A memorable night on the Makgadikgadi Pans

Should a bit of bush fatigue set in the perfect antidote is a night under the stars on the Makgadikgadi pans. The contrast to the bush is thoroughly refreshing, particularly if you have been tossed about in the sandy mires of the Kalahari and taken in the somewhat cluttered areas of  Chobe where the elephants have left a graveyard of trees, trunks and branches. There is utter silence away from the chatter of the bush. There are no leaves to rustle, no birds to chirp and no animals to grunt, cackle or roar. A splendid way to finish off a bush trip. Planet Baobab, on this occasion, organised this mini-expedition. We accompanied two filmmakers capturing the essence of the pans, Lloyd and Joelle, and soaked it all up under a thick blanket of stars.
Lying southeast of the Okavango Delta and surrounded by the Kalahari Desert, Makgadikgadi is one of the largest and inhospitable salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikgadi, which once covered an area larger than Switzerland, but dried up several thousand years ago. The prominent baobab trees found in the area function as local landmarks. One of them, named after James Chapman, served as an unofficial post office for 19th-century explorers.