Today should be one of the highlights of our tour as we expect to see most of the big five today (lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and leopard) as well as other animals and birds. The best time to see the animals is before the sun gets too hot so we were awakened at 5:30, had a quick breakfast at 06:00 and set off in the jeeps at 06:30.

The first animals we saw were giraffes and a hartebeest. But soon we came across a group of about nine lions resting in the grass. As the sun became hotter, the lions started to move to some shade until they had all moved off. They seemed very unperturbed by the masses of tourists gawping at them !

Next we saw a Dik-dik (a small antelope which only grows to a height of about 60cms) an impala and a group of Maribou Storks. Then we came across a herd of around 50 elephants with lots of calves. Like the lions, they took no notice of all of us sitting there watching and photographing them.

Having watched a buffalo feeding in the long grass, we stopped to watch a large number of hippos basking in a mud pool. They seem to do nothing but lie in the mud, turning over occasionally but the area absolutely stinks !

Now we saw a Reedbuck gazelle, a group of monkeys, zebras and an ostrich.

Our vehicles were fitted with radios and our guide was alerted by another driver to a location where a family of Cheetahs could be seen. We drove to this spot and spent quite a long time watching these beautiful animals which look and act like domestic cats in so many ways.