Two incidences stood out for me on yesterdays boat cruise
(on top of the fact that I left my camera behind as the day was dark gloomy and
threatening to rain – which held off until my guests were safely back in the hotel)
– dancing flamingos and prancing hippos.The hippo was a young one that is very curious about the
boat at the moment and sometimes follows us for quite a way before returning to
his family.
I was gently floating down the shore with the engines off watching
a group of reedbuck on the shore when he decided to cross the lake for another
look at us. He moved off a bit after studying us for a while and then started
to jump about in the water like a puppy with a toy throwing himself out of the
water and rolling around forwards, backwards and sidewards. After few minutes
of this display of rotund grace he decided to return across the lake moving
like a porpoise in a series of rolling dives.
Later
the bird contingent decided not to let the mammals carry the day away entirely
and organised a small group of greater flamingos to put on a display of stilt
walking, pink feather ruffling, wing stretching and a short flight just to end
the show. On behalf of the mammals I would like to say it was possibly a bit
over the top and showed desperation in the competition stakes.
