.jpg "Baobabs in Nxai Pan Park")
The Nxai Pan is famous for its transformation from barren expanse to shallow pans and lush plains after the rains. When the rains come the pans come to life, attracting big flocks of waterbirds and herds of game, with predators in tow. Most of the time, the Nxai Pan is a barren area with scatterings of flat grassland and clumps of giant baobab trees.
It is an area of stark beauty, with its shimmering mirage on the horizon of the desert bushveld, dotted with Baobabs and thorn bushes.
Experience the sensation of being in the middle of nowhere - the African wilderness at its best - silent, desolate, and achingly beautiful.
Spot gemsbok, giraffe, impala, elephant, zebra, and lion (to name a few) on the vast plains of the Kalahari Desert.
Explore the beauty of the enormous and mythical-looking baobab tree, including the world-famous 'Baine's Baobabs'.
Star-gazing has never been better, with no light pollution for thousands of kilometers around.
During the rainy season, see thousands of migratory animals, including huge herds of wildebeest, giraffes, springbok, and zebras.
In the rainy season, enjoy spectacular birdwatching with many migrant species including flamingoes and pelicans.
After the rains, see newly born zebra calves, an abundance of grazers, and the predators that follow including lion, leopard, cheetah, jackal, wild dog, and hyena.
The Nxai Pan National Park's central point is the waterhole in the pan, which provides drinking water (and a gathering place, perfect for our game-spotting) to the wildlife of the area.
Covering over 2 500 km2, the national park is a visual feast for visitors both in the wet and dry seasons. In the dry season, water is pumped to permanent water sources to support resident wildlife throughout the year.
The Nxai Pan park was first proclaimed a game reserve in 1970 when it covered only 1676 km². In 1992 it was expanded to over 2500 km² incorporating the famous Baines Baobabs.
This Botswana national park is situated in the north-western region of the country, north of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans Complex (which it forms part of). Nxai Pan National Park is on the northern side of the Maun-Nata road, adjoining Makgadikgadi Pans National Park.
It is surrounded by the Kalahari Desert. In the rainy seasons, Nxai Pan is similar (in terms of wildlife and vegetation) to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve of Botswana.
This is desert, but while that means it is vast and arid, it doesn't mean there's nothing to see from a plant point-of-view!
Different from the saltier pans further south in the Makgadikgadi, the Nxai Pan National Park is largely covered by grasslands (especially in the rainy season), providing ample grazing land for the wildlife.
The plains are dotted with thorn trees and baobabs, both of which provide beautiful models for that essential 'Out of Africa' safari picture. This is real Africa.
Mopane woodlands are also found in the area and are the habitat for many of the permanent animals of the park, including the elusive leopard.
This group of baobabs, which is 1000s of years old, is situated in the southern part of the Nxai Pan National Park.
The reason for their name? They were immortalized in a painting by Thomas Baines in 1861/2. Incredibly, to see them now, they look hardly different from the painting which was made over 150 years ago!
With their Dr. Suess-like build, and seeming to have their roots in the air, these ancient trees have a magic about them that can only be fully realized up close.
The Nxai Pan National Park has a wide variety of permanent wildlife, due to the mopane woodlands. Good populations of jackals and bat-eared foxes share the area with antelope like springbok, impala and kudu, and lion and giraffe.
During the wet season, when the plains turn into a grassy smorgasbord, enormous herds of migratory animals arrive. Wildebeest, zebra, elephant and some of the biggest herds of giraffe flood the plains, closely followed by the predators who prey on them - lion, cheetah, and hyena.
Nxai Pan is home to a number of raptors including kestrels and goshawks. During the wet season, both water and land birds flock to the area, turning it into a birdwatcher's paradise.
Unlike other parts of Makgadikgadi, where the wet season may turn large areas into inaccessible mud ponds, Nxai is accessible all year.
Temperatures are high, even in mid-winter, seldom dropping below the mid-20s (Celcius) during the day in winter and reaching the high-30s to 40 (Celcius) mid-summer. Night-time temperatures, however, can drop to almost freezing mid-winter (July) and a far more temperate high-teens, in summer.
The rainy season, when it comes - some years are drier than others, this is the desert, remember - is between November and March.
Use the Google map to explore Nxai Pan National Park.