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Northgate Lodge Nata BotswanaNorthgate Lodge Botswana accommodation guide – all the information you need about the accommodation at the Northgate Lodge Nata. Photographs, room types, location and booking information for your stay at the Northgate Lodge Nata Botswana.
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Nata Hotels Self Catering CampingGuesthouses and Places to stayEmail us: bookbotswana@madbookings.com MadBookings.com |
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Botswana Essential
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Welcome to Northgate Lodge Alternatively, make us your base to spend your days exploring the plentiful places of interest in this vast, untapped beauty of Botswana, including game viewing, bird watching, camping, and much, much more. Enjoy five star European style cuisine (or be adventurous and try the fantastic traditional cusisine), ice cold drinks from the fully stocked bar, or just relax by the cooling waters of the our sparkling pool. We are here to help make your visit to this wonderful part of the world unforgettable!!! |
Features of Northgate Lodge
We have three different types of accommodation. Our chalets
comprise of the following:
* Single beds |
* Bathroom/Shower |
* Television |
* Tea kettle |
* Mosquito Net |
* Ceiling fan |
Our executive rooms comprise of the following:
* 2 Single Beds or One Double Bed |
* Bathroom/Shower Or Tub |
* Television |
* Tea Kettle |
* Mosguito Net |
* Air Conditioner |
Our family rooms comprise of the following:
* 2 Bed room |
* 1 Double Bed and 2 Twin Beds |
* Bathroom/Shower Or Tub |
* Television |
* Tea Kettle |
* Mosguito Net |
* Air Conditioner |
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Some ideas of what to do at Northgate Lodge
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
km2 (6,177.6 sq mi) and form the bed of an ancient lake that started 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 km2 (1,930.5 sq mi), and it is frequently covered with water. Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia on the other hand is a single salt flat of 10,582 km2 (4,085.7 sq mi) and rarely has much water and 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, called Amanzinyama in Zimbabwe where it rises at Sandown about 60 km (37.3 mi) 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 sq 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 latter, 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 and amongst them were 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 have obscured many of the names, but on Green's Baobab "Green's Expedition, 1858-1859" is clearly visible. Approximately 11 kilometers 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 11km further south of Green's Baobab is the turn-off to the far
more impressive Chapman's Baobab, which has a circumference of 25m 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 20m 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 is surrounded by the 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, but 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 fossilized 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 northeastern 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 100km of sea. The island is littered with artifacts from other ages: Stone-Age cutting tools, shards of pottery at least 2000 years old, and the remains of a low, circular wall.
Village Tours
See the Kgotla, have traditional Magunya made for you, see the
clinic and school, ride in a donkey cart, HAVE FUN!
Where is Northgate Lodge?
Right in the centre of Nata Village in walking distance to stores
and takeaways.
Email Northgate Lodge enquiries and reservations: bookbotswana@madbookings.com
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Email bookbotswana@madbookings.com
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