We drove for an hour along faded tracks, in and out of dry creek-beds going farther and farther from camp. I don't know much about birds but there were many: eagles, migrating European cranes, Egyptian geese, owls and doves. Suddenly Steve slowed; we jounced down the bank of yet another dry river and nearly head on into an elephant. Heavy with tusk, he moved steadily forward. Pulling it up then shaking the dirt off, he filled his mouth with one trunk-full after another of whatever was in front of him. Devouring 200 kilos a day and sometimes pushing over trees simply to nibble the tender green on top, elephants, next to man, are the most destructive creatures on the Planet. Three down!

To celebrate, Steve pulled into a clearing; Enoch set up a table and dug out a can of Sterno. Thus we had our Scotch sundowners with skewers of delicious, freshly braised Impala, and toasted our good fortune and the changing weather.

So far it was all good fun; somehow any kind of cat looks cuddly, buffalo look too bovine to be bad (wrong, they are terribly dangerous), and we've all seen elephants in the circus. But when we rounded the next bend and saw two rhinos and a baby just ahead, I was unashamedly afraid. The male was trying to get to know the female with the baby. She wasn't having any of it and the jousting, snorting and lunging was terrifying. Steve kept following closer and closer. I finally said I thought he was crazy to get so close and as the dusk turned to dark, we headed off to rejoin the road. Four down; this was amazing!