Braving the cold in Nxai Pan - day 3

Pale-Chanting Goshawk is the the common bird of prey in Nxai Pan 

Despite the cold we were up and going even earlier than the previous day, heading to the nearby waterhole before driving to the main one. Nothing to be seen at either, we started our drive around the pan. Plenty of springbok and we also found some zebra but again the cats eluded us.

One of the few places that both Impala and Springbok occur together

By 7.30 the temperature was barely touching 5⁰C so we decided to take advantage of the sun in the open veld at a herd of wildebeest and have coffee. We'd taken our photos and had just pored our coffee into the travel mugs when suddenly a springbok ran past us. And not in a chasing another or just stretching legs kind of way, but a "I'm getting out of here" way.

This is big bull country

The only predator that injects that kind of panic in prey animals is wild dogs but we couldn't see any and dismissed it. But when a second and third springbok do the same you take a closer look and sure enough suddenly Dru exclaimed "Dogs!" Three wild dogs were on the hunt and the springbok were running in all directions. 

Unfortunately they were too far away from us and with dogs they move so fast that its near impossible to keep up with them. We tried to catch up while watching the springbok trying to get away from them, but after a manic search we had to give up. Still, a bit of excitement in the morning is why we get out early. After a long fruitless search we were back at the main waterhole for the mid-morning shift - this time entertained by a nervous herd of kudu and plenty of ostriches of all sizes.

Plenty of Ostrich in Nxai Pan 

The blacksmith lapwings and the black-winged stilts also kept us highly amused as they tried to dive bomb each other for some or other legitimate reason in their minds. By now lunchtime was rolling around and we headed back to camp where we topped up the diesel from our spare Jerry cans and then started boiling pasta for our lunch for the next day.

Nxai campsite #3, best shade around hence the elephants love it 

Lunch was chicken and pineapple burgers before we cleaned up before relaxing. However the resident elephant had different ideas. He'd been drinking from the soak well at the one ablutions and now decided that the other soak well needed to be checked. And the easiest route to get from one to the other was through the campsite and specifically through our camp. 

So that's what he did - walked straight to us. Luckily we'd packed the remaining lunch stuff and shut the back of the bakkie before getting into the car to allow him to walk past in peace. Elephants are extremely intimidating up close and this one walked straight next to the car that the camera couldn't keep him in the frame. 

He stopped at the back of the bakkie and started sniffing around, luckily with the back closed otherwise we could've had a trunk in the back! In A loud voice Dru told at him to keep moving and surprisingly he did, ambling off down the path to other ablutions.

Drank the water out of the bucket on the table!

It was not the end of him though. A little while later he decided to come back via a different empty campsite and again we were in the car while he decided to investigate our camp. He took a particular interest in our basin of water and the next thing we know he'd sucked up all the water and drunk it. Satisfied he ambled off in the direction of other empty campsites and took a nap before starting to feed on some branches. A pretty entertaining lunch stop for us.

Kudu taking a drink 

The hornbills kept us occupied for the rest of the afternoon with their antics before we set out for our evening game drive. The plan for the evening was to look for the wild dogs even though we knew it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. And that's what it turned out to be. The dogs were nowhere to be found and we drove around seeing very little other game too - a pretty quiet game drive.

Southern Yellow Billed Hornbill

Instead of stopping at the main waterhole for sundowners as we usually do, this time we decided not to hang around but rather do more driving in the hopes that we catch a night creature out in the early evening as it was pretty cold by now. The waterhole was quiet in any case, the small herd of elephants that had been running towards the water suddenly tuned tail and ran as we arrived so there wasn't much to see anyway.

Kgori Bustard, the world's heaviest flying bird

We carried on towards the camp when suddenly an animal crossed the road in front of us. Cheryl was immediately on to it within excited call "aardwolf!" And indeed it was - our first sighting of an aardwolf - a purely nocturnal creature the size of a small hyena who feeds exclusively on ants. It is one of the rarest creatures to see and in the top 3 bucket list of most African wildlife enthusiasts. And here we'd seen one. It didn't hang around unfortunately, just crossed the road and disappeared into the bush, but a total highlight for us despite not being able to photograph it.

 

Zebs taking their turn at the waterhole 

Buoyed by the sighting we tried to catch him again but to no avail - he'd just melted into the now darkness so we headed back to the campsite thrilled with the sighting and a first time sighting on our list. A quick setup of camp and we relaxed around the fire before heating our pre-made stew on the coals enjoying the night sounds of the barn owl again. The campsite was pretty busy but as usual it quietened down by around 9am and we headed off to bed wondering if Nxai pan would offer us one more gem in the morning before we had to leave.

Another day another awesome sunset in Africa