Makgadikgadi National Park

Makgadikgadi National Park offers endless vistas of rolling golden grasslands and its huge saltpans … with desert palms lining the horizon. This 4500 square mile park is directly south of Chobe National Park. It consists mainly of fossil pans and the famous Baines baobabs. The floor of some of the pans is vegetated with palatable grass species – an important source of grazing to animals such as zebra, springbok and impala. The southern section of the park consists of saltpans and grass plains (which are) believed to be the remains of an ancient lake. The pans, situated in half the south, east and northeastern areas of the park, fill with water during the rains from mid-November and mostly retain their water into April or May.

During the rainy season these “thirstlands” are transformed into great sheets of water that attract a spectacular array of waterbirds and trigger dramatic migrations of wildebeest and zebra. The Makgadikgadi remains a spectacle to visitors both when dry and wet. For a truly unique safari adventure during the dry season, (four-wheel drive) quad bikes are used to venture far into the middle of the Pans to explore remote archaeological sites. In the wet season, the water attracts flamingos, pelicans, ducks, geese and many other migratory water birds in their thousands. Herds of wildebeest and zebra are common during the wet season, but spread out in the grasslands of the Makgadikgadi and move to the Boteti River for water during the dry months.

Climate

Makgadikgadi Pans has a desert climate with two distinct seasons. The Wet season (November to March) is consistently warm, with the average daytime temperature hovering around 32°C/90°F. Temperatures in the Dry season (April to October) are anything but consistent. They start off warm, drop to cool in the middle of the year, then crank up to very hot in October.