Makgadikgadi Pan

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Makgadikgadi Pan

The Makgadikgadi Pan is a large salt pan in Northern Botswana, the largest salt flat complex in the world. These salt pans cover 16,000 km² (6,177.6 sq mi) and form the bed of an ancient lake that started evaporating 10,000 years ago. The area is home to one of Africa's biggest zebra populations, and usually only quad bikes are permitted on the fragile plains in single file. Makgadikgadi is technically not a single pan but many pans with sandy desert in between, but it is all counted in the area estimate. The largest individual pan is about 5,000 km² (1,930.5 sq mi), and it is frequently covered with water. Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia on the other hand is a single salt flat of 10,582 km² (4,085.7 sq mi) and rarely has much water and is also claimed to be the world's largest salt pan.

Commercial operations to mine salt and soda ash began in 1991.

The main water source is the Nata River, called Amanzinyama in Zimbabwe where it rises at Sandown about 60 km (37.3 mi) from Bulawayo.

Kubu Island, a rock island, is within the Makgadikgadi Pan.

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park is a National Park in Botswana.

[edit] First crossing by car

The Makgadikgadi was first crossed in a car by the presenters of British TV show Top Gear - Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, as part of a challenge to cross Botswana in second-hand two wheel drive cars, not built to go off-road, bought for under £1500. (Clarkson had previously crossed the Makgadikgadi using a quad bike.)^[1]

All three cars made it through the Makgadikgadi, although Clarkson and May had to reduce the weight of their cars (a Lancia Beta and Mercedes-Benz 230E respectively), as heavy vehicles tend to sink through the salty surface into the mud below, by removing seats, doors, windows and other bodywork - but were still too heavy and frequently broke through the crust of the saltpan, bogging down. Hammond's unmodified 1963 Opel Kadett happily skittered across the surface, never losing traction.^[2]