The Makgadikgadi Pans

These immense salt pans in the eastern Kalahari—once the bed of an African superlake—provide some of Botswana's most dramatic scenery. Two of these pans, Ntetwe and Sowa, the largest of their kind in the world, have a flaky, pastrylike surface that might be the nearest thing on earth to the surface of the moon. In winter these huge bone-dry surfaces, punctuated by islands of grass and lines of fantastic palm trees, dazzle and shimmer into hundreds of dancing mirages under the beating sun. In summer months the last great migration in southern Africa takes place here: more than 50,000 zebras and wildebeests with predators in their wake come seeking the fresh young grass of the flooded pans. Waterbirds also flock here from all over the continent; the flamingoes are particularly spectacular.

You can see game elsewhere in Botswana (although not in these numbers) so you should visit May through September to find out why this place is unique. You can see stars as never before, and if you're lucky, as the San/Bushmen say, even hear them sing. Grab the opportunity to ride 4x4 quad bikes into an always-vanishing horizon; close your eyes and listen as an ancient San/Bushman hunter tells tales of how the world began in his unique language—the clicks will sound strange to your ears—or just wander in wonder over the pristine piecrust surface of the pans.