Hippopotamus

We headed on down to the jetty questioning whether we had taken the right path. You see there was a group of zebras crossing our path only 20 yards ahead. We could see a tower ahead and continued. We reached it alone and spotted some hippo out in the lake. We are on the edge of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley. A guide soon caught up with us and was happy to escort us across the dry mud edges to get closer to the hippo. He pointed out the foot prints in the mud as he gathered a club shaped stick from the ground. I wondered if I should find one too. After a few long distant photos of hippo heads on the surface of the water, he led us off by a heard of goats to see if there was a hippo out of the water.

Sure enough there was a hippo grazing in the field. He, our guide, seemed very cautious approaching and ducked down behind a bank. I didn't share his concern so much and was happily clicking away. The local people know the animals well and appear very calm. Our guide offered to take a photo of us with the hippo behind. I changed the battery and handed over the camera.

As we turned our backs the hippo turned to face and our guide became quite serious. Two young Masai lads who were herding the goats turned and sprinted and for a minute my heart was in my mouth. (I thinks that's a phrase which implies some element of terror)

We headed on down to the jetty questioning whether we had taken the right path. You see there was a group of zebras crossing our path only 20 yards ahead. We could see a tower ahead and continued. We reached it alone and spotted some hippo out in the lake. We are on the edge of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley. A guide soon caught up with us and was happy to escort us across the dry mud edges to get closer to the hippo. He pointed out the foot prints in the mud as he gathered a club shaped stick from the ground. I wondered if I should find one too. After a few long distant photos of hippo heads on the surface of the water, he led us off by a heard of goats to see if there was a hippo out of the water.

Sure enough there was a hippo grazing in the field. He, our guide, seemed very cautious approaching and ducked down behind a bank. I didn't share his concern so much and was happily clicking away. The local people know the animals well and appear very calm. Our guide offered to take a photo of us with the hippo behind. I changed the battery and handed over the camera.

As we turned our backs the hippo turned to face and our guide became quite serious. Two young Masai lads who were herding the goats turned and sprinted and for a minute my heart was in my mouth. (I thinks that's a phrase which implies some element of terror)

We continued our walking safari getting amongst a substantial number of wild animals. Close to within 30 yards of giraffe, zebra, waterbuck, impala, dik dik and a number of noisy birds. It was quite a buzz. We weren't so much closer than we had been on game drives but we were on foot. Actually the animals allowed you to get closer on foot before scampering. The guides seem to take us closer and closer as long as we appear to be taking photos. "You want to get a closer photo?" I'm pretty sure they think I want a photo of the animals tonsils sometimes. Seriously I have a zoom, I don't need to get any closer.

After our small scale safari, Becky and I decided to visit the pool before it closed at 6pm. It is promoted in the hotel folder as a solar-heated pool.

Becky was quite speedy to get in Whereas I was more hesitant - and rightly so. It was freezing. When I finally submerged I wondered whether solar-heated merely means that the sun shines on the pool. After 5pm it hardly even does that.