Day 20 - Hippo Hooray

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Slow morning, we decided to miss the birdwatching boat trip this morning. Thought we might be the only ones, but soon found out that there were at least 4 or 5 others couples who had a slow start as well. Nice to wake up easy and do breakfast at our own pace, even if I was distracted by the hippo outside the ship walking to the shore. Lots of exposure at long last, but guess where the camera was..... Did some washing as well, so no more swapping jocks from front to back and inside out.........

Plan today is to visit a local community village. Off in the boats again, and find out that our boat driver comes form this village. He is very proud to be taking us there. On the way we pass a pod of hippos - 5 in all, all laying about in the reeds. Get pretty close then they decide to charge intot the water - time to go..

At the village, we are greeted by Albert, our guide. He walks us up to the first house, that of his 97 year old grandmother. She is the bos of the village and determines where others can build their houses. For a 97 year old she I’d doing OK, cooking fish in a plough disc over and open fire. Bending didn’t seem to be a problem for her. Marion (91 year old badge lady is extremely happy to meeet someone older than her).

We walk around the village learning how they build their houses out of mud, termite mounds and cow dung - mmmm. We end up in an area around a baobab tree where they sing and dance for us. Guess who volunteered to dance with them - not me... Chris up and put on the bamboo dress and rocked it out with the crew. Impressive effort. Souvenirs on display, we buy a few then back to the mother ship for lunch.

All,of a sudden we come acros a huge herd of elephants on the bank. Much excitement and photo shots. Then into the boats for an afternoon excursion. Same elephants but much much closer this time. Then we strike paydirt. Lots of hippos and we finally get one that opens its mouth for us. Hippo hooray......

More elephants in big numbers, lots of bird life, baboons, kudu and Impala. The peace is broken by the antelope animals bolting and the baboons screeching, and climbing trees. Must be a predator nearby. We linger and look, but to no avail. Anyway, seen them all - but blasé now.

Back to the mother craft taking oics another bloody sunset (cause of the suns colour). Dinner and an African performance by some of the crew. Chris miseducation out this time, but quite a few others weren’t spared. A great last night onboard the Zambezi Queen. A final drink from the Moses barmen then to bed as tomorrow we move on again..........

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