The Makgadikgadi Pans: the floor of a lake that dried out.
Salt flats so wide and level that the horizon goes missing. White and silent for half the year, then grass, water, flamingos and zebra when the rain arrives.
Ntwetwe, Sowa, and the lake that was here.
The pans are what remains of Lake Makgadikgadi, a superlake that once covered a large part of northern Botswana and dried out over many thousands of years. It left two great salt pans, Ntwetwe in the west and Sowa in the east, and a scatter of smaller ones. Together they cover roughly 16,000 square kilometres and are among the largest salt flats in the world.
In the dry months, from about April to November, the crust is hard and white and the emptiness is the attraction. You can ride quad bikes across it, sleep out on it under the stars, and spend a morning with habituated meerkat colonies on the grassland at its edge. On Sowa Pan, Kubu Island, a granite outcrop crowded with baobabs, is a national monument and a sacred site.
The rains change everything. Water lies on the pans, flamingos arrive to breed on Sowa in good years, and the grasslands west of Ntwetwe green up. Zebra and wildebeest that spent the dry season on the Boteti River in Makgadikgadi Pans National Park move east onto that grass, in one of Africa’s longest land-mammal migrations.
The Makgadikgadi Pans: the essentials.
- WhereNorth-eastern Botswana, between Maun and Nata
- SizeThe pans cover roughly 16,000 km²
- Best monthsApril to November for the salt pans; December to March for zebra and flamingos
- Getting thereAbout two hours by road from Maun to the western side, or by light aircraft
- How you see itGame drives, quad bikes on the dry pan, meerkat mornings, sleep-outs
- Who it suitsSecond visits, families with older children, and photographers
Things you can only do on the pans.
Habituated meerkats
Wild colonies used to people, who get on with their morning around you and will sometimes climb a seated guest to use as a lookout. Nobody feeds or handles them.
Quad bikes on the salt
In the dry season, a guided ride out across the crust to where there is nothing in any direction. Run only when the surface is firm.
A night on the pan
A bedroll on the salt, no tent and no light. The pan is so flat that the stars seem to come down to the ground. Dry months only.
The Boteti River
The western boundary of the national park. In the dry season, zebra and wildebeest crowd its banks to drink, often with lion waiting.
The zebra migration
From about December to March, zebra move east from the Boteti onto the greening grasslands, with foals and predators following.
Kubu Island
A granite island of baobabs rising out of Sowa Pan, sacred to the people who live around it and protected as a national monument.
What guests ask us about Makgadikgadi Pans.
How close do you get to the meerkats?
Often within a metre or two. The colonies have been habituated over years, so they ignore people sitting quietly near the burrows. Because they need height to watch for eagles, they sometimes climb a guest. It depends entirely on the meerkats, and nobody can promise what they will do.
Can you drive across the salt pans?
Only in the dry season and only with a guide who knows the surface. The crust can look firm and be soft beneath, and vehicles do break through. In the wet months the pans are off limits to vehicles altogether.
When is the zebra migration on the Makgadikgadi?
Usually from December to March, following the summer rains. In a late season the herds arrive late too, so we plan your dates around how the rains are shaping up. The Zebra Migration is built around it.
Can we really sleep out on the pans?
Yes, in the dry months when the crust is firm, roughly April to October. It is a single night on a bedroll with a guide nearby, and many guests rate it as the night of their trip. It is part of The Grand Botswana.
How to fit Makgadikgadi Pans into a journey.
It features in these three signature journeys, and we build it into tailor-made routes all the time.
Often combined with Makgadikgadi Pans.
Keep reading
- The Kalahari and the salt pans — how the pans fit with the Central Kalahari and Nxai Pan
- The Zebra Migration — six days following the herds across the pans
- Family safaris in Botswana — why the meerkats and quad bikes suit older children
Thinking about Makgadikgadi Pans?
Tell us when you can travel and what you most want to see, and we will tell you honestly how many nights it deserves and what to pair it with.