Explore the Wild: Discover the Beauty of the Botswana
The secret safari superstar is home to a great migration! Follow explorers to the little-visited Nxai Pan National Park, an extension of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pan network.
Zebras migrate here by the thousands to drop their young during the rainy season, completing the longest mammal migration in Southern Africa. Dust-white elephants depend on the permanent waterhole at Nxai Pan Camp (the only permanent camp in the national park) during the dry season, and predators, such as Kalahari Black-maned lions, lurk, waiting for prey to take an unsuspecting sip. There are also a vast springbok population, wildebeest, bat-eared foxes and large groups of giraffes.
Nine spacious tents include a relaxed lounge area, indoor and outdoor showers and a veranda facing the waterhole. One room has an additional twin bedroom for family use. The main area has a swimming pool and minimalist open-air lounge with decor echoing the salt pan landscapes. The thatched dining area and bar maintain a comfortable temperature year-round.
The minimalistic white-washed design of the camp is in keeping with the surrounding white salt pans. Nxai Pan Camp accommodates up to eighteen people in nine environmentally designed units. All are built with materials of minimal environmental impact and additionally maintain a constant and comfortable in-room temperature year-round, while seasonal temperatures vary from below freezing to over 40 degrees Celsius.
At Nxai Pan Camp, these accommodations feature double washbasins and provide both indoor and outdoor showers. The rooms offer ample space with a comfortable lounge area, and one of them includes an additional twin bedroom, perfect for family use. All units are elevated on decks, and their positioning along the ridge ensures that each viewing deck offers truly exceptional and mesmerizing vistas of the expansive pan and its vast, beautiful sky. Each also boasts an open veranda that overlooks the waterhole in front of the camp, a favored spot for frequent elephant visitors.
The family unit comprises an en-suite double bedroom and a separate second twin bedroom, sharing a common bathroom.
The minimum age is six years, except during the period from 1 April to 15 November when there is no minimum age requirement. Special activities and services are available for children, such as early mealtimes and children’s meals. Families traveling with children aged 6 to 12 years are required to book private activities.
Game drives at Nxai Pan Camp exclusively feature day drives. These custom-designed Toyota game viewing vehicles accommodate a maximum of six guests in two rows of three seats. A professional guide and tracker form a two-person team, a unique hallmark of Kwando Safaris’ wildlife experience. This setup allows the guide to convey points of interest and intricate natural interconnections, while the tracker ensures no sightings or tracks go unnoticed. Notably, at Nxai Pan, the tracker hails from the San Bushman tribe, renowned for their generations-long residence in the Kalahari desert, granting them intimate knowledge of the region and its endemic wildlife.
Walking with a member of the San Bushman tribe allows guests to appreciate how the tribe used to live off the land through traditions and skills passed from generation to generation. Conducted close to the Nxai Pan Camp area, the walk is conducted at a slow pace designed to allow engagement and question asking so that guests may better understand the nature of the bushman to the environment around them. Knowledge about how they would hunt, trap animals, and the manner in which they use the flora and fauna in their environment to help them survive are all shared with guests. Questions are always welcome!
Located in the south of Nxai Pans National Park are the seven baobabs known as Baines Baobabs or the Sleeping sisters.
Day trips to Baines’ Baobabs are highly popular, and include a picnic lunch at the site. These age-old trees were immortalised in paintings by the artist and adventurer Thomas Baines in 1862. If you were to compare Baines’ paintings to the scene today, you would find that after 150 years, the trees are nearly identical – testament to the age of these magnificent giants.
