Lake Ngami, North-West District, Botswana

3.0 (6 reviews) Spent Ranking #6 in Ngamiland East Bodies of Water

Lake Ngami, Botswana

On the 11th August 2012, I launched a boat on the Thamalakane river around Toteng area and sailed all the way to reach Lake Ngami, a breathtaking heaven for a lot of birds species and the famous flamingos and Pelicans, I mean it is unbelievable. I highly recommend this lake for birds enthusiasts, there is a lot of species to tick and also fish is in abundace, little bit of an eye soar we the fishermans camping within the vicinity of the lake, disturbing the landing of some the birds. Botswana birdlife is calling for this area to be declared a bird sancutuary and they have my full support after this visit.

Address

, Botswana.

Current local date and time now

Monday, May 13, 2024, 7:33

User Ratings

3.0 based on (6 reviews)

Excellent
-1%
Good
17%
Satisfactory
67%
Poor
17%
Terrible
0%

Reviews

  • 2DeeR S 5:00 PM Jan 28, 2014
    Disappointing
    As keen amateur birders, we were excited to visit this much written about and raved about attraction which is said to be a "top birding spot in southern Africa" as per Birdlife Botswana and "When flooded (Dec.–March), Lake Ngami is one of the greatest bird-viewing areas in sub-Saharan Africa" according to Fodor's, as well as many sources both printed & Internet based which I had researched. The lake is currently flooded so should be in the "prolific" stage, sadly although we saw some birdlife, it was not at all anywhere near as much as what we had expected. The reality is that the lake is surrounded by thousands of what we in South Africa refer to as "squatters", all of whom live in makeshift tented communities in every conceivable spot & quite honestly this made us feel quite unsafe whilst trying to get to the shoreline or surrounds. The cattle which I believe number up to 80 000, graze freely & the shores are literally lined with cattle carcases which are left to rot in the blazing sun. We were later told that the Chinese have now "employed" many of these people to fish on their behalf and that the sustainability is dropping drastically & hence this adversely affects the bird life. The government has apparently imposed a moratorium on fishing for 3 months of the year from 1st January, which is when the fish are spawning, but from what we could see this is having little effect as fishing appeared to be carrying on as normal with every makeshift camp drying out hundreds of fish regardless. Very sad indeed for what is supposedly a major birding attraction.
    Ngamiland East DeeR S review images Ngamiland East DeeR S review images
  • 3stephen c 5:00 PM Jun 26, 2016
    THE INCONSTANT LAKE
    Lake Ngami is about a quarter full and filling slowly as the water flows in from Angola. Just recently it was a muddy pond and the dying fish were dried by the thousand, baled, and sent to the Congo. Now the situation is normalizing and only permit holders may fish. The birds are returning and we saw two fish eagles, a solitary pelican and sundry cormorants and herons. It is definitely not the birdwatchers paradise of two years ago, but is improving. Good rains are forecast for 2017 so hopefully Ngami will keep filling. A lake in Botswana is a very rare feature and is an amazing sight, surrounded, as it is, by hundreds of kilometers of desert on every side.

See also