Makgadikgadi en Nxai Pans

The Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans are about 500 km north of Gaborone (Botswana's capital and largest city in the country) and are known for the group of baobab trees that stick high above Kubu Island, also known as "sleeping sisters ", the "seven sisters" and " Baines baobabs".

Both the Makgadikgadi Pan and the Pan Nxai been designated as National Wildlife Refuge. Wild animals are plentiful, although not in the same numbers as in Chobe. The southern part of Nxai Pan is a collection of mini salt pans. This is one of the few areas in Botswana which is more interesting during the rainy season, when vast herds populate the grass-covered pans of Nxai. There are antelopes, lions, hyenas, cheetahs, hippos as well as a host of beautiful birds, but no elephants or buffalos.
The large pans of Makgadikgadi are the most visible remains of a lake that formed more than five million years ago and it is likely that the pans for a long time have held a substantial amount of water until about 1500 years ago.

From May to November, the parks are populated by herds of zebras, wildebeest and springbok. When the rain falls grazing herds, followed by lions, cheetahs and hyenas, flock to the north, via the road between Maun and Francistown, to the larger Nxai Pan National Park.

Nxai Pan itself is a vast grass field, part, once again, of the ancient lake, which is richly covered with acacia trees. Nxai Pan offers good opportunities to see wildlife. Besides the usual animal species such as zebra, springbok, wildebeest and their predators, one can see large herds of giraffe, oryx and eland.

Both during the dry and the rainy season visitors to the park are advised to witness the transformation of the dry pans into a water wonderland and to see the migration of wildebeest and zebra in the rainy season.