Watch Out For Hippos

Saturday, April 3

This morning we rose for our day off. We headed to the game reserve at 7am and headed out on foot for a two hour walking tour. The landscape was incredibly beautiful and we saw many wild animals. The closest we got to a hippo was startling one as we rounded a bend saw its splash as it hit the water. We then went on a canoe trip through the swamp with a wonderful young oarsman in front, us in the middle, and our guide (with machine gun in hand) in back.

We quickly realized that this was not the brightest idea we had had. The path for the big canoe had just barely been cut out and our poor oarsman had to dig us through several areas where hippos had pushed dirt into the narrow channel. The water was filled with hippo dung and smelled as good as it looked. We had to bail a bit of water out of the boat to keep from soaking our feet in the wonderful stew. Have you heard how territorial hippos are and how dangerous? How stupid were we! Suddenly our oarsman pulled the boat to the side and our guide tucked us tighter into the papyrus. Tiny air bubbles were surfacing feet from our tiny boat. There was a sudden movement of muddy water headed downstream and we saw the hippo surface several yards away with only his ears and eyes momentarily visible.

Luckily we returned without further incident. Having had enough adventure for one day, we headed back towards Kampala which was a lengthy drive. We have work that takes us up north later in the week that will require many more hours along rough roads and we thought it best to rest up.

Tania