Southern Africa - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 179

A herd of Burchell's zebras in
the dry riverbed of the Boteti
River, Botswana

it could be up to 25,000 zebra, in which case you
probably heard them anyway.
The camp also offers excursions out onto the
saltpans, five hours' drive away. It's an unworldly
place; in every direction the land is dry and white,
and so uninterruptedly flat that you can see the
horizon follow the earth's curvature. Sometimes
the surface is peeled up like tiny waves (formed of
dried algae), while elsewhere the land is covered
with an assortment of what seem to be bleached
pebbles. In fact they are fossilized pieces of
vegetation and animal bones, all in various stages
of calcification.
Sleeping out on a rug on these pans is magical.
The stars fill the sky and it is so quiet you
can hear a footstep up to a 1km away. Driving
back to camp the following day, you pass the
occasional lone zebra or wildebeest, following
migration patterns that Meno a Kwena, and you
as a guest, are helping to keep alive.

238 WATCH THE ZEbrA
mIGrATION, bOTSWANA

Every year as the floods recede, the saltpans of
Botswana become too dry to support life, forcing
the wildlife there to return to the Boteti River
for water. For millennia this has been one of
the largest migrations in Southern Africa, but
because of drought the river has not run since
1991; the last pool dried up in 1995.
To combat this, Meno a Kwena (a camp based
on the river whose name means “crocodile's
teeth”) has built pumps that fill three water
holes in the river bed. Its elevated position
means that guests can watch as thousands of
animals come to drink from the pools. The camp
acts as a buffer zone between the farmers and
wildlife, preventing poaching, and by employing
locals also offers a financial incentive not to kill
the animals.
There's no electricity at the camp, cooking is
over an open fire, and you sleep at night in tents
looking onto the bush. Each morning you can
study the tracks in the sand to see what passed
by in the night. Depending on the time of year,

Need to know Meno a Kwena is 1.5 hour's
drive from Maun; transfers from Maun airport are
included in the price. June to October is the best
time to visit. For rates and further info see W www.
kalaharikavango.com; T [phone].