Nxai Pan - South Camp

Now that we'd made arrangements to swap campgrounds, we were really hoping that it would turn out to be a good decision. Nxai Pan NP is pretty much what the name suggests: a park surrounding a pan (temporary puddle/pool/lake...depending on water levels). Right now, the lack of rain meant that it had shrunk down to around pool size, but that meant that pretty much every animal in the park congregated in the one place to drink.

On our first afternoon, we took a game drive in a westerly loop that finished back at the waterhole. During the loop we saw at least a dozen pairs of bat-eared foxes, which was exciting...and cute. There was quite a collection of cars around the waterhole, and one of the other drivers kindly pointed out some lions that were lounging in the grass nearby. It wasn't the best sighting, but they were the first lions that we'd seen on this trip, so we snapped off some obligatory shots.

The next morning I was up early to see what else the park had to offer. Most African animals are primarily active at night, so the best chance of seeing them is early morning and late evening. Mel wasn't excited by the cold, early start (pre-dawn and pre-coffee), so I did this one on my own. Based on the activity of the previous evening, I headed straight for the waterhole.

To my surprise, it was empty. There wasn't even an impala or elephant, which had me scratching my head. Over the last 8 years I seemed to have forgotten that animals usually seek out water after the heat of the day. Following that epiphany, I went exploring down some of the more remote trails. I saw loads of ostriches, quite a few jackals, and plenty of Kori Bustards. By now the sun was starting to warm the plains, so I did what the animals were doing, and retreated back to camp for some shade. The daily temperature fluctuations were quite remarkable, ranging from about around 5°C overnight to highs in the mid-30s. This had us continually changing clothes: from a jacket and beanie when you wake up, to shorts and t-shirt by about 10am. It was bizarre.

Once most of the bite had gone out of the sun, we set off for our afternoon game drive. Learning from our experiences so far, we drove back to the waterhole. This time there were a pair of adolescent lion cubs lounging around in the open, being overseen by a pair of adults. It became apparent that they were being trained to hunt, as the adults had retreated under the cover of some nearby bushes to observe the progress. The setting sun and the dust-filled air already made for some lovely photos, but then a large male kudu arrived, and things got even more exciting.

The cubs were doing a terrible job of blending in, just lying around in the open, so the kudu knew that they were there. But he'd come to the waterhole because he was thirsty, and he wasn't about to let a pair of pesky lions stop him. The cubs saw him as well, and their gaze became fixated, as he looped around to drink from the other side of the water. When the kudu finally dropped its head to take a drink, one of the cubs decided to try its luck. It crept along low to the ground, but the kudu spotted the ambush and bolted. It looked like mum and dad will need to provide a bit more guidance before these youngsters are ready.

We must have earned ourselves some karma credit because we were then treated to a show by a pair of young elephants. They'd both love to be the boss of a waterhole one day, and they were practising the wrestling skills that they'd need to dominate a future opponent. It was very entertaining, but mum eventually decided that they had better things to be doing, and split them up. Check out the video.

It had been an amazing 2 nights at Nxai Pan, but it was time to rejoin P&J (returning from their lodged in the Delta) and then head into the wilderness for almost a week. After starting out with such a terrific range of sightings, we crossed our fingers that we hadn't peaked too soon...Read more