- Experience modern, African, rural culture
- Visit the local primary school and outdoor village 'courthouse'
- Tour of the archaeology, geology and zoology of the area
- Walk to the sweet water pan
Planet Baobab offers you the unique opportunity to explore the vast and fascinating Makgadikgadi Pans by quad bike, an insight into the culture and traditions of the local people as well as an understanding of African village life.
Village Tour
This visit allows you to experience modern, African, rural culture. Visit the local primary school with outdoor classes under the Morula tree, the kgotla - a traditional court which governs the village of Gweta and its people and is an integral focus of village life, the Traditional Healer and, if you are very brave, try out some sorghum beer. Learn about the history of the village from Planet Baobab guides whose knowledge was passed down by their forefathers.
Bushwalk and Fireside Chat
Take an easy walk through the bush led by your guide, learning about the environment and traditional uses of plants and animals. Enjoy the sunset unfold before you, warm yourselves by the fire with an ice cold drink listening to your guide explain the fascinating geological origins of the area and stories from the village.
Traditional Meal at the Cattlepost
Walk to a nearby cattlepost where you will meet a family and will be shown around their home. Join them for a traditional African meal of sorghum, mealie meal, seswaa (beef stew), wild spinach, mophane worms (optional), wild beans and a creamy baobab fruit milkshake.
Explore the Pans
Drive across the grass plains, past lonely baobab sentinels to the edge of the Ntwetwe Salt Pan by vehicle. Along the way, your guide will explain the incredible adaptations of the unique Kalahari species to the desert environment. Quad bikes enable you to explore the vast nothingness of the Makgadikgadi in an ecologically correct fashion, leaving only a shallow track that will be washed away by summer rains.
Enjoy sunset drinks at the Kalahari Surf Club. Surf the superlake before enjoying a moonlight barbecue (braai) prepared by your guide under the African stars. Retire to a warm and cosy bedroll under a star-spangled ceiling. Wake up in the middle of nowhere.
After breakfast, search for stone tools which litter the pans. Your guide will give you a comprehensive explanation of the manufacturing of stone tools as well as the evolution of man himself. Take a walk to the 'sweet water pan', a spring in the middle of the desert. The only surface water for thousands of square kms and the focal point of man and beast alike.
Fossil Pan
Take a drive to the enigmatic and mysterious fossil pan. One of the area's best kept secrets, this is a shallow rock basin filled with water all year round, providing for the local Bull Elephant and other creatures with much sustenance through the challenging months of the dry season.
The rock of fossil pan is studded with fossils and stone tools of some of its earliest visitors. After an al fresco dinner, hunker down in Bushmen hunting blinds near the water hole and wait for the Elephant to shuffle into the moonlight as they have done, unrestricted, for thousands of years.
Planet Baobab offers a budget experience that is far from basic! In fact it is quite unique and very special. Architecture and design derives inspiration from local culture. Details include traditional wall paintings, mud sculpture and grass huts all hand-made and crafted by local artisans. Planet Baobab is for those who have time, imagination and are looking for something different. For those who are intrigued by the mysteries and timelessness of the Makgadikgadi Pans.
