Page 67 - Discover Botswana 24th Edition 2024

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KA L A H A R I
in increasing numbers in Ntwetwe pan, assembling self-importantly
around permanent waterholes like the cantankerous attendees of an aging
gentlemen’s club. Springbok, wildebeest, impala and kudu magically
materialise from the dust of their desert hideouts. Giraffe glide cautiously
out from the Mopane and Cheetahs move swiftly and gracefully across the
flat open grasslands of the old lakebed making the most of the pulse of life
that comes with the rains.
On the eastern side of Makgadikgadi, floodwaters from the Nata River
inundate the pan, triggering blooms of microscopic algae, ostracod and
shrimp and, somewhat more conspicuously, the mysterious arrival of up
to 80,000 flamingos from all over southern Africa. They appear just as
the rains begin to fall, somehow sensing the lunar lakebed has begun its
Above: Plains zebra of the Makagadikgadi
migration retreat onto the salt flats for protection.
These hardy animals can withstand the salty
conditions and blazing heat, existing in places that
few other animals would.