I love spending a night out on the salt pans, it's an out of this world experience. Nothing really seems real. Imagine spinning around and around and around and the view simply not changing at all, just a white expanse of nothingness. This is what it is like out on Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana.
The first time I spent a night out on Makgadikgadi Pan is still a fresh memory.
We travelled in two vehicles - I was in the one behind and I learnt from this mistake for the future. The dust from the vehicle in front often prevented me from keeping my eyes open but I could still see the odd ground squirrel scampering for cover and a couple of lone jackals searching for something tasty to eat in the harsh environment. An eagle circled in the sky waiting for some hapless creature to succumb to the searing heat bouncing of the white sand and the vegetation diminished until there was little more than grass, grass which was yellow and with little hope of surviving into the next month.
The horizon expanded even more, if that was at all possible, and I am sure that I could see the curvature of the earth. The sky was full of wispy zebra (horse) tail clouds galloping across the sky, it would be a perfect night. And then the salt pan filled my vision. A vast sea of white, flat as a pancake and exceptionally difficult to ascertain how far you could see. There was nothing to gauge distance on it at all. This was once a lake and had dried up leaving behind a superficial maze of enormous curling salt flakes and not much else. We drove out onto the pan and into 'nowhere', where we stopped for the night.
'Nowhere' was our planned destination; there were a few logs left behind from a previous visit and these were lit along with more firewood from the truck. A toilet was dug, a whole in the middle of 'nowhere', and an awning erected around it. Not much to hide behind here! By now the fire was blazing and the aroma of sizzling steak being grilled over the braai made me drool like Homer Simpson. Sitting as the sun sank into the horizon was also out of this world - it seemed to be larger, brighter and redder than I had ever seen before.
Tents are not needed here, it is one of the few wild places in southern Africa where you can sleep out under the stars without the fear of an unwanted slithery guest in your sleeping bag in the morning or the fear of an attack from scavenging animals . A roll mat and your torch will do.
So after supper, I picked up my sleeping kit and marched out into the void of Makgadikgadi Pan. Well, marched was not really the word I would have used, more tentatively walked into nowhere feeling sure that I would come across something scary. I felt rather vulnerable as the light of the fire diminished to a small spec. Why was I doing it I hear you ask? Well why not? It is not often you get the chance to sleep literally in the middle of nowhere, to have the peace and tranquility of Africa wrapped around you, and with the knowledge that you are safe. It takes a bit of guts as it is the fear of the unknown that ties you to the fire, but once stretched, or even broken, it is remarkable experience.
I had a great nights sleep that night, although I have to admit I was a bit twitchy to begin with, complete quiet can be very disconcerting.
Silence is deafening.
When was the last time you slept and only heard your own breathing?
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