and after the rains the grasslands fill with zebra and wildebeest.
They give a complete change from the Delta, with habituated meerkats, brown hyena and huge skies.
The largest pans are Sowa (Sua), Ntwetwe and Nxai. Two national parks protect part of the area: Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, about 3,900 km², and Nxai Pan National Park, about 2,578 km², which borders it to the north. Nxai Pan is home to Baines' Baobabs, a group of very old trees painted by the artist Thomas Baines in the 19th century. The Boteti River, fed by the Okavango, forms the western edge and is the area's only permanent water in the dry season.
The big event is the zebra migration. A population of around 25,000 zebra, along with wildebeest, spends the dry months near the Boteti River and moves out onto the grasslands and Nxai Pan when the rains come, a round trip of about 580 km for some animals. Lion, cheetah, and both brown and spotted hyena follow the herds.
Habituated meerkats are a favourite here, and they will sometimes use a person as a lookout post. In good rain years, the flooded pans draw large numbers of greater and lesser flamingos, and Sowa Pan holds one of only two breeding populations of greater flamingo in southern Africa. In the dry season you can walk on the salt flats, ride quad bikes across them and sleep out under the stars.
Go from about December to March for the zebra migration, green grass and flamingos after good rain. Go from April to October for the salt pans, quad biking and sleep-outs, when the flats are dry and walkable. Meerkats can be visited year-round. Our month-by-month safari guide covers how this fits with the Delta.
Most people reach the pans by light aircraft from Maun, or by road from Maun in a few hours. Two or three nights is a good stay, as a contrast to the water camps of the Okavango Delta.
Jack's Camp is Natural Selection's camp among fan palms on the edge of the pans, rebuilt and reopened in 2021 with nine large tents. Activities follow the season: quad bikes and sleep-outs on the salt flats in the dry months, zebra and flamingos after the rains, and meerkat visits and walks with Zu/'hoasi Bushman guides year-round.
Mammals
Birdlife
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