We were up at almost 4,000m, at the end of a long dusty day’s drive, crossing the Sanetti Plateau in Bale Mountains National Park, southern Ethiopia. I was thinking about a hot shower as a squall of icy rain clattered against the windscreen. I hadn’t expected to feel cold in Africa. Then we saw them. Just 15m away, noses and tails tilted skywards, inquisitive, alert: two Ethiopian wolves. Our quest for these exceptionally rare canids wasn’t supposed to start until the next day. They’d shown up early.