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How the nothingness of Botswana's salt desert frees your mind
Even before we started our lust for life adventure, we had read and seen a lot about the Magkadigkadi Pans in Botswana: they are among the largest salt pans in the world. They used to be one huge lake of about 60,000 km2 with no outlet, so the salt concentrated in it. After it dried up about 4,000 years ago, these salt crusts, today's salt deserts, remained. Today, they fill up with water in the rainy season and the animals from the Kalahari set off on their migration to the pans.
We start our first adventure in the Magkadigkadi Pans at the end of June, in the dry season. We leave the trailer on the farm with Sue & Pete, our dear hosts, and drive only with the Prado on the tarred road to Mmatshumo. Here we buy our permit for the national park run by the community and spend the night there. Our destination: Lekhubu-Island or Kubu-Island, in the middle of the salt desert on the west coast of the huge Sua-Pan. Shortly after the village, the sandy track begins and we immediately let the air out of our tyres to be able to drive more easily and safely. At first the road is narrow and deep through bush land, until the landscape suddenly opens up and we drive through ochre-green steppe grass directly onto and over one of the salt pans. An unreal landscape of white-grey, coarse crust that reaches to the horizon. Already here I am fascinated how nothing can be so beautiful!
We use the track pulled by other vehicles, knowing that even in the dry season you can sink in. Because you can't tell from the surface how deep and hard the salt crust actually is: often hard enough to walk on, but with a vehicle it can break and you sink in so deep that moving on is often no longer possible without outside help. So we roll along the track, dragging a white dust cloud of bull-dust behind us: powder-fine dust that covers the whole car and penetrates every crack.
Island in the Nothing - Kubu Island
We continue for what feels like an eternity across boundless, diverse plains of steppe and salt, until we recognise an elevation of pale yellow grass, shimmering grey rocks and bizarre trees on the horizon: an island in the nothingness. We reach Kubu Island from the south and immediately find a nice spot with a baobab tree and a view over the salt pan, where we will spend the night. The permitted camping areas are numbered (12), far apart and otherwise consist only of a fireplace (an area circled with stones on the sandy ground). We settle in: place the Prado level and with a roof tent view towards the pan, put up the solar panel, open the shady awing, drink a cup of our coffee brought in the thermos, enjoy the view and delight in the many different colourful birds and butterflies that stop by.
In the afternoon we start our first exploration tour on foot: we climb over the large rocks to the highest point of the island, passing many ancient, leafless baobab trees with only a few dry fruit pods left. Their incomparable form of gnarled, thick trunks and countless branches stand out like silhouettes against the blue sky. Then we arrive at the top of the rise and the view over the island and into the endless salt pan takes our breath away. What a scenery of shapes, colours and light - we sit down and enjoy this sight mostly in silence before walking back to the car.
As evening slowly falls, we pack chilled drinks and drive along the edge of the islet a little way out to a few individual rocks peeking out of the salt crust. Sitting here on one of the rocks, surrounded by this endless expanse, we rejoice in this beautiful nothingness. Nothing but salt pan to the horizon and on one side only the island. Behind it, the sun slowly sets and we once again experience an incomparable and unforgettable spectacle: the red-orange glowing sky makes black silhouettes stand out from the island and the salt pan around us is bathed in a pastel light, cheers!
Breathe, walk, feel: an unforgettable morning round
The next morning, I start my morning round in this surreal landscape before the sun rises, wrapped up tightly (winter nights are cold in Botswana too 😉 - never before have I walked for what felt like an eternity with a view of nothing. But that's exactly what I find particularly enjoyable right now: nothing to distract me, nothing to focus my gaze, nothing to get my thoughts rolling. Nothing, just me, my breath and the crunch of my footsteps on the salt crust. Just the wind and the light of the rising sun. Spirit liberated.
Experiences like these show me how different the need and the moment can be - and how beneficial, enriching and liberating it is when you can engage with them.
Finally, I climb a little further up the island and let myself be enchanted by the morning sun and the here and now.
Want to learn more about the magical Magkadigkadi-Pans? In the blog article "Of salt pans, silence and being". I'll tell you about our wonderful, eventful second tour, this time to the east side of the great Sua-Pan, and what it did to me.
Possible questions for your personal journey of discovery:
Do you know the joy of nothingness?
Do you sometimes manage to block out your surroundings and just be with yourself?
Do you know that you are allowed to engage with your momentary need and the moment?
Does it make you happy when you realise that you have experienced a little more of yourself again?
Can you feel when your mind is free?
Possible questions for your personal journey of discovery:
Do you know the joy of nothingness?
Do you sometimes manage to block out your surroundings and just be with yourself?
Do you know that you are allowed to engage with your momentary need and the moment?
Does it make you happy when you realise that you have experienced a little more of yourself again?
Can you feel when your mind is free?
