After a meeting with the medical team about my face, we took a little break, then headed out for our afternoon drive. They have afternoon tea at 3:00pm, but we’re so full from breakfast we skip it. So, we head out around that time for our drive.

The first thing we saw today was a pair of lions. The lioness was lying under one bush and the lion was nearby under another. As usual, we were fairly close to them. She was sleeping but raised her head to look at us for a moment and then went back to sleeping.

Same with the lion. He was snoozing away, then he raised his head to look around, then back to sleep. He was very large, but it’s hard to tell from this angle and photo.

Many times, we’ll drive in the dry riverbeds instead of on a “road”. It’s amazing to think these are full of water during the rainy season!

Here’s a nice photo of a male impala trotting along. His horns look extra long!

Every so often, we would see some banded mongooses running around – usually away from us. This time, one of them stopped just long enough to get a good photo.

Another smaller riverbed, this one has a lot of brush hanging over it. It was always harder to find the animals when there was a lot of brush. But most of the Mashatu Game Reserve is open with scattered brush and trees. So it was fairly easy to find the animals. Still, the green brush made it pretty.

Around the corner, a yellow-billed hornbill was perched. We saw so many of them in Botswana. Such cool birds. His bill looks so large, it seems it would tip him over.

Around another corner, and we were back in the open area. It’s so pretty with the trees dotting the landscape.

Here, a herd of wildebeest grazes. They usually run away from us, but this group hung out for a bit before they ran.

Over to the right, there was also a small herd of zebras passing through. They looked as if they had some where to be – just mosying on by.

We also saw a lot of these ring-necked doves. They were all over the place but always moving and flying. So this is the best photo I could get of one. It was taking a dust bath, so its feathers were fluffed up.

Another animal that’s hard to get a good photo of is warthogs. They are very skittish and run away as soon as they hear the vehicle. But, in the distance, we saw this group of warthogs foraging. You can really see their white fluffy beards. These are the females.

We also saw the male warthog with this group. He was kneeling to eat. It’s interesting how warthogs do that to make it easier to reach their food. It seems like their knees would hurt! He has a good sized set of tusks, too.

We crossed a small river (in a huge riverbed) and saw a beautiful Nyala tree. They are HUGE. Their trunks are so wide, sometimes wider than our car. These trees are found all over the Mashatu Game Reserve, thus their nickname of the Mashatu tree. They grow to be about 100 feet tall. The trees around Mashatu are estimated to be between 300 and 600 years old.

Surprisingly,they are a type of legume. Isn’t that crazy? We’d frequently see impalas under the trees, eating the dropped fruit. Not to mention, these trees made great shade.

I just love these trees.

Up ahead, we found a few giraffes. They are just so tall and cool looking. This one was walking over to the tree to eat.

Here is a nice portrait of a giraffe.

And another one taking a look at us.

These were quite close to us, which was nice. Usually, you see their heads sticking up in the distance. But as you drive closer, they leave. So this was a nice change.

It’s starting to get late in the day, so we are winding our way back towards the lodge. On the way, we saw these female kudus. They are always running away from us. Heck, if I were a prey animal, I’d run away from us too! It’s difficult to see in this photo, but they have tall horns.

Around the next corner, we saw impala crossing the road. This was a pretty female impala.

As the sun started to set, Tips found a perfect spot for us to have sundowners. The view up here was incredible.

Up on the hill, there was a huge pile of rocks. I don’t recall why people started piling rocks up there, but the tradition continues. Of course, we had to add our rocks to the pile. 😉

That’s it for today! It got dark quickly, and we headed on back to the lodge for dinner.