The lioness at top left was cat napping right in the road as we began our night drive through the park. Night drives consist of the Land Rovers driving slowly through park roads with four to six powerful hand held lights available for people to shine out the sides, and the vehicles cruise the night with bright eyes tilting and flashing. I was told that night drives afford opportunities to observe things you don't see in the daytime, and are particularly favorable for spotting packs of lions, but I found the experience to be arrogantly intrusive to the animals. Our guide told us of one drive where, despite being cautioned to shine the lights below the animal's eyes, one group pinned a herd of impala so harshly that when they bolted one of them charged full-tilt right into a tree because it's night vision had been washed out. No, I didn't care for the night drives too much. The lioness on the top right was basking with her mate in the morning sun screened from the road by brush. When you see something special, the best thing to do is coast to a stop, shut off your engine and and be so quiet your breathing sounds loud as you try to absorb the wildlife. Unfortunately, our experience with this noble creature was cut short by a white sedan parked with the engine running and their stereo system blasting. After a couple of minutes of this, the feline pair slipped off into the bush like smoke. The male baboon in the second row was sitting serenely right at the side of the roar, watching his clan. We pulled to a stop and he could have reached out and touched the car, but he never turned his head towards us, remaining stoically staring ahead, but you could see his eyes flicking ever so slightly towards us frequently. We were struck by the rich, woody brown of his eyes.

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