Within 10 minutes of being in the park we got to see this and two other lions. Elder Musemare spotted two lions in the tree or we would have driven right by. He should think about becoming a game warden.

On the way out we came across this female hiding behind a bush. We think she was picking out dinner because there were some impalas nearby. We found a couple of rhinos around a waterhole with a small herd of Wildebeests under the shade of a tree. As the day went by we saw a number of single wildebeests among or near herds of impalas – we decided the richer herds hired them as bodyguards against the lions. The good side view of the rhino is actually from a trip to Umfolozi in September but Mary wanted to include it today.

The second of the big five we saw close up in the park was a large herd of Cape buffalo that hurriedly crossed the road right in front of us. Notice the young one at the rear. After they crossed the road they spread out and started grazing. I caught this older bull looking right at us and a number of them in the herd kept us in their sight.

Although we saw an elephant at a distance and found another along the road that I managed to scare away when I drove over a rock, it was not until we were on the way out that we came across four elephants near or in the river. The ones above were all taken at a distance of less than 30 feet and a couple were at less than 15 feet. The trees he is eating is covered in thorns – big ones that are up to 2 inches long and very sharp. I have decided it is the elephants version of spicy food.

The elephant we were able to get close to gave up eating and walked down to the river where three other elephants were grazing and drinking. One of the three left his or her friends and walked across the river where it greeted the other with what looked to me like a big kiss – which is not easy when you have a lot of trunk and tusks in the way, but it looks like love always finds a way.

There are so many wildebeest and impalas that we seldom take pictures but this wildebeest let me drive right up in front of him and then held still for a number of pictures. Mary took the one of the good looking male impala who was also close to the road. The picture with the two resting rhinos is just thrown into because the one on the right was really big even lying down.

As you can see we had our own herd of wild animals with us – the Richards Bay zone. We are told not to feed the animals in the reserve so we told the elders they had to bring their own lunch. However we did bring them some apples and left-over brownies.