Breakfast

Our camp for the past 2 nights has been on the banks of the Chobe River. We are deep in the bush and apart from the ten or so of us camping, there is no one else here at night. Just us and what at times looks like an Eden of impala, zebra, hippo, fish eagle, elephant, all mingling on the shores and flats, which in the rainy season are submerged by the river. Hyaena and hippo keep us awake while elephant  move silently past our tents at night and gentle impala and zebra wander through our campsite at dawn. This morning's game drive took us out of our camp as the sun rose, the past few days we have had amazing game viewing but as yet had seen no lion. Shortly after leaving camp we passed through herds of impala and zebra standing in the first, early golden rays of then sun. We rounded a corner and came across a group of 6 young lioness, lying on an open piece of veld, right next to the road. We were the first and only to spot them and had them to ourselves as the basked in the sun. True royalty of the bush, they showed little interest in our presence, clearly rulers of their surroundings. Eventually they got up and headed off in to the deeper bush, climbing tree trunks and playing with each other, chasing, tumbling, pouncing with tails high and dust billowing as their play kicked it up. Eventually they were gone, blending back in to the bush, with no hint that they had just been there.  The encounter was brief and extraordinary, we felt blessed to have been there for that brief moment of wonder.

Breakfast followed a little further down the road, with apricot jam on bread baked in yesterday's fire, fruit, tea, coffee and hot chocolate on the roof of the Landrover. Around us were giraffe, impala and of course baboon (hoping to sneak an apple) and the Chobe glistened alongside us. A pair of local fishermen poled past us on their mokoro's, greeting us with a wave. We waved back and shouted hello in Tswana - "dumela!". Breakfast in Africa.