This is apparently an example of the largest nest on earth. Home to as many as 500 birds, it’s a sociable weaver’s nest, a feature of the drier, south-western parts of South Africa; the southern Kalahari and northern Cape Karoo. A natural architectural phenomenon, the structures are so big, with as many as 100 ‘chambers’, that they can collapse the trees and the telegraph poles they’re built in and around. The chambers face the ground, making it more difficult for the Cape cobra or boomslang (tree snake) and the pygmy falcon to hunt them. Having seen so many of these nest though my life, I had a sudden yen to know which trees the nests are built on, and google threw up Acacia erioloba, Boscia albitrunca and Aloe dichotoma as answers. This is the acacia erioloba, on Witsand Nature Reserve, same place as last week’s image of the Springbok. https://www.witsandkalahari.co.za/ hashtags: #witsand #kalahari #sociableweaver #africanstorybook #angusbegg #immedia #northerncape #witsandnaturereserve #SAT #southafricantourism #northerncapetourism

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This is an elderly springbok, South Africa’s national animal, at a waterhole in Witsand Nature reserve, in a southern corner of the arid Kalahari sand system. From the fact that it was alone, and heavily scarred on its nose, I knew it was a bull. The scars are the result of rutting, a battle for dominance that he probably lost to a younger male; you can just make out the scars below the brown blaze and his eyes.I was in a hide, which made it possible to get this close, although every time I moved, to change lenses or to swat a fly, he dashed off, slowly returning a little later. That happened five times. Witsand is pure magic for the bush enthusiast who doesn’t need the ‘Big Five’. It consists of massive, blue sky by day and a gazillion starts by night, especially at new moon. Accomodation is in a handful of beautiful and private, large thatched chalets, positioned in the bush so that one isn’t in sight of the other – which led me to feel I was the only one there. For this reason the animals also feel they have the run of the place, with mongoose, jackal, striped field mice and birds visiting the bird-bath daily, “ Unfazed by the humans”, says Owen, the Witsand tourism manager who gave me a bed for the night. In the less than 24 hours I spent there, duikers were always browsing around the camp.The camp has a pool, as it gets very hot in summer, and there are hikes and walking trails laid out.I’ve been wanting to visit for years, and on driving back home to Cape Town from Jo’burg I had decided to drive a little west via Witsand; a quieter road with no tolls and plenty of discovery. It was a good choice. PS – Ask Owen why the camp has unlimited water. And about the pangolins and the farmers and the animal rehab centre. https://www.witsandkalahari.co.za/

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