Hippo Boat Ride
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sun 17 Nov 2019 23:57
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Boat Ride to See the Hippos of St Lucia, South
Africa
   We jumped up this morning to find our
‘house guests’ sitting in the lounge. Kimi and Trevor
asked them nicely to leave and I think they were relieved to do so. Sitting
outside eating breakfast we watched a red-billed
hornbill scruffing about and had a visit from a different ‘small chap’ than yesterday.
   We set off for St Lucia stopping to
let a frog cross the road and were soon tucked up in
a cavernous curio shop awaiting our boat ride time slot. Kimi and I went for the local lady hat and Trevor a fur head collar with tail.
 A shiny, happy
chap bimbled along a branch.
  Outside the car park attendant was
selling seed pods he had made into tealight holders – had to buy some of those.
 Local art
as we neared the dock.
   We boarded our
boat, settled to listen to Brown our skipper
and guide, he was very interesting and knowledgeable, telling us that if we
walked on the beaches in the local area we would get black, dusty feet –
titanium. He was sorry we would see no crocodiles but soon after setting off we
caught our first glimpse of a ‘Towny’.
 The
Townies are a family group of about twenty-two hippos who live by the
opposite bank to where we set out from. Townies because they like to bimble down
the High Street and other than causing tourists to shriek, are well known and
cause little damage if left to get on with it.
 The Townies
bull has blue eyes and bluish eyelids.......
  High above us in the trees was this
gorgeous girl, the African sea eagle. We took a cul
de sac to see hundreds of weaver birds about their
business. Sadly, the water level is up at least a metre and a half so many of
the nests are flooded. There is a lack of bank space so no crocodiles are around
either.
  Huge numbers of
nests, too many near the water. Then we watched in horror as a desperate mum attended to her baby.
 All on board wanted to go to this
little chaps aid. He must be knee deep and looks so
forlorn.
  On we went,
not sure who the No Entry sign is
for........
 We spotted this
chap............
 .......then all around us heads popped up.
  Pig-like
??? – their nearest relatives are actually whales and dolphins. A big yawn.
 The dominant
male made himself known to us. He leads The Big Gang, a pod of up to
forty creatures who spend most of the day in the water on the side of the lake
we left from but bimble out of the water on the opposite side. Their group names
are Pod, Bloat, Herd, Dale or Crash....The biggest pod ever known was up to four
hundred hippos. These heavyweights weigh it at between one and a half to five
tons and eat up to thirty-five kilos of grass each evening and sleep for up to
sixteen hours a day. They guard their territories aggressively, can live up to
forty years but their overall numbers are in decline.
 Hippos can sleep
happily in the water, their nose holes close over and they can hold their
breath for up to five minutes. They don’t swim but bimble about on the bottom.
Hippo fossil remains have been found in England, Europe, the Middle East and of
course all over Africa. They have the largest teeth of any land animal, only a
third is visible (the rest hidden behind the jaw bone) their front teeth can
grow up to a foot in length and the males can sport shiny whites up to eighteen
inches. They are the deadliest large animal killing at least five hundred people
a year. They fall into the world ranking behind mosquitoes, snakes, dogs, tsetse
flies and crocodiles.
   We got to watch this lady as she
minced about the rushes on her enormous feet. The purple
gallinule always looks as if someone has squadged a dollop of red
plasticine on their head and left fingerprints for good measure.
 As we crossed the water we were lucky
enough to see some of the Big Gang grazing, oh and
some in the water.
  The
paddlers were watched by a pied
wagtail.
 One stood to leave
the water and left a poop as it went.
   Very delicately done for such a big
creature, Out, up and over
to join the grazers.
 Can we think a hippo cute looking ???
 The next one out of the water seemed
awfully pink ??? They secrete an oily red substance
which gave rise to the myth that hippos sweat blood – but it is a natural
sunblock that fills the pores and protects against
infections.
  We left the
grazers of The Big Gang to their munching and headed back to the
dock.
 Favourite picture – that looked like she was smiling.
 A sepia tone of
the lake.
  Wonderful late
lunch at a place chosen purely for its name – The Dirty
Dog and the fact that outside was a long line of canna lilies
reminding us of the many that grew in Bear’s parents garden.
   Bear’s steak was soft and juicy as was Kimi’s burger. Trevor and I had
cheesy chips that seemed to go on forever. Fully
fortified we went in search of the boardwalk to see what we could
see.
  Sadly, the water
level covered the walkway so we headed to a supermarket for party food.
Kimi showed us how difficult it would be to drink out of a giraffe mug – the horn kept getting in the way. Back to our
digs for snacks and sherbets.
ALL IN ALL AMAZING
CREATURES
REALLY LUCKY TO SEE SOME OUT OF THE
WATER |