Flying Adventure: Victoria Falls – Day 9 (FBGweta – FBFT – FAPP – FARanch):
It is another beautiful day with perfect flying conditions for our flight over one of the most spectacular places southern Africa has to offer.
Today’s first leg will take us over the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans via Kubu Island to Francistown.
Over the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans to Francistown
As he had already mentioned in the planning update for this tour, the Makgadikgadi salt pans cover an area of over 16 000 square kilometers and are in essence the reminiscence of the Victoria Falls’ formation.
It was the water flowing out of the Makgadikgadi paleo lake, which created the Victoria Falls, and the pans with their salty clay crust are the lake bed that was left behind after it dried up some thousands of years ago.
To see them from the air is truly amazing and breathtaking. The morning sunlight creates the illusions of an endless white beach, whilst in truth there is no water anywhere close by.
From Gweta we route to Kubu Island. Kubu Island is made of granite rock and situated between the Nwetwe and the Sua pan. It is a national monument of Botswana, and considered a sacred place by the indigenous people of the area.
From Kubu Island we set course straight for Francistown.
After landing in Francistown, we re-fuel the aircraft and then proceed for immigration and customs control. As we are the only flight on ground, this goes all pretty smooth and hassle free.
Francistown to Polokwane
Soon we are off again, for our next leg over the border into South Africa.
As it is early afternoon and the temperatures at their maximum, we requested a higher flight level, in the hope to find some smoother air and gaining a bit more ground speed. It is better than being low level, and certainly a bit cooler, but there is a fair amount of convection which creates some turbulence even at higher altitude.
As we cross over the Limpopo river into South Africa, we can soon see the northern end of the Waterberg biosphere to our right and the western end of the Soutpansberg to the left. Soutpansberg is the Afrikaans term for Salt Pans mountains. The mountains and the adjacent salt pan form part of the Vembe biosphere reserve.
Well past the western end of the Soutpansberg we start descending for our approach into Polokwane.
We are again very lucky to be the only aircraft on the ground and immigration, customs and port health formalities are fairly quickly over and done with.
We are off again for a quick 10 minutes hop to The Ranch Resort.
Enjoy some stunning video footage of this flight over the Makgadikgadi pans back to South Africa.
The Ranch Resort is just outside of Polokwane town on the N1 highway and has its own landing strip. After landing we roll out into the parking bay and proceed to check in, as easy as that.
