Adventures with Hippos

We had great sightings of animals in our three days in the Okavango Delta (see previous posting, "Day of the Cat").  And some of these encounters revealed a bit of wild animal personality, like this elephant who flared his ears at us when we got too close.  (We saw only bull elephants, lone or in pairs, as herds of females and young were deep in the forest, we were told, as with so much water around, they didn't need to venture to distance watering holes.)

Lots of Chacma baboons to entertain us ...

A few sightings of Speckled hyenas in the tall grasses. 

And lots antelopes of various types, but especially big herds of very cute impalas. 

But our most interesting - and scary - encounters involved hippos.  On the afternoon of our last full day at Little Kwara camp, we took off for a boat ride rather than the regular Land Cruiser game drive.  We looked forward to the change, including the chance to see water birds (a posting on birds to come soon).  The boat launch was only about 15 minutes from camp, but it required us to go over a "bridge," really a crude structure of logs strapped to a frame to allow the Toyota to traverse deeper water.  But when we got to the bridge, there in the adjoining pool was a menacing bull hippo.  In the photo below, the bridge is on the left edge and you can see the partially submerged hippo to the right. When TJ revved the engine the hippo blew water spray and moved toward us.  TJ reversed a few meters, then advanced ... and the hippo raised himself partially out of the water.  He clearly was not going to let us get the bridge easily. 

After conferring with the camp manager, TJ told us it was too dangerous to try to continue, so we turned around and did a "regular" land-based game drive, with the promise that we'd try the boat ride the next morning, our last in the delta.

When we arrived at the bridge the next morning, the bull was nowhere to be seen, so we were able to carry on to the boat.  The ride would take us from a small waterway to the main river in the area where we'd visit a heron and egret rookery.  B

But the fun with hippos wasn't over!  At one bend in the waterway, we came upon four partially submerged beasts, right where the boat had to make a 90 degree turn.  Again, TJ was cautious, stopping the boat and assessing the situation.  After moving forward a bit, two of the hippos swam off a ways, but two remained in the way, including this guy .... whose look tells it all!

Eventually, TJ gunned the boat past this menacing fellow, but these two encounters gave us a healthy respect for the territoriality of the hippopotamus.