obviously too late to see these magnificent cats at their best  - they will undoubtedly have been very active whilst we were still in our sleeping bags. Amongst our other sightings - a fleeting glance of a yellow mongoose, (Max assured us that we would be seeing plenty of mongoose at Namatomi, which was to be our next camp), the attractive little namaqua grouse, with its long pointed tail - endemic to SW Africa, and a good number of wildebeest. The proliferation game on the plains was quite striking at this early hour, and alongside the wildebeest we could see oryx, ostrich, springbok in good numbers. We came across another pride of lions about an hour later, but as before, they had obviously had a successful morning's hunt and were lying around, half-alert, but clearly

  at rest. As we watched them I sighted something which was - to me at least - far more interesting - the nest of a pair of pale chanting goshawks.
 I asked Max if we could move 50 yards up the track, and whilst most on the truck were watching the lions, and hoping they would "do something," I was quite happy with the opportunity to view these birds opposite at close quarters. Goshawks in the UK are particularly elusive, with a preference for dense woodland. They are the largest of the UK hawks, and to have an opportunity to get so close and take photographs could only be had by acquisition of a licence to do so. These pale chanting goshawks however are much more colourful than our own. Both parent birds were present, and very active. The female was returning to the nest with nesting

material and once on the nest she was treading very carefully around its rim, occasionally pausing to look down into the cup. This behaviour, which I've seen many times in our own ospreys and other birds of prey is clearly indicative that she had very young chicks in the nest. So I was very grateful to the pride of lions on the opposite side of the track, inactive as they were, to have presented such an opportunity, and I was a happy man as we left them. It was only later, after returning home that I realised that one of the pair had been rung, so it's clear that here in Africa too they are being monitored. The remainder of our game drive brought sightings of most of the plentiful plains game, so it is little wonder that the prides of lions we had encountered were so well fed, and in excellent condition.

We returned to our camp at Okaukuejo at 10.30 and took the opportunity to spend the middle part of the day relaxing, with our afternoon game-drive scheduled for  4 pm that afternoon. Some of the gang went for a swim at the camp's swimming pool, whilst Nancy and I took a walk up to the top of the camp's tower, which gave a high-level view of the surrounding terrain, sighting a hoopoe, and, like the goshawk, it was nice to see this striking bird at close quarters. After lunch we spent some time at the camp's waterhole where elephant and oryx were occupying the prime spots. One of the elephants was giving himself a good hosing down, and was obviously enjoying the experience in the heat of the noon sun. There were plenty of animals around the waterhole drinking and bathing, with oryx,

impala, zebra and springbok in good numbers. Then, after a restful afternoon in the shade of the camp - being entertained by the local ground squirrels we got ourselves ready for our afternoon game drive, starting at 4 o'clock. Again, elephants were plentiful along with the usual game animals, and we also saw the tiny steenbok - this tiny antelope only measures around 20 inches to the shoulder and weighs in at around 22lbs, so it's no bigger than your average domestic dog, with ears that seem distinctly out of proportion to the rest of its body. This little mammal is predated upon by cheetah and to a lesser extent, leopard, but its biggest threat comes from spotted hyena whose diet can be over 20% steenbok.We came across another pride of lions, but as before, they were

resting, with distended bellies, but they did at least get to their feet on this occasion. Giraffe gave us some reasonable close-up views, but despite Claire's best efforts in her role as high-level spotter up in the roof, nothing was seen to inject a little excitement in the truck and we headed back to camp at 7, where Jonas had been busy preparing our evening meal of shepherd's pie and butternut squash. This was our second evening at Okaukuejo, and we were to be on the move again the following morning. So needless to say we were across to the waterhole after dinner. Things were looking up as we had six lions in attendance. Unfortunately they were to the far side of the waterhole. I took some photographs - experimenting with flash, and sad to say, I only got results I would

prefer not to publish here I'm afraid. Also present we had rhino and giraffe, and before the evening was out, we had another visit from the lions, though only 2 on this occasion. Later that night, asleep in the tent, I was awoken by the roar of lions. They were certainly close, and I got up and took a walk to the waterhole, but none were present. I think it was on this night that I met Brenda and Claire who had also been roused by the lions. They stayed longer than I did, and later informed me that the lions had come to the waterhole about 10 minutes after I left, though they continued through.But that's wildlife - so unpredictable. And so we came to the end of our two days at Okaukuejo, and by all accounts we did pretty well with our waterhole viewing, with rhinos and lions, and not forgetting the ever-present elephant who made for some pretty impressive viewing.