Posted on 05/10/2013 12:12:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The hippo who tried to kill me wasn't a stranger – he and I had met before a number of times. I was 27 and owned a business taking clients down the Zambezi river near Victoria Falls. I'd been working this stretch of river for years, and the grouchy old two-ton bull had carried out the occasional half-hearted attack. I'd learned to avoid him. Hippos are territorial and I knew where he was most likely to be at any given time.
That day I'd taken clients out with three apprentice guides – Mike, Ben and Evans – all in kayaks. We were near the end of the tour, the light was softening and we were taking in the tranquillity. The solid whack I felt behind me took me by surprise.
I turned just in time to see Evans, who had been flung out of his boat, flying through the air. His boat, with his two clients still in it, had been lifted half out of the water on the back of the huge bull hippo.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Of course they do.
Is it possible Jonas was in the belly of a hippo not a whale?
Back in 1983, I was TDY to the US Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia. My boss
and I took a weekend off and went to live rough in the bush. We were going fishing on the Zambezi in one of his Zambian pal’s 17-foot boat. There were four of us. Another Zambian dude was with us. He knew every foot of the Zambezi east of Vic Falls. He was a “wildlife management officer without portfolio,” a.k.a. a poacher. We were about 50 yards from the Rhodesian side. That’s where I also saw my first elephant in the wild. We were fishing when all of a sudden there was a big explosion of water and a big bull hippo’s head broke water. To me, it looked like a 55-gallon drum; I was terrified. Hippos are known to tip boats over and dump the passengers into the croc-infested river. That was one of the main adventures of my 70 years.
No crocodiles or rhinoceroseses?
The guy went back to give the hippo the chance to get his other arm. Idiot!
Priceless quote.
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