15th May: Our first game drive

Up at dawn if you'll believe it, and out on our first drive around the park, in our little Nissan livina! We decided to go towards Okondeka waterhole, as we'd been told it was a good place to see lions. On the way we saw plenty of wildebeest, springbok and jackals, as well as a herd of zebra, some ostriches and oryx - a huge antelopey thing with great long straight horns, and a cute black and white painted face.

And then...a black shape appeared in the distance...a lioness! We looked around and then spotted another female just nearby, so we drove as close as we could and sat and watched. Luckily they were following the road so we were able to drive alongside for quite some time. It was great just to see them there wandering about, not doing much; they're really so beautiful! Apparently the cats of the park are quite elusive, so there was no guarantee we'd see any at all. Very lucky!

the best shot my little camera could come up with!

We headed back to camp for lunch, and then straight out again for the afternoon – plenty more to see! As we drove along the landscape changed quickly from open grassy plains, to a forest of thorny trees (devilish thorns which easily go through soles of shoes and into feet as I found out early on), making it hard to see anything at all. Well, hard to see anything apart from an elephant. Our first elephant sighting, hurrah! A solitary male, huge and imposing even at a distance.

Drove on towards Nebrowni waterhole,where we were met with an amazing panorama crowded with animals of all kinds – zebra, oryx, impala, giraffe, springbok and ostrich. And, right in the middle of the menagerie, another elephant!

Josh - doesn't the chin resting remind you of Murphy? The zebras do this all the time, cute!