Hippo were always a common sight in the Zambesi, particularly around the Vic Falls area. I have seen them in the Lowveld, too, in lower Sabi and the Ghona-re-Zhou and of, course by Kariba.

Waterbuck were found wherever water was plentiful! There used to be a small herd which lived in the rain forest at Victoria Falls and they became quite tame & accustomed to human visitors.

My first encounter with non-bottled version of lion was on the road from Makuti to Kariba in 1969. It was early evening, the sun had just gone down and driving around a bend when came across a lone male lion sitting majestically in the middle of the road, blocking our way and blinking drowsily into the car headlights. We sat & admired him for several minutes whilst I cursed myself for having left my camera in the car boot. There was no way back so we had to persuade him to move over so we edged towards him. As we were almost touching him he decided to move and he growled menacingly as he walked alongside the car and as we had been travelling with windows lowered I was treated to a pungent waft of ha-lion-tosis!

The water holes at the Wankie game park always provided game viewers with picture opportunities. This was taken at Nyamandhlovu Pan where zebra were abundant but giraffe and sable were less frequently seen.

White Rhino ("Chipimberi") were virtually extinct at one time but this family were frequent visitors to the Southern Slum Wankie Game Park Hotel (as was I!) . I remember once seeing some of the hotel staff chasing the mother rhino out of the car park . She left, somewhat indignantly, and then splattered the gateposts with her dung in that quaint manner than Rhino have of revolving their tails whilst taking a dump!

Without a doubt, my favourite (feathered) Rhodesian birds were the Carmine Bee-Eaters. Their incredible habit of flying alongside and ahead of the car, taking & eating insects on the wing, sometimes made driving a slightly hazardous experience in the Wankie Game park but they were a joy to watch as their iridescent plumage glinted in the sunlight as they swooped and zig-zagged along.

This young Kudu would have made excellent biltong. This one is in the wild in Wankie but Kudu were successfully bred in captivity for their meat and became quite domesticated. I have had one actually take food from my hand at a game ranch near Gatooma.

The only time anybody wants to come as close as this to a crocodile is when it is in an enclosure with a high wall & fence around it and when it has just eaten well! This ugly example of our most pre-hensile reptile lived at the Crocodile Farm at Victoria Falls.

Another one of our amusing birds, the trumpeter hornbill was also a common sight at Victoria Falls and seemed to think that it was its lot in life to compete with the "thundering smoke" on noise levels.

Leopard were seldom seen in the wild. This magnificent specimen lived under protection at the small zoo at Lake McIlwaine but I have seen it's cousin out in the actual park having an afternoon siesta in a tree.

This young elephant stumbled out of the undergrowth at Lake McIlwaine Park just as I was driving past. I don't know which of us was the most surprised. We stopped and stared at each other long enough for me to take this picture before his trunk went up and he called loudly for his mother! I gapped it hastily.