Safari, day two

the best times to spot animals is early morning and late afternoon, and night time - essentially when its not hot...) thus we were to set out at 5:30 every morning to begin the hunt. we climb aboard our rugged land rover vehicles separating into what would be our car companions for the remainder of the drives...have you ever spent 12-15 hours a day for two solid days with the same set of strangers? it is a true practice in tolerance. certainly by the last day i was losing my capacity to let bygones be bygones and i believe i remarked at one point to the thirty-something new zealander who was incessantly rattling on and on about seeing a cheetah (of which there are maybe 300? in the park and rarely seen) "you and your cheetah are going to drive me mad!" it was not my finest moment.
our guide for the day was named elvis. apparently krista and i attract remarkably named guides in our travels. we drive into the 'proper' park and almost immediately in the near distance we see our first large animals- an elephant, a rhino, and a trio of water buffalo. all hanging out in this bachelor pad off the side of the road. everyone is thrilled. the drive continues and eagle eye elvis manages to spot pretty much all the animals a person would want to see: giraffes, a leopard, rhinos, lions (one pretty close by!), herds of water buffalo (up to two hundred in one), more elephants with babies in tow, freshly birthed impalas (including a laboring one), hippos also with babes, a crocodile, vervets (winner of the all time cutest creature ever), zebras, sable antelope (a rare sight), wild dogs (also extremely rarely seen), warthogs, and baboons galore.
we noticed the guides would stop and chat with other guides comparing sightings and offering tips. k& i decided they were playing a game of sorts to see who would find all the animals in a day. we won.
also- it was an exercise in survival on the drive since somehow the temperature drops a good ten degrees on the vehicles. and it already had cooled off considerably from our first afternoon, maybe to the 60's?