| "  We
poled our way through such beautiful green glades
along the river's edge, quietly disturbing the grazing
wildebeest, zebra and countless other game. As we
were catching the tail end of the floods on this
normally dry river bed, we occasionally ran aground
in some of the channels and had to do a fair amount
of walking in ankle deep water to find a stronger
current, indicating the source of the channel. The
terrain varied from channels through reed beds to
open floodplains, from deep quiet lagoons to open
stretches of flower laden waters. Buffalo grazed
chest deep in the river ahead of us, while we paddled
quietly up to them for closer viewing. Our polers
would crouch down and sit on the end of the mokoro
as we drifted closer and closer. Never before had
they been so close to these beasts!!
  We
had some close shaves with hippos who were a constant
threat to our mokoro convoy.! From curiosity to
feeling threatened in a narrow channels, they would
pop up in front of us, or follow us at great speed.
On one occasion, my poler couldn't bear the consequences
as a big bull hippo made a lunge at us, with its
mouth wide open. He jumped out and was starting
to run for shallower water. Grant screamed at him
while at the same time, throwing a palm ball (seed
of the palm tree) at the hippo's head, giving us
time to get the poler back into the mokoro and vacate
the area forthwith.! It was quite amazing though,
as this particular poler had never shown any anxiety
or change in gait, while passing other hippo. It
was just too close for comfort, I think!
Love to you all
Daphne
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