On the way out of Etosha

So it was time to head 'up country' from Etosha, via a very long drive to the Caprivi Strip and the Kavango River.  We still had a good 60km of track out of the park and, thus far, no sign of the big cats...

The first bird of the day, this Spotted Thick-knee:

Followed by a Yellow-bellied Greenbul:

We stopped first at the lookout for the Etosha Pan, basically a dry remnant of an ancient lake, you know - millions of years ago type old:

It sometimes gets refilled by the annual rainfall, before baking dry again, though that baking is skin-deep and therefore treacherous...

We added another here, the Lesser Grey Shrike:

You can see from the light, rain was coming.

As we headed further out we spotted two Black Rhino, squared-up for a fight.  I think our being there put them off somewhat but they remained confrontational:

Just 10km short of the exit we finally saw some big cats, and what a sighting!!  A group of females and youngsters at play:

You have no idea what it's like to be around five to ten metres from a Lion and to have it look right at you, right down the lens.  Goosebumps doesn't do it justice...

Amazing animals and fantastic to get so close to the family group.  Etosha really did deliver on the widlife and indeed birding front!