Situated in Northern Botswana, 2578 square kilometer National Park is mainly forest and savanna woodland and large areas of open grassland. Nxai Pan is located North of the Makgadikgadi Pans and it was once part of the old Makgadikgadi lake bed. The Makgadikgadi lake, an area of 80 000 square km, started drying up almost 10,000 years ago. As the water evaporated, huge salt-encrusted pans were left. In Nxai Pan National Park two of these Pans - Nxai (a fossil lake bed about 15 km wide and covered with short grass), and Kgama-Kgama Pan are located. On the pans are islands of Acacia trees which the animals use for shade during the day.

Nxai Pan was declared a conservation area in 1970 and a national park in 1992. When Nxai Pan was declared a national park it was enlarged to include Baines's Baobabs. Baines's Baobabs is one of the highlights of Nxai Pan National Park. These baobabs were named after the explorer Thomas Baines who painted them on 22 May 1862. In the 146 years since Thomas Baines painted these baobabs there has been virtually no change to these baobabs.

Camping

The safest way to drive into this national park is by 4 x 4. The Nxai National Park has two main campsites. The south and north camps are fully developed with toilets, showers, fire pits and water stand pipes.