A Three day trek across the Makgadigadi pans on mountain bikes in Botswana, what a great experience! Kubu island was an absolute highlight. But riding on the ancient lake bed, now turned into salt pans was extremely taxing on the body. Although being fit for normal conditions, my heart rate basically stayed at 165+ bpm for hours at a time because of the sandy level surface and the constant wind.

The first night on the pans I woke up at 2 in my cold tent because of the silence! This must be experienced, I can't even start to describe it to you. So I got up and walked to the middle of the camp and restarted the deserted fire. I was the only one awake. I curled up my body on a camp chair to preserve heat and just sat there. The stars and the amount of shooting stars were incomprehensible... I felt really small under this majestic universe. I sat there for about 2 hours ... thinking about everything in total silence. I really want to experience this place again. Then Kubu island... wow. I also need to make a trip to Kubu again. You can feel the history... ancient history. With those Baobab trees being thousands of years old, from before the time of Jesus. Really met some wonderful people from all over the world traveling through the pans.



Makgadigadi Pans Mountainbike Adventure from Boeriewood on Vimeo.

Thanks to Frank Pretorius for sharing his adventure with us!