Thrilling Tales from Makgadikgadi tours
Posted in Africa | May 8, 2012 | Comment NowCome to the land of Botswana and enjoy the lovely pleasures of being in the vast expanse of Makgadikgadi in the Botswana region. Come here to feel how well you could see the beauty of Mother Nature and how exotic the entire locale here.
There are many salt pans that remain here and this is a place that was a great lake many years back. This is a land that has many desert adapted species. With the seasonal rains and the attractive grasslands that are home to the most fascinating grazers and thus it is called “The Serengeti of the South”. During rain, there are many zebra and wildebeest which migrate to the lovely grasslands here. So see the flamingoes come and flock the entire place and see how they feed in the waters filled with algae. This is a region with a very low rainfall sot his is a sight that lasts only for a short time. Then there are the pans that provide ultimate delight and this is certainly a great sight for all the nature lovers.
So this is a transformation from a dry land to a wet land and this change is very extreme and also special. There are grasslands that are bordered with palm trees and so the Baobab trees have branches which look more like roots and give rise to the name “upside down tree”
The vastness of the salt pans enthralls the visitor and these are large and they could just swallow you in this vast land. Then there is Jack’s Camp which is a great way to meet the closeness of nature. Makgadikgadi is a place that was earlier a super lake which is around 100 feet deep and covers a massive area of around 80,000 square kilometres. But there have been lot of climatic shifts that have begun to dry up Lake Makgadikgadi. Then there was further evaporation and the lake turned into large pans.
The pans did not have any human inhabitation and there were artifacts and other peripheral villages which are found around the pans which are enough proof that the people have been living here in the Stone Age. These days the people who dare to cross the entire pan are the guests in the lodge. There is a unique safari here and this gives you the opportunity to enjoy the tranquility and solitude here. The Makgadikgadi Pans National Park are in the boundaries of the park. So the Sowa Pan and the Ntwetwe Pan are important pans here in the beautiful region of Makgadikgadi. Then go to the Nata Bird Sanctuary which lies to the north of the Sowa Pan.
Then the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park have lovely grasslands and also the riverine woodlands which have lovely perennial pools which have the hippo living here. There are palm trees which grow in clusters and have the Baobab trees which are dotted around.
There is the Prickly Salt Grass which is yellow and resistant to saline and the interior portions are made of grassland and scrub bushes with small Camel thorn acacia and tall Real Fan Palms.
The flora of the Makgadikgadi region differs during the various seasons. The arid conditions here and the extreme temperature are in tangent with presence of the mineral deposits. They do not create ideal conditions for the living conditions of the plant. When there are rains in the summer season, the entire landscape is totally changed and thus there are many annual plants that help to maintain the greenery in the area. So get to see the wildflowers, Tsama melon, camel thorn, Umbrella thorn which are all majorly found here. Their roots help to tap the excess rainwater and strengthens the ground.
The most fascinating trees in this area have stood the strength of so many areas and their ability to retain the water is something that makes it more special. There are corpulent trees here which are very oddly shaped and they are scattered in various parts of the pans and come on outcrops like the Kubu Island.
With mammals like springbok, Gemsbok, zebra, the brown hyena and the black beaded jackal, found here, the Makgadikgadi is a lovely land filled with the best natural delights.
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