Day 6. South to Nata & the Bird Sanctuar

The whole camp was aroused by 6.00 and within an hour all the tents were down, bags packed and the trucks loaded up. After another of Munya’s breakfasts we were ready for the morning’s drive south.

As the truck and the minibus rolled southwards, the view was of dry bush and occasional grasslands. We saw a baboon troop and elephants in the distance. An amazing sight interrupted the card game in the front of the truck as the vehicles came to a sudden halt. We had stumbled upon an eland migration with the herd numbering an estimated 80 beasts. These are extremely rare and generally only found in small groups. Our much-travelled support staff had never seen anything like this before.. We had been so lucky!

At Pandamatenga we stopped for a toilet break before pushing on, passed huge agri-business farms irrigated by bore water. There were several roadside giraffes after that as well as ostriches, steenbok, and vervet monkeys.

We drove through Nata an additional 10kms to Nata Lodge where we set up our tents while Munya prepared lunch. After that we headed for the swimming pool and a lazy early afternoon followed.

At 4.30 we left for a visit to the Nata Bird Sanctuary . Unfortunately there was no water in the Suwa Pans and the flamingos and pelicans had gone elsewhere. Nevertheless we did see wildebeest in numbers.

We watched the sunset from the middle of the saltpans and were getting back on the jeeps in the increasing gloom when Sarah noticed her phone was missing. The Jeep was searched and then we had an ‘ostrich parade’ out on the pans as torches began to be used. Just when the search waswas abandoned the phone was found by Nick and we headed back to camp in the dark- very relieved!

A late dinner followed and a different sort of day ended on a good note.Read more