Etosh day 2

We woke up at sunrise to head to a watering hole named Salvadora. We had heard there had been a lot of lion sightings there early in the morning. The lions often go to the water holes in thmorning to drink after their hunt in the night. We stayed there fo two hours and saw lots of zebras but no lions.

We decided to move on and went to a water hole named rietfontein. Here we saw 80 impala or so and we saw 7 giraffes. We stayed here for about 45 minues and watched a very interesting interaction among two giraffe. They were evidently two mals showing each other who was more masculine. They were leaning against each other very hard and taking turns swinging their necks and wacking the other one. We were about 50 feet away and we could hear the sound when they would hit. It was truly amazing. We got tired of watching however after 45 minutes and drove around in search of anything else we could find. Everywhere you go there are animals of different sizes and shapes. If I were to talk about everything I would be writing for days.

We went back to our camp in mid afternoon, relaxed, read, and got ready for the sunset animal viewing. The sun sets around 7 so at 5 we headed back to Salvadora in hopes of seeing some lions up close and in the light. When we arrived there were about 40 springbuck and over 200 zebras. Some so close I oculd reach out and touch them. It is amazing how they just pay no attention to you. All of the animals were much more sketish than usual. It was very clear they were quite nervous. After about 45 mintues of watching them all the Zebras ran about 20 feet away and were watching the woodline infront of them. At this point we knew a predator was comingbut neither of us wanted to say anything. I think I held my breath in anticipation for 5 minutes. All of a sudden about 25 feet from us a full grown male lion came sauntering from behind a small hill full of confidence. It was the most amazing thing I have seen in my life. He was absolutely gorgeous. He strutted up to the water hole with not a care in the world. As he did so all the other animals ran for cover. The lion bent down ten feet from us and started to drink, I could almost count the whiskers on his face. With out a doubt he was the most beautiful animal I have ever seen.

He drank for a while and then headed to the other side of the watering hole to rest up for the night. No other animals came within sight of us for the next hour that we stayed there. We shared an amazing African sky sunset with the king of the jungle.