It was a great walk, not too hard going and we got to see a little wildlife, the highlight being a herd of hippo in an area around the other side of the island. These were wild hippo and we were not 15m from the edge of their water. They spotted us of course and most turned their beady eyes towards us and they started making aggressive grunting and throat noises. One of them yawned at us, which is their way of showing their teeth and that they better not be messed with. Well instead of reading between the lines and leaving these lethal animals, we stayed right there, still following West who was telling us softly how the mother hippos often hide their male offspring from the single (dominant) male of the herd to prevent the dominant male from killing it off. If the young one makes it to a certain age he will challenge the dominant male for the herd; hence it’s not uncommon to see solitary male hippos around. Shortly a few of them seemed to warm to us and one of them even swam right across our field of vision and emerged from the water on the other side of the water. It wagged its little tail rapidly side to side, which is cute but part of its defecating procedure, yawned at the world in our general direction and hung around for a while.
None of has brought cameras on the walk because of the rain, but boy were we sorry after this display. We headed back to camp and enjoyed a lovely couscous beef & veg dinner before falling asleep nervously to the grunting of a hippo that was considering grazing through our campsite.

The following morning we were woken early to go on another game walk. This was twice as long as the previous one, and lasted for about 3 hrs. We saw baboon, different types of bok and birds, and visited the same hippo hole with cameras this time, but they seemed tired from the previous night’s performance and were fairly reclusive and unthreatening. Tired, but on a high from the walk we returned to camp. It really was hitting home, the concept of being in the African bush, living in tents and visiting the local animals. The scenery was superb. The sky is always amazing (and that’s an understatement!). The water was drinkable (luckily because Nat forgot to pack the drinking water) and it was just a fantastic experience. After lunch I decided to give poling a go. West gave Abbey and I each a boat and a pole and some minor instruction, and off we went.I had a great time! After about 20mins not only had neither of us fallen in (much to the disappointment of the onlookers who’d gathered with cameras like vultures with cutlery), but I was already picking up the basics – mostly how to steer in either direction throughout the length of a single stroke. The sun was beating down on us so we retired to relax in the shade for a while.