Driving in we saw our first elephants - hoorah! - as well as zebra and giraffe - the bird life is superb too. In the afternoon on our first game drive hyenas - vicious looking creatures - topi, more zebra and giraffe.
Over the next few days we had half a dozen game drives and saw lots of animals, including many elephants and lions. From the lodge we could see a pride of lions on rocks, also zebra.
The most beautiful gazelles inhabit the area. We'd seen quite a few already but never got tired of seeing these shy, graceful animals.
The Bare-faced Go-away bird was another favourite - wonderful name!
Mostly the lions we saw were not very active until later in the day when it was much more difficult to take good photographs.
The hippos were very difficult to see well as the river was quite high due to the recent rains, so we saw lots of ears,snouts and backs but little else!
One of the most attractive creatures was a little jackal. I'd always thought they would look vicious but they don't at all.
We saw lots of birds just at the lodge, and a monkey with a baby on the roof! The ostriches are also a wonderful sight - quite stately birds.
But the most memorable, for me, were the elephants and, in particular, on our very last drive when we saw a complete herd of elephants on the opposite side of the valley with the females and youngsters together and the young males on the outskirts of the group. It was too close to dusk to get good photographs but the memory will stay with me always.
(to be continued)
