The Botswana Salt Pans - 4 days - Mid Range

The Salt Pans of Botswana offer a larger array of activities than most lodges, and this wonderful safari experience is especially good for families and for those seeking a ‘beyond the Big 5’ safari – including the 2nd-largest zebra migration in the world.

On the eastern fringes of the Kalahari lies a collection of huge fossilised salt pans – desolate flat landscapes that stretch as far as the eye can see. Surrounding the pans are expanses of grass and thorn trees, with the odd island of palm trees. It’s a picturesque landscape, very photogenic and seductive.

The most popular salt pans are the Makgadikgadi Pans (including Sua Pan – and its rocky Kubu Island, bedecked in massive baobab trees) and Nxai Pan (where you will find the famous and starkly stunning Baines’ Baobabs).

Wildlife viewing is seasonal and dependent on water – with some of the pans being flooded after early summer rains, with peak water in January to March each year (rain-dependent), resulting in a flush of grass, flowers and flocks of greater flamingos arriving to breed. This is also when the unpredictable wildebeest and zebra migration arrives to take advantage of the food and water. During dry times the wildlife that moves around the area in search of sustenance includes lion, cheetah, brown and spotted hyenas, springbok, hartebeest, ostrich, elephant and smaller species like the black-backed jackal, African wildcat and bat-eared fox.

You could spend your time on the Pans enjoying a number of activities, including morning and evening game drives, visits to cultural sites, horseback riding, quad biking, bird-watching and spending time with traditional bushman learning their culture and ways. And then, of course, arguably the most popular activity is interacting with mobs of habituated (but totally wild) meerkats – which emerge from their burrows with the sun to sunbathe, forage for insects and generally carry on with daily life – with you in tow (discreetly) and your guide providing a running commentary on meerkat social habits and survival strategies.