A Great Big Zoo

Thursday afternoon we visited a game park — a privately owned reserve with an upscale lodge and lots of game.  I had assumed at Kruger that the fences around the perimeter are there mostly for show  — after all they are clearly there only as long as the elephants decide to tolerate them; the warthogs go under them, et cetera.  But the animals in this preserve  — at least the big ones — are clearly being managed by the humans. So it’s no Kruger, but it was also a chance to take better pix of rhinos and cheetahs than we had been able to so far.

Also, the hippos.  In Uganda I saw rivers full of hippos basking in the water, and I caught the beady eyes of one hippo wandering through our campsite, which they do because they feed on tiny green shoots after dark.  But I had never seen the full girth of a hippo.  We watched as the sun set and the hippos lumbered out of the water and up the bank.  Amazing.

I had known that hippos killed more people than lions, but I was under the impression it was mostly due to their size and poor eyesight and curiosity.  But apparently it’s not a good thing to get too close to a hippo.  I’ll leave it at that.

The sun set, we returned to the lodge, and then back to our camp. Friday was an all day trip back to Jo’ burg, and then our South Africa adventure was over.  Tomorrow:  Return to Uganda and Rotary projects.