Nxai Pan safaris, lodges and wildlife tours

Two big fossil lakebeds flank the main road from Francistown to Maun - the Makgadikgadi Pan on the southern side and the Nxai Pan in the north.

Nxai is a much smaller depression than Makgadikgadi. Down in the pan small clumps of trees dominate a sea of grass cropped short by the game. There are nearly always giraffe, springbok, bat-eared foxes and hartebeest in the area. In the rainy season migratory herds of gemsbok, wildebeest, buffalo, eland, zebra and elephant swell the numbers and as many as 5 000 head of game have been seen in the pan at one time. Near Nxai is another pan, Kgamakgama, where there are baobab trees and palms.

Both pans have been designated national game reserves. At Nxai, a road has been built leading from the main road over a high sand ridge.

In recent years Nxai have begun to be mined for salt, soda ash, sodium sulphate and bromides.

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