August 8th, 2016

Day 130: Makgadikgadi Salt Pans

According to our itinerary, we had 450KM drive ahead of us, which was supposed to take us 5-6hrs, so we left Chobe right after breakfast, and drove as quickly as possible in order to reach Planet Baobab by the 2PM deadline. It was easy going, as it was a tarred road in good condition, so we made excellent time. Unfortunately, there was one casualty during our drive: for some reason, Hornbills like to fly low over the road and one flew into our windshield. RIP, Hornbill.

 

The road from Chobe to Nata was mostly clear, except for a stray giraffe and an unfortunate Hornbill L

 

In an attempt to eradicate “foot & mouth” disease (which kills wildlife & livestock), the border crossings and random check-points along the main road have these disinfection stations where you have to get out of your car and step your shoes into a solution, then drive your car tires through a puddle of supposedly the same stuff.

Once we reached the Planet Baobab Campground, we had 2hrs to have lunch, repack our day bags and chill out before our overnight tour to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. We were part of a group of 10 (a Dutch family of four, and two other couples) – we all boarded an open safari vehicle and started our long drive to the salt pan.

 

“Turn left at the giant aardvark.” Well, those are driving directions you don’t get every day! And hard to screw up, so needless to say we made it to the Planet Baobab campground

 

Since we reached Planet Baobab 2hrs. early, we had time for a make-shift lunch in the campground before camping out in the bar

On the way to the salt pan, we had an hour-long stop to see a family of wild meerkats. Now, we had already seen meerkats at the De Zeekoe Guest Farm in South Africa, so we weren’t expecting to be impressed. Holy cow, were we blown away! In South Africa, we had to get up before dawn, and sit still in chairs about 15ft. away from the meerkat holes. In Botswana, we just drive up to the meerkat hole (a ranger still has to do the whole pre-dawn, sunset reconnaissance in order to know where the meerkats will be every day), and walk around while the meerkats run around us! They are so close that we could easily pet them (although that is the ONE rule the ranger had)! The meerkats were totally unafraid of us, and had no problem as we hovered over them while they dug holes searching for bugs to eat. In fact, they were a little curious about us as well – crawling up to our boots and even sniffing our outstretched hands!

 

Side-stop excursion to visit a meerkat family

 

These meerkats have no fear of humans at all! We got so close, we could have pet them (but we didn’t)

 

OMG! This baby meerkat came up to Lindsay and starting playing with her boots!

 

We could not get enough of these adorable meerkats

 

While we did not *pet* the meerkats, we did not shoo them away when they came up to us and smelled our hands!

After the meerkat visit, we were ready for the main event: ATV self-drive into the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans to our camp! We geared up with our make-shift facemasks and helmets and drove out into the great nothingness. About halfway to camp we stopped to view the sunset…when all of a sudden we realized the third ATV wasn’t behind us anymore! After waiting for about 15min to see if they would catch up to us, our guide, Robert, told the 8 of us to wait while he went to search for them. We all enjoyed a beautiful sunset and joked that the latecomers must have missed the turn and kept driving across the pans – turns out their engine had died, and Robert had to tow their ATV behind the safari truck.

 

A traditional village at the edge of the salt pans stores the ATVs for the campground

 

We were warned that the dust kicked up by the ATVs can be brutal, so we pulled out our bandanas/scarves for protection…and to look badass!

 

Driving out to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pan on an ATV

 

The dry, lifeless surface of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pan

 

Enjoying the sunset with the other tourists as we wait for our guide to find the missing duo

The rest of the evening went off without a hitch – Robert was able to lead us to the camp in the fast growing dark without a problem, where we were all rewarded with a warm campfire and a delicious steak dinner. Lindsay had brought along her latest bottle of Casillero del Diablo, so she and Igor popped it open and took swigs straight from the bottle (CLASSY!!!).

Since we were in the middle of the salt flats, there were no bugs and no animals to worry about, so we all slept in swags, with nothing but the stars overhead. The moon had set around 9PM that night, so by the time we crawled into bed, we had the most spectacular view of the Milky Way we have probably ever seen. Our only regret didn’t do more camping on this trip.

 

Sitting around the campfire, watching our guide cook up a delicious steak braai

 

The most remote camp we’ve ever stayed in – no need for tents in the middle of the salt pans as there are no bugs and no animals – so we slept in swags (really heavy sleeping bags with a foam matress inside)

 

A truly magical evening – the unbelivable beauty of camping in the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans