Nata

Birds paradise at the big salt pans

Nata is a small town in the Central District in Botswana and is home to 6714 inhabitants.  (2011). The town is, apart from a few administrative buildings, rurally structured.  

The Nata River runs through the town, which occasionally floods the Sua pan in the northern and eastern part of the Makgadikgadi salt pans.

Nata is located at the intersection of the tarred ‘highways’ A3, which connects Francistown and Maun in a north-eastern direction and the A33, which leads from Nata northwards to Kazangula and further on to Namibia.

Nata Lodge is an oasis on the edge of the big salt pans of Botswana. The lodge is situated close to the entrance of the Nata Bird Sanctuary, only 10 km out of Nata. This area accumulates numerous salt pans and vast grasslands dotted by palm islands.   

The area is known to have the largest number of salt pans worldwide covering an area of 37000 km². This is the last remain of Africa’s once mighty inland sea.