After lunch, our mission this afternoon was to visit the hippo pool. Along our way, we saw our first cape buffalo - here's a picture with a red-billed oxpecker on it's head.

It took about 45 minutes to an hour to finally get to the hippo pool, and it was nearing dusk, but was it every cool. This pool was packed with hippos, including one dead bloated one on the edge with crocodiles for company. They would each slowly surface and submerge, occasionally yawning and baring their teeth. Every 10 minutes or so they would come up as a group bellowing and grunting in a big display. We stayed for a solid hour, just enjoying the spectacle - at one point we watched a crocodile slowly drift down the river like a log.

It's really hard to capture the whole experience, but here are a few photos.

Right after we left the hippo pool, we saw a dikdik, which is like a little mini gazelle. It's about the size of a small dog, so cute.

Next we saw a crown crane, which is incredibly beautiful.

It was really getting quite dark, but our wildlife day wasn't quite over yet - first we saw a hyena lying on the side of road, and then the giraffes. Definitely a highlight of the trip so far, these 4 male masai giraffes would graze and then "neck", which is the way that males fight. They whip their huge necks around and hit each other on the neck - it's actually quite beautiful, as their necks move through the air they make great "whoosh" sounds, followed by a gentle "thud" as they make contact. It's all done in quasi-slow motion since they are so big and their necks so long! Fortunately, managed to get a few good shots:

That ended our wildlife viewing for the day - as soon as we got into camp (which had far fewer campers than the night before), the guides had set up a night shower (a canvas cover with canvas hot water bag and shower head) which we thoroughly enjoyed. Then eggplant dinner again and it was off to bed.

02/28/07 by bryan+elizabeth
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