The Waterfront Campsite in Livingstone is set along the banks of the Zambezi River. Aside from allowing some beautiful views of the sunset over calm water, this campsite put us in the midst of the Mosi Oa Tunya National Park. Signposts warned us to beware crocodiles, not to feed the monkeys, and some of the guys even saw elephants parading past the fences. Our favourite encounter with the resident fauna however, took place late on our last night here.

So on arrival we were getting a tour of the grounds and noticed a hippopotamus grazing on the banks of the river, not far from the cable fence protecting the campgrounds. After a few photos, we promptly set up our tent right beside the fence in an attempt to position ourselves for more prime animal encounters. I should point out here that although hippos are perceived as (and look) slow, docile and harmless; that is completely inaccurate. Hippos kill more humans than any other animal in Africa: they are incredibly fast-moving on land, extremely territorial and hyper-aggressive. A deadly mix. Maybe setting up camp right beside a known hippo territory seems like a bad idea in hindsight, but we figured they are herbivores and as long as we didn't impose ourselves the chances of us being torn apart were lessened.

So our last night at The Waterfront rolled around and we hadn't seen head nor tail of any hippos since arrival, and we decided to watch a movie in the tent before calling it a night (the Disney classic Mulan by the way... great movie!). When the movie finished I poked my head out of the tent to duck off to the loo and brush my teeth, and nearly crapped myself when I realised a full-grown hippo was standing right outside our tent (maybe 5 metres away and thankfully on the other side of the wire fence). I can't even begin to describe how BIG these things are when you get close up and at ground level with them. Shaking a little, I ducked back inside and told Sjane, and we sat for a few minutes watching him graze and wondering how on Earth we were going to get to the toilet block without alarming or angering him.

Eventually he moved far enough away that we could sneak out and wake our fellow overlanders. Cali joined us (as did a security guard), and we stood in awe as the guard's flashlight was trained on him pottering around. Cali tried a little flash photography but eventually he tired of all the lights and turned his attention on us. He charged: first a couple of metres, then right up to the fenceline stopping mere metres from us, snorting and growling menacingly. I am fine admitting that this scared the crap out of me. A few hundred kilograms of angry muscle and monstrous jaw charging at you with nothing to protect you but some measley chicken wire and a guard with a flashlight will get the adrenaline pumping. Cali agreed, but Sjane was bouncing with giddy excitement. I'm starting to think there's something a bit wrong with her.

We were told later that this behaviour was called a "mock-charge", used to scare off potential threats or challengers. It worked; we backed behind a nearby tent and scampered off to the loos. The next problem to overcome was getting back into the tents afterwards. He seemed to have parked up alongside the fence (maybe two metres from our tent) and wasn't showing any indication of moving. We had to sneak around behind the adjacent tents and bound into the tent while his head was turned. Now there was nothing left to do but come to grips with the fact that we had just been charged by, and played hide-and-go-seek with a hungry hungry hippo (who was still standing right outside). Needless to say it took a while to go to sleep that night.