Northgate Lodge is in Nata Botswana.
About Northgate Lodge
Situated in the heart of Nata, amidst a forest of Llala Palms on the route to the Okavango Delta or Chobe Game Reserve, this is the ideal stopover after a long journey, or a great way to start a new adventure.
Alternatively, make us your base to explore the abundant places of interest in this vast, untapped beauty of Botswana, including game viewing, bird watching, camping, and much more.
Enjoy five-star European-style cuisine (or be adventurous and try the fantastic traditional cuisine), ice-cold drinks from the fully stocked bar, or just relax by the cooling waters of the sparkling pool. We are here to help make your visit to this wonderful part of the world unforgettable!
Accommodation of Northgate Lodge
Chalets
- Single beds
- Bathroom/Shower
- Television
- Tea kettle
- Mosquito net
- Ceiling fan
Executive Rooms
- 2 Single Beds or One Double Bed
- Bathroom/Shower or Tub
- Television
- Tea kettle
- Mosquito net
- Air conditioner
Family Rooms
- 2 Bedrooms
- 1 Double Bed and 2 Twin Beds
- Bathroom/Shower or Tub
- Television
- Tea kettle
- Mosquito net
- Air conditioner
Experience The Emptiness Of The Makgadikgadi Pans
The Makgadikgadi Pan is a large salt pan in northern Botswana, the largest salt flat complex in the world. These salt pans cover 16,000 km and form the bed of an ancient lake that began evaporating 10,000 years ago.
The area is home to one of Africa's biggest zebra populations, and usually only quad bikes are permitted on the fragile plains in single file.
Makgadikgadi is technically not a single pan but many pans with sandy desert in between, but it is all counted in the area estimate. The largest individual pan is about 5,000 km, and it is frequently covered with water.
Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, on the other hand, is a single salt flat of 10,582 km and rarely has much water. It is also claimed to be the world's largest salt pan. Commercial operations to mine salt and soda ash began in 1991.
The main water source is the Nata River, known as Amanzinyama in Zimbabwe, where it rises at Sandown about 60 km from Bulawayo. Kubu Island, a rock island, is within the Makgadikgadi Pan.
Nata Bird Sanctuary
This sanctuary was established in the early 1990s on the far northeastern edge of Sowa Pan and, apart from the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pan National Park, is the only protected reserve in the area. It is a local community project managed by a board of trustees selected from four nearby villages.
This 230 km community project is designed as a refuge for the wildlife on and around Sua Pan (45% of the reserve is in the pan).
The idea was first raised in 1988 by the Nata Conservation Committee, and the sanctuary was realised four years later, thanks to the Kalahari Conservation Society and funding from national and international organisations.
Local people voluntarily relocated 3,500 cattle onto adjacent rangeland and established a network of dust roads. This unique approach to community involvement in eco-tourism is considered to be the key to conservation throughout Africa.
Green's Baobab
Two places of historical interest are Green's Baobabs and Chapman's Baobabs. Traders and explorers flocked to the area, including Anderson, Cummings, the Green brothers, Chapman, and Baines.
One of the major routes for these traders and explorers ran through the narrowest section of Ntwetwe Pan.
The only evidence of the hustle and bustle of early traders, explorers, missionaries, and thieves are the names inscribed on the Baobab trees.
The growth of the trees has obscured many of the names, but on Green's Baobab, "Green's Expedition, 1858-1859" is clearly visible. Approximately 11 kilometres south of this enormous baobab is a magnificent seven-stemmed baobab tree known as Chapman's Baobab or the Seven Sisters.
There are a multitude of names on this tree, and Chapman's name is indicated by his initials "J.C.". This colossal specimen, visible from great distances across the pan, is worth seeing if only because of its size and photogenic qualities. It was used as a landmark for the early explorers of the region.
Chapman's Baobab
About 11 km further south of Green's Baobab is the turn-off to the far more impressive Chapman's Baobab, which has a circumference of 25 m and was historically used as a navigation beacon.
It may have also been used as an early post office by passing explorers, traders, and travellers, many of whom left inscriptions on its trunk.
See the Fossilised Dune of Ntwetwe
In the middle of Ntwetwe, on the west of the usual north-south route across the pans, Gabasadi Island is a low mound protruding from the surface of the pan.
It's actually a fossilised, crescent-shaped barchan dune, which you'll realise if you climb it.
Kubu (Hippo) Island
Rising no more than 20 m above the Sowa Pan, this national monument with its fossil beaches, stunted baobab trees, and mysterious stone walls leaves an indelible impression upon all who visit its water-worn shores.
This scrap of rock and its ghostly baobab trees are surrounded by a sea of salt. In cool weather, this bizarre sight can make visitors feel like castaways on an alien planet.
The real name of the island, though less known, is Lekhubu (meaning ridge in Setswana). It is the most famous of all the rock islands in the Makgadikgadi.
Most of the rock islands in this area are remnants of ancient sand dunes. Kubu Island is different in that it is one of the scatterings of granite islands.
Many of Kubu's rocks are stained white with fossilised bird droppings.
This ancient guano is called apatite and bears testimony to a large bird population that used to live on the island, feeding off the fish of the waters that surrounded their rocky knoll. There is a trig-beacon on the island's summit.
The rocks on the north-eastern side are all smoothed by wave action, while on the opposite leeward side are thousands of small, rounded pebbles, which used to protrude as a tiny wave-washed beach.
As the level of this immense inland sea rose and fell, there were times when Kubu was deep beneath the waves, others when it lay exposed in a sea of sand, and others when it hardly showed above the surface, surrounded by 100 km of sea.
The island is littered with artefacts from other ages: Stone-Age cutting tools, shards of pottery at least 2,000 years old, and the remains of a low, circular wall.
Village Tours
See the Kgotla, have traditional Magunya made for you, visit the clinic and school, ride in a donkey cart, and have fun.
Where is Northgate Lodge?
Located right in the centre of Nata Village within walking distance to stores and takeaway restaurants.