Nxai Pan National Park adjoins the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park on its northern border. The pan itself is another fossil lakebed about 40 square kilometres in size. The landscape is dotted with clusters of umbrella acacia trees and mopane woodland in the north. During the rains from November to April, the pans become covered in grass - a landscape typical of the Kalahari.
The famous artist Thomas Baines arrived in 1861, and painted an unusual group of Baobab trees, which became known as 'Baines Baobabs'. It is rare to see these trees so close together and as one was growing on its side, Baines named his painting 'The Sleeping Five'. The Green brothers passed this way too and to this day their inscription into the bark, “Green's Expedition 1858-1859”, can clearly be seen.
Perhaps the focal point of Nxai Pan is the water hole, in the midst of a large grassy plain which is dotted with a few clumps of short umbrella thorn trees. Here - and within the mopane woodland - lion, giraffe, kudu, impala, ostrich and large numbers of springbok are permanent residents. Also resident are jackal and bat-eared foxes, along with numerous smaller creatures and fascinating birdlife.
Nxai Pan is well known for a huge springbok population, as the short-cropped grasses can testify, and extraordinarily large herds of giraffe with up to 30 in a group. Also to be seen are blue wildebeest, gemsbok, eland, greater kudu and red hartebeest. The more commonly seen predators are spotted hyena, cheetah, leopard and jackal with the elusive brown hyena a rare treat.
Once the rains have started, gemsbok, elephant and zebra migrate to the area. At that time, zebra are present in their thousands and drop their young at Nxai Pan - rivalling the spectacle of the multitude of young springbok - to further enhance game-viewing opportunities. Birdlife is excellent. The noisy black korhaan is a hallmark of Nxai Pan and small raptors such as kestrel and goshawks abound.
Whilst many other parks and reserves are not considered to be at their best during the rains, Nxai Pan becomes a veritable Garden of Eden. The best game viewing months are December to April.
Whilst the Nxai Pan isn't featured in any of our example tours on these web pages, we can arrange private mobile tented safaris for groups of 4 persons or more, and the area is also visited as part of some scheduled small group departures. Please contact us for details.
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Camps and Lodges within Nxai Pan National Park
Coming Soon
Safaris and Tours that include this Location
 Scarab’s Untamed Lands
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