(Editor: Is there any song from the 1980s you won’t quote? Writer: Yes. Editor: Which one? Writer: I haven’t figured out yet, but I will let you know.)
Next, as we drove by more giraffes and rhinos, among other creatures, James took us to a man-made watering hole with an earthen dam. The small lake (lagocello?) included an island, a monitor lizard, pelicans, other birds, and, yes, two mismatched hippos.
The hippos aren’t from the area. There were no hippos at Lewa. The hippos were tricked into being captured in a large truck and driven to Lewa Conservancy. The only problem is, the two hippos are both female. While it’s fine for Lewa to take pride in having hippos, they’ve decided that after these hippos die in 15-20 years, they will not be replaced.
Before the trip, Carol’s biggest interest was to see hippos. So she was thrilled. I was too, but it also felt a little zoo-like, as the hippos were transported from elsewhere. Well, have no concern, as we ended up seeing many, many hippos at Masai Masa and N’gorongoro Crater.
The wild thing (as always, pun intended) is, that night the hippos walked about eight miles into our camp to feed. We blissfully slept through it, but hippos are prone to wander far and wide at night to graze. While hippos are the biggest killers of man of any animal on the planet, they don’t kill to eat, they kill because they feel threatened, especially if a human is (unintentionally) blocking their return to water, or if a human is take a small boat through their territory in the water.
Even though we didn't see a lot of animals on the morning drive, it was still a huge success. It was special to be up on monticello, then to see the hippos and waterfowl at the watering hole.
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