FIELD NOTES Zebra Migration
The helicopter rose into the air and turned to point its nose in the direction of Nxai Pan National Park. As we headed away from Maun, the ground beneath was a vast living patchwork. The geometric lines of houses and streets gave way to the softer curves of brush and scrubland. Cars, trucks and bicycles were replaced first by cattle and donkeys and then, as we got further from civilisation, by giraffe, oryx and the occasional lone bull elephant.
We flew on, craning our necks to look ahead, behind and beneath ourselves. We took in the open spaces and scenery that stretched out in every direction. The greenish blue of the Thamalakane River that flows through Maun gave way to the bleached browns and duty-greens of the sparse vegetation and increasingly arid landscape. As weBotswana's Greater Makgadikgadi includes two National Parks – the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park and the smaller, adjacent Nxai Pan National Park. Located in the Kalahari Desert, these are the world's largest salt pans. Nxai Pan National Park covers an area of about 4000km2 and comprises large pans that were once part of a super-lake that covered much of central Botswana around 20000-30000 years ago. Unlike the salt-encrusted pans at Makgadikgadi, Nxai Pan is a waterless fossil pan covered in grass with occasional acacia islands. Very dry for most of the year, this is a place where it appears almost nothing could survive. Gaze across Nxai Pan in the dry season, and all you'll see is a salty mirage. Travel around it from June to November, and aside from a few bat-eared foxes and the occasional elephant, the pan is pretty much devoid of life. A place of eerie beauty where silence and solitude reign.
