A cat or a lifer a day keep the doctor away

[Mel]

A wonderful sighting of an ellie herd And of course, I won't complain about those lions either

Glad you like that lodge! I would go back there any time when staying in the area

[Flutterby]

Ellies sure can keep you entertained for hours!

[Klipspringer]

The grass is dry there - but still warthog around, maybe they like the area where they can look over the grass

[leachy]

hay pumbaa.

once again lovely sightings and awesome images.

i love the way that you have captured the textures on the elies and warties

[Richprins]

As you say, the background is special, Pumbaa!

Quite big tusks on the warthog womans!

Lovely encounters.

[Pumbaa]

Those male lions are massive

They were and even wear scars

Four lions, Elephant herd, warthogs and impalas...not bad. I forgot the hitchhiker

and believe me it somehow got better and better that day

A wonderful sighting of an ellie herd And of course, I won't complain about those lions either

Glad you like that lodge! I would go back there any time when staying in the area

We were happy that the ellies were so relaxed

Ellies sure can keep you entertained for hours!

Indeed we could have watched them far longer but far too soon they walked away

[Pumbaa]

The grass is dry there - but still warthog around, maybe they like the area where they can look over the grass

I guess that too

hay pumbaa.

once again lovely sightings and awesome images.

i love the way that you have captured the textures on the elies and warties

The light helped indeed massive

As you say, the background is special, Pumbaa!

Quite big tusks on the warthog womans!

Lovely encounters.

That area is so beautiful

[Pumbaa]

Somehow everywhere we discovered something – a glossy starling



as well as hungry impala rams



and meanwhile we already turned into the direction of Matjulu and there we have been stopped by another car and the passengers made us away of a group of lionesses only a bit further down the road – Lions again on our very first day – still unbelievable but true we finally noticed them shortly before the turnoff into the direction of Majulu waterhole where there is another nature waterhole and there they were lying



very difficult to spot from the place we stopped but nevertheless they had chosen a wonderful spot to rest.



Luckily we could move a bit forward and now we could see them a bit better





all in all we spotted four females out of which only three were visible, from one of them one could only see the outlines between the vegetation.



This sighting was even far better than the one of the males and on top surprisingly only few cars were hanging around and finally one of the lionesses stood up and laid down closer to the water and for us she was now far better to be seen.



After a while we could again move a bit forward and now we could see one of the ladies still a bit clearer



but all of them were more than sleepy and after half an hour we carried on as we do not wanted to spend our first hours in the park waiting for lions who might move and we decided to maybe return to that spot later again but that was not to be…….

[Pumbaa]

Our first giraffes during that trip appeared as well



and they were even willing to pose nicely



and for sure were hungry.



Again I also love the mountains in the background in these shots – Sigh -



]

and where there are giraffes, impalas as are well not far and same were also hungry and looked all over the park quite well fed which was awesome to see.



Later as expected we reached finally Matjulu which was deserted but no surprise as everywhere in the veld there were large puddles to be seen. Nevertheless the red-billed queleas were plentiful





as well as the arrow-marked babblers so consequently we did not stay long there but not far we discovered a shy duiker which as all the other ones we saw this year always dashed away so this was indeed the only picture we took this year from a duiker.



Later on we also spotted a couple of kudu ladies,



European bee eaters



and finally also a group of kudu males.



We drove the short detour to Renosterpan but besides a couple of terrapins, we only spotted a family of Egyptian goose out of which the goslings were willing to pose.



to be continued……

[Flutterby]

Lovely pics of the lions, especially that last one.