Nxai Pan

The Makgadikgadi Pans National Park forms one vast area which incorporates the Nxai Pan, Kudiakam Pan, Baines' Baobabs, Ntwetwe Pan, and Makgadikgadi Pans.

A Four wheel drive vehicle is essential throughout this area, with access roads difficult to negotiate in any season. In the dry season, the pan surfaces can be treacherous with the unseen water table lurking often just inches under the hard-baked surface. Once on the pans the exhilaration of speeding across the flat surface is unforgettable.

Nxai Pan, is located north of the Makgadikgadi Pans, once part of the old Makgadikgadi lake bed. The Makgadikgadi lake, an area of 80 000 square kilometers, started drying up almost 10,000 years ago. As the water evaporated, huge salt-encrusted pans were left. Surrounding the pans are vast grasslands fringed with palm trees.

In Nxai Pan National Park two of these Pans, “Nxai” (a fossil lake bed about 15 km wide) and “Kgama-Kgama” Pans are located. The pans are covered in short nutritious grasses, interspersed with islands consisting mainly of umbrella thorn trees (Acacia trees), which the animals use for shade during the day.