Time to get out of our cosy camp beds, as night can be chilly you will find a hot water bottle tucked into your bed. just a little luxury camp staff will give you unless you are really camping rough. After a busy day driving around a restful sleep is great. Having said that there is nothing like lying in bed listening to the hippos snorting in the river and the occasional scratching sound of an elephant rubbing itself up against your tent. Just look out for the calling card when you step out in the morning all bleary eyed, elephant and also hippo dung can be a bit messy! Thankfully most of your camp tents are sturdy. Walking round to our land rover I can look over to the river where the hippos are in full form this morning. Snorting and blowing air, these big lumbering animals are highly dangerous. A bite from these jaws can bite you in half, and they can also move very quickly . A friend of ours lost their son to one of these when he was swimming  in a river and came between the mother and her calf. The hippo attacked and killed the child.

                                                                                             

Now we are off on our early morning start before the sun gets too hot.

Here we come across some zebra, later on I will show you the one that inspired me to paint them. They say that no two zebra's have the same stripes.

The landscape is always so vast, melting away into a shimmering haze, there seems to be no end to this land. Thorn trees and scrub, ant termites, dry and barren areas, some green and plenty of dry grass, foraging for food is never ending.
When the rains come, so does the lushness of the area. but be warned, roads and tracks become quagmires!

Be prepared to help dig out your safari vehicle, you can be up to your knees in mud.

 Here after clambering out to help were told "Be careful, keep watch, this is lion country. they can eat you"!!

funny, that was why we were in this predicament in the first place, looking for lions!

Could not help but wonder if in one of the bushes they were eyeing us up as a tasty morsel.

Just around the corner after we had got going again came across these.

                                                                                                              

 "Reminds me of the time when a man eating lion had two africans from the nearby village. For a few days nobody liked to venture very far until it was caught and shot. The hunter had it in the back of a pickup and was going to give the meat to the villagers. A few of us children jumped in the back, not often you get to sit by a lion, even if it was dead. Food being precious out there, nothing was ever wasted after kill like this.
Back to the camp now, dusty, thirsty and famished.
Our bums are sore from the bumping around and muscles and flab that you never knew you had ache from hanging on to stop yourself from falling down, as there is nothing like standing up with your head out of the sunroof and the wind through your hair. mind, you do look like a sun burnt panda afterwards!
Whilst out there, always check the skyline for any odd shapes, especially by trees and then look underneath, sometimes animals can be spotted that way.
Catch up again on our next safari, next week, and what picture I am going to do next. I will also show this one painted in stages. Still choosing what I feel like doing!

                                                      -----------------------------------

                                                                                 
                
This is the horse I was asked to paint for someone.
       The horse nearly finished, and finally  the end
result.