What a crappy night- it was sooo hot- the bed, pillows & canvas was all boiling and the temperature didn’t go down, not good conditions for sleeping – we were sweating all night.

We were up at 4.15am to do a safari drive. We boarded our safari vehicle and were soon on the way, the driver had to use a red light to see any animals until sun up. We saw giraffe, hyena and zebra, lesser kestrel and eagle and finally lions 2 male 1 female and cub, they were so close to the vehicle. As we drove further on we saw a cheetah, it was a bit further back so pics were a bit hard. Was a successful drive- at least David got to see a few things without having to drive as well.

We packed up and continued doing our own self drive. We saw lots of wildebeest at Wolfnes waterhole. At Okendeka waterhole, we saw 8 lions resting around the waterhole – they had huge bellies, so they had recently fed! At Charl Marl Dam we spied lions lying under 2 trees just off the side of the road & lots of giraffe and at Ozonjuitjs waterhole we saw another 2 lions as well as plenty of gemsbok, giraffe and zebra. It is a bonanza for lions today!

We stopped for lunch at a rest stop – These are the only areas, outside the campsites, where you can get out of the car. These are fully enclosed with 10 foot electric fencing area.

We reached Olifantsrus campsite – we are the first ones there, so we got to pick our site for the night! There are only 8 camp sites, so nice and quiet. The campsite used to be a picnic area and has only recently been made into a campsite- so it is relatively new and they are still working on it. They have a huge walkway which leads up to a 2 storey hide above a waterhole. There is a huge herd of elephants drinking the water when we arrive, we stayed watching them for hours, they preferred to try and slurp /drink from the water pipe rather than the waterhole itself and was interesting to see (and hear as they are very vocal) when the lesser elephants tried to get a few drops- the big dominant female was not having any of it!

There was a bit of pushing and shoving going on. A lone white rhino also comes in for a drink. We had a quick dinner before going back to the hide, is was getting dark so not any good photos – they use red lights to light up the waterhole at night – this doesn’t affect the animals. We see 2 black rhinos who do not like each other & the dominate rhino keeps chasing the smaller one off. There are plenty of zebra, kudu, gemsbok, springbok, jackals taking turns to drink. We see a brown hyena lurking in the background.

A few huge herds of elephants slowly arrive and congregate– about 50 in total, this was the largest herd of elephants we have seen, by far! They come in to drink at different times – some standing on the edge of the waterhole playing- the smaller ones play fighting- some of the bigger ones also having a dust bath, we watched as a baby had an issue with the black rhino and the mother kept pulling it back- this was so special to watch. We would have loved to stay up longer, and watch all their antics, but the early morning start was taking its toll, so we went to bed about 10pm.