Piper's Pan is as far south as most people visit in the northern section of the park, and as far as I'll describe in this chapter. If you are wondering if it's worth the effort to get here, the answer is a resounding 'Yes'. And that's despite a badly corrugated section of road just north of this area.

Piper's Pan is only a few kilometres across, but it's a stunning stretch of perfectly flat grass. In the rains it's green, and often covered with springbok and gemsbok. By as early as May, it has usually turned a beautiful gold, like a field of ripe barley.

There are two campsites here. CKP1 is slightly further north (GPS:CKP1) and in a grove of rather lovely trees on the west side of the track, but close to the edge of the pan.

The second site, CKP2 (GPS:CKP2), is further south, up higher on a low fossilised dune. This is just beyond a prominent green water tank (GPS:WATANK) which stands at the top of a fossilised dune, beside the track which leads, around 72km later, to Xade.

Around the outside edge of the pan itself there's a 7km circular track that is well worth exploring, although probably impassable during the rains. The eastern side of this (around GPS:PIPERE) is particularly treacherous black-cotton soil, while it often seems to disappear on the southern side. It's a lovely circuit, but very slow driving even when dry, as the hardened earth is very uneven.