Nxai pan/ Nata sanctuary

After leaving Maun we headed 300 kms east in Botswana to Nata Sanctuary. This is a community run bird sanctuary that usually hosts 1000’s of flamingos and pelicans at the start of the rainy season. The rains fill the Sowa pan with ankle deep water like an inland sea as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately the rains hadn’t quite started yet so the pan was vast and dry. Still very very beautiful. We did see one flamingo who had set up home in a puddle… poor guy either got left behind when the flamingo migration left last year or he’s jumped the gun and arrived early.

We were able to have our first night in the tents perched on edge of the pan. Matt got to light his first fire of the trip which put a smile on the dial. We went poking around under a log out on a bare salt pan and found a shrew (Google it) cohabiting with a scorpion

The night was stunning, clear starry sky, and we woke up to a cool breeze and a lovely sunrise. Breakfast under the trees was cereal, peaches and cold yoghurt (new luxury – vehicle has a small fridge), then hit the road, dodge the potholes, 150km west to the entrance of Nxai Pan National Park.

The drive in was Doug’s first off road driving test, and he nailed the extreme deep sand and big lumps. We passed dozens of giraffe, elephants, steenbok, and more, but couldn’t stop for fear of getting stuck in the fine sand.

We’ve been to Nxai Pan 30 times over the years, but each time is different. This time we arrived at the end of the dry season, in a drought year. As we drove out to the waterhole, which is the only standing water for 50kms, we were hit by a dust storm that blocked out the sky. We put some kids on the roof and drove into it blind (as you do). It was getting a bit overwhelming, when out of the dust strode a huge bull elephant.

Late in the afternoon we went on another drive around and ended with a cold drink at the waterhole, watching 3 jackals and a vulture picking over a well-dead elephant carcass, while 8 or so very much alive elephants came and went.

Three excitements in the night- a jackal drinking from the dishes tub when Matt wasn’t watching, large scorpions running around the ground, and rain that came and gave us the most unexpected feeling on any Leanne/matt trip in peak hot season- COLD!

The next day was beautiful blue sky and we drove at dawn to find baby bat eared foxes playing around out of their burrows. All the animals on the pan were the super hardy species who could handle the dry, dusty environment at this time of the year. It was incredible to understand how they were surviving.

Fenn and Matt baked two loaves of bread on the fire mid-morning. The banana bread was pretty good, smothered in butter or jam, but the Parmesan cheese loaf was a real winner.

Out for another drive around as soon as it started to cool a little in the late afternoon, we had all the kids riding around on the roof rack again when we parked up next to a waterhole with two huge male elephants splashing around in it.

We headed back to camp, cooked and ate dinner around the fire and watched a beautiful distant lightning display on the horizon to the north. What was awesome to watch from a distance became a dramatic change of pace as it smashed into us with a vengeance. Matt and Doug secured the campsite while the rest buckled down in the nearly 100% waterproof rooftop tents. Doug nearly tripping over a black backed jackal, as he focused his headtorch at the ground to avoid the omnipresent scorpions.

We got blasted. And we woke to a watery wonderland that, overnight, replaced the dusty dry drought-stricken landscape. The herds of wildebeest, zebra and springbok had started to arrive, we saw jackal babies, zebra babies, a giraffe baby and more bat eared foxes playing around babies. The transformation could not be more dramatic. Doug earned his ‘mud driving diploma’ on the morning drive.

On the drive through thick sand out of the pan we stopped for a break, and influencer Doug led the group in a (very) hot yoga session, with a bull elephant watching from a short distance.

150km east now to camp at Nata lodge for a night off the pasta specials. As I sit here writing, I’m about to order a beef burger with all the extras, and a cold Windhoek lager. Heaven awaits.