gallery of 7 photos

Kalahari Desert, Botswana

Planet Baobab

The cheesiest part of Planet Baobab is the language they use to describe themselves. Do not be turned off! This is a rustic and inexpensive way to explore the very interesting Kalahari Desert.  — Mango's view

Arrive at the Planet Baobab, the baobab capital of the world! A traditionally styled mud Kalanga and Bushmen grass hut village shaded by giant baobab trees whose average age is 4,000 years old!

Take a stroll with one of our local guides through the surrounding bush as he points out local ecology, geology and culture and watch the sunset with a cool gin and tonic over a campfire set deep in the bush.

At Planet Baobab, you can sleep in traditionally styled Bakalanga huts with en-suite showers, curl up in a Bushmen hut complete in every detail, pitch your tent, or park your 4 x 4. You can light your own campfire, or gather round the communal blaze in the lelwapa and enjoy a cool drink, then sling your own boerewors onto the fire or enjoy Planet Baobab's unique Pan-African cuisine.

When it comes to ablutions, this oasis comes to its own. In addition to sluicing off the dust of the Kalahari highways with enough hot water for Africa, these are the most original shower blocks and bathrooms on the continent.

At the crack of dawn, the camp staff will have you transported to Ntwetwe in a little over two hours of liquid smooth transit! You can spend the day exploring the pans and the surrounding area. Ntwetwe is the bigger of the two Makgadikgadi Pans, extending as far as the eye can see in all directions, a breathtaking expanse of nothingness.

The peripheries are dotted with the remains of cultures long since departed and the pans are scattered with the salty, petrified skeletons of past wet seasons. Birds, insects, mammals and reptiles have all succumbed to the sapping heat of the pans and their perfectly preserved remains are a strange reminder of the fleeting fertility of the rains.

After a delicious lunch, head off on quad bikes into the magical unknown. Best of all, if you are very lucky, you can overnight on the Pans under the most spectacular night skies in the world, enjoying a barbecue of a lifetime. Curl up under a canopy of stars - a light which you cannot switch off.

Go where no man has ventured before - far across the unexplored wilderness of the salt pans. Enjoy a drink before a barren and beauteous sunset followed by a barbecue dinner cooked to perfection by our ever-talented guides.

At the end of an action-packed day, snuggle into your bedroll under the phenomenal Makgadikgadi, your very own star- spangled ceiling. Think silence, think slumber, think...baobab

Includes: All meals drinks (except premiums) & scheduled activities