The birds are chirping away in the trees over our camp, the hippos as usual giving us the wake-up grunts.
Time to get up and dressed, take in the fresh air on our walk over to the dinning room ready for a hearty breakfast before we are on our way.
Our cheerful driver helps us up into the back of an old army lorry which is now used for game drives.
We are driving around some rocky outcrops on the hope we see leopard, a very hard animal to spot and see. Today there is no such luck, maybe another time. There are days when you can be out all day and not see a thing, other times , the joy, and the unexpected.
Our driver pulls  up at the bottom of a hill and tells us we are going for a short safari  walk and might just spot some animals. Luckily lion have not been spotted around this morning. We slowly walk up the hill which let me tell you was bloody hot and a bit steeper than it first looked, we both found some old broken branch to use as a walking stick, but also to beat the ground in case of snakes. The sun is beating down on us, so water bottles are appreciated, remembering 'what goes in has to come out' mostly in sweat out here.
We round a corner to find a game guard sitting under a tree, ours has a chat to him then leads us further up the hill. There are a pair of rhino grazing. These are a rare breeding pair who are kept under surveillance, but allowed to go where they want. We quietly walk up to them to take photos, making sure our scent is not going their way. It was fantastic, to be that close, Sheila, yes me of course, walks a lot closer to them, and then, I turn my back to them for hubby to take a picture. God, I must have been barking mad. Not only that, stark, raving mad!!  I look back on that day and I can now feel my heart flutter. Luckily they did not bother with us. We were very lucky, even the guard who dare not shout at me thought I was mad. He did have a weapon on him though, but guess who probably would have got shot! Yes, me!!! You have to preserve the rhino's.

                                                                                           
'What an experience, one with the wild'




We are in for a special picnic today for lunch, no going back to camp, this is a day out in the bush. Love the tartan tablecloths.

We met up with some other people on safari for the day, and we  were all treated to a simple cold spread but with BBQ chicken on a small charcoal brazier. The staff were so friendly, we could not have praised them enough. Even down to a canvas cloth tied around a few bushes and a big hole for our ladies loo.

Off again for our last drive, but with the heat of the day a lot of animals are resting under the shade of trees. Don't blame them!

     

' Where's that cold beer?'

               

'Who woke me up'

                                           
       
The sun is now dying down, a fantastic sunset will be seen shortly. This day has certainly be one we will not forget. Will leave you with a couple of friends having a sun downer.

                                                                 
Make sure you come back next week. Bye for now


Yes, you will have guessed this weeks painting.

'Like my toothpick'

                                                     


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How the paintings are progressing.

                      Slowly coming along, have filled in a little more along the back and starting to go down to the front paw. Still making sure that you get the muscle areas in the correct place and the shading to show the contours of the body. Will fill in along the back this week. Have to watch the pastels a little with this hot weather that they don't get too greasy. Very easy to spoil a picture 














                     

          I have applied some more feathers and filling in with more base colour. Next time I hope to define the feathers a little more, have to work this one out to make it look realistic, and maybe make them sit on a branch and not just hanging in mid-air!

Still enjoying doing these pictures, so do come back and see what is next. In case you wonder why I say 'enjoying' I once started some goats. Got 3/4 of the way into it but something was not quite right. The more I looked at the goats , the more I could not quite work out what was wrong, so could not sort it out. Finally solved the problem, I tore the picture up, no more problem, but a waste of time trying to paint it!