Braving the cold in Nxai Pan - day 1

The road to Nxai pan

A public holiday on Tuesday had us thinking about how to make into a long weekend and go up north. We got a booking for Nxai Pan, but only Saturday and Sunday. It wasn't worth spending 11 hours driving to the park and only staying there 2 nights so we tagged on the Friday as well with a vague plan of working out what to do on the Monday when we were there.
So on a cold Thursday evening we were packing the car once again to head into the bush and hopefully catch some good sightings. It was still dark by the time we were ready to go and hit the outskirts of Gabs at the sun was rising. Being a working day, the normally packed Gabs / Francistown road wasn't as busy as we made good time to Palapye, where we turned off to refuel again in Lethlakane and top up in Rakops before pulling into the Nxai Pan to register and pay.

The Boteti crossing at Motopi, the river hasn't flowed for ages in 2025. 

All the way there we were trying to work out where to stay in our 4th night as Nxai Pan was fully booked. To our surprise Khumaga campsite in the Makgadikgadi was also full as was Camelthorn and Khama Rhino Sanctaury. We were contemplating going further north to Maun as we were sure we'd find a place to stay there but luckily Boteti River Camp came through for us and we secured our booking before losing cell phone coverage as we made our way to Nxai Pan's South Camp. 

The 35km drive from the gate into Nxai Pan campsite has become massively corrugated since the last time we drove it 2 month ago and it was slow going to finally make it to the pans. The camp attendant gave us info that the lions had been spotted the day before at the waterhole but nowhere to be seen today.

The road to Nxai Pan has not changed over the years. 

We headed to the waterhole but it was quiet except for a young bull elephant, a hungry jackal and a few wildebeest. The sun was starting to set and with it came the cold so we made our way to the campsite to set up for the night. Luckily the shower was hot and soon we were sitting around the fire, with our stew warming up and hoping that the lions would make an appearance in the morning.

Open skies and flat pan, Nxai pan is a place like no other.