Makgadikgadi & Nxai Pan NP Holidays

Makgadikgadi & Nxai Pan National Park is a vast area and includes Ntwetwe Pan, Makgadikgadi Pans, Nxai Pan, Baines' Baobabs and Kudiakam Pan. Makgadikgadi is technically not a single pan but many pans with sandy desert in between, surrounded by the Kalahari desert.

Thought to once be a massive lake covering 60-80,000 sq. kms that existed 2 million years ago and started to dry up 1500 years ago due to climatic changes. Further evaporation turned the lake into large pans with a surface glistening with salt.

The Boteti River, one time a broad strong-flowing waterway fed by waters from the Okavango in the months of June and July, dwindled to a chain of pools, final ceased flowing in September 1992. The very last few deep stable pools that are left are used by humans, livestock and wildlife.

The national park is not dry all the time though. The pans, which are located in half the south, east and northeastern areas of the park, fill up with water in the rainy season from mid-November and regularly hold on to their water into April or May. The pans become great sheets of water, which attract a fantastic array of waterbirds and trigger spectacular migrations of wildebeest and zebra.