I had the immense privilege of photographing the Etosha Pan for five glorious days, flying in the best light for three hours at dawn and again late afternoon to just before sunset.

The experience was breathtaking, and surreal, and the landscape equally so. Sometimes, during seasons of exceptional rainfall, locally known as efundja, the pan floods through the Ekuma River from the Omadhiya lakes, a series of extensive, shallow grassy pans that merge into large bodies of water during periods of flooding. The pan also receives occasional inflow from the Omuramba Owambo, which drains into Fischer’s Pan at Namutoni. When flooded, Etosha Pan is transformed into a shallow wetland paradise, where huge flocks of lesser and greater flamingos, pelicans and other waterbirds arrive to feed and breed.

The sight of thousands of flamingos flying in various formations over the partly water- filled pan is simply breathtaking and one of nature’s great spectacles. On 19 June 1995, the Etosha Pan became a Ramsar site and a wetland of international importance.

The water that reaches the Omadhiya lakes and the pan eventually evaporates, leaving salt deposits that were carried downstream behind. Due to evaporation over long periods, various soils are extremely salty and compacted into complex, crusty layers. Salt-loving grasses and halophytic plants manage to grow in less saline soils, and bizarre landscapes of all shapes, patterns and colours are created. The main pan and smaller pans are scoured by relentless winds, thus shaped by wind deflation. Thick layers of salt deposits often fringe the pans and watercourses in various forms, resembling thick layers of white icing, blown into thin whisps in places. Vibrant hues of various colour variations are a spectacle to behold in narrow watercourses and seepages along the pan’s edges, as well as the Ekuma and Oshigambo rivers. These are created by the different salt crystals, bacteria and phytoplankton reflected in the water at different angles and times of day.