Day 3 Morning Ride - Hippos

Good morning beautiful jungle! The snoring horses had woken us up, ready for a new day in the bush. Bryan gave us again a delicious morning tea at 7.30am, ready to kick off the day.

For the morning ride, the focus was to look for hippos. There were too in the area close to the water ponds, but it was not easy to spot them. Sometimes they’re in the water, so you can only see them pop up once in a while. Hippos can only hold their breath for 7 minutes, so they have to pop out of the water, but you still might see just the noise or month. Today we were lucky to see them full body, as they were grazing on the other side from the pond. It was hard to spot them, but our guide Owen had a good eye. The hippos look like a mix between grazing cows and grey elephants. I couldn’t believe I saw these animals for the first time in my life, and this from the saddle! After a short break admiring them, we continued the ride back home, ironically passing some grazing cattle. I remember realizing these hippos must have been huge, seeing these small innocent grazing cows.

Along the way, Owen showed us the nest of a weaver bird. These birds make impressive nests attached to tiny branches, so that snakes cannot reach the nest. I wonder how the weight keeps hanging on these fragile branches, but apparently nature has figured it out quite well.

When almost arriving home, Owen explained us about the “Baboon Tails” or the black plants in savanna. They look like burned plants with their black stamina, but these plants look like this in winter and colour green in summer. Very strange plants!Read more