Island-Hippo Pool-Sunset

We arrived on an uninhabited "island" in the middle of the delta in the heat of the afternoon. We set up camp-pitched a cheap china-shop tent with ruffles on the windows and lace mesh-and relaxed in the shade of a large tree. Happy to be out of the sun. Upon our arrival at the site we found a hyena skull (identified by KG nonchalantly) and the odd animal bone here and there. No big deal. KG dug us a toilet that was not at all hidden behind a few bushes 50ft away (which didn't stop us from getting lost on the way there in the dark later that evening) and then set up his and Letter's beds fire-side. KG and Letter made some tea and cooked some beans while the four of us snacked on delta water, tuna on crackers, and apples.

After a couple of hours we got back into our mokoros and headed towards the hippo pool. I had great mental images of hippos frolicking and socialising and playfully chomping on each other with their impressive jaws. Such was not the case. We found two hippos eye-deep in the pool. They took turns bobbing in and out of view as they went under the water then came back up for air a couple of minutes later. It wasn't much action, but it was enough. Obviously we kept our distance, as hippos kill more people in Africa every year than any other animal. They are violently territorial and very possessive of their water. The very last place you ever want to be is in between a hippo and his water-or in our case, in a hippo's face in his water. We barely spoke, and when we did, only in whispers, as we watched the gluttonous animals dip and surface, as kids diving for rings at the bottom of a pool. Hushed, KG fed us all the information he could muster on hippos, astutely telling us that they were the largest amphibians in the world. I exchanged a smile with Emily and Mattie-none of us had the heart to correct him. A few minutes passed and Adam turned to us, having obviously ruminated on this piece of information, "the largest amphibians...I guess I always knew that..." We were rendered speechless. Finally, having realised that he wasn't kidding, I felt morally obligated to bring Adam up to speed. "No sweetie, hippos are mammals, not amphibians..." We collectively fell apart in laughter and "I guess I always knew that..." was added to "mock charge" as a theme for the rest of the trip.

From the hippo pool we poled to a spot in the delta with an inimitable view of the sunset. Again, we were left to our thoughts as we watched the sun fall to background noise of frogs and crickets and hippos. One of the most amazing things about African sunsets is the rate at which the sun makes it decent. It seems to float weightlessly in the sky throughout the day, gradually drifting towards the western horizon. And then, as if suddenly realising an impending deadline it hastens and plummets out of site. It can literally take moments for the sky to transition from a blaze of red, to soot-grey.

We returned to our site and enjoyed peanut butter sandwiches and water by the fire, talking with KG and Letter as they cooked their dinner. KG regaled us with stories of past mokoro trips including near hippo attacks, lion killings (of animals, not tourists) and buffalo charges. I was both concerned and somewhat hopeful that I would be able to have an experience similar on our nature walk the following morning. We were absolutely exhausted from our hours in the hot sun and would be up in the early morning for our nature walk, and were sardined in our pretty dollar-store tent by 9.