This image is the epitome of Africa. The lion king, patrolling his kingdom looking out for enemies and protecting what is his. Like in the movie Lion King, he is accompanied by the birds that notify him of intruders and danger.

As the King roams through the fields, he shakes up the grass - disturbing insects who then become prey for the birds. The birds are prey for other predators, who die and become the grass. The antelopes eat the grass..

"And so we are all connected in the Circle of Life.." - Mufasa

These two lions form part of a special band of three big brothers called the Salas boys. When you see them, you are instantly in awe of their strong physique and beautiful manes. 

Lions share strong family bonds and they protect each other. These Salas boys form a powerful "coalition" and they will fight other males to rule lion prides.

This picture shows another side of these fierce creatures, expressing their love and strong social bond.

If you think about Africa and its animals, one of the first animals that come to mind is the elephant. Their massive size, their tusks and their tough skin with beautiful details make these prehistoric looking animals so majestic. Unfortunately, they are still very much under threat by poaching. Add to this the fact that with increasing human population, their territories get more and more scattered. This leads to many risks of human-wildlife conflict, making extinction a very real threat for the African elephant. 

Having an elephant walking in your direction is something all people hope to experience while on a safari. When we were on an early morning safari in Amboseli National Park, we stopped to look at these two beautiful elephants. They slowly moved our way and walked straight toward us. Amboseli, especially when we were there, was experiencing one of the longest droughts recorded in the area. The strong winds whipped up the sand quite high, leading to an ominous mist. Against this 'misty' backdrop, the elephants give me a scary picture of a dry and dusty world in which animals are slowly disappearing.  

Black rhino's are notoriously shy. On top of that like bushy areas, which makes it hard to spot them. And when you do they will likely move away from you. As a result, we have so many pictures of a rhino's behind!

For this photo, we turned off our engine and sat still in the car for a long time. Since rhino's have poor vision, if you keep really quiet it might not see you and get close. He was slowly walking past us and chewing on leaves, until he probably smelled or heard us and turned around. That's when we quickly snapped this head-on shot of this big beautiful tank.

Black rhinos are critically endangered nowadays, so every encounter with them makes us humble people - grateful to still enjoy their presence.

Lions are widely portrayed as kings in pop culture. Their golden-orange color, the way they wear their manes as crowns and the power these big cats possess, make them seem royal. 

Not only do they seem royal, they sometimes seem to have wisdom only they possess. In one of our favorite parks, Ol Pejeta, we encountered this lion as he greeted his pride. The pride lions were scattered across the plains on which we saw them. 

When he had greeted all pride members, he stopped for a moment to look back at where he came from. He stood there for several seconds, looking in the distance as if he knew something only he could know. We can only imagine the wisdom his life and his fights have brought him.