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Published: December 22nd 2006
Hippo Tooth
Why they need foot long teeth to eat grass is beyond meAnd so it was time to head south through Swaziland and back into South Africa to a place called St Lucia on the north east coast. St Lucia is in the middle of a nature reserve where a fresh water estuary meets the Indian Ocean. As a result it is home to a massive amount of wildlife. We were told that over 80% of South Africa's crocs and hippos live here, so it was our mission to finally get some good hippo snaps.
Until recently we knew very little about the Hippopotamus, but having done a boat trip here we are far more educated. The hippo is no sloth; on land they have an average speed of 45kph, only 10kph short of a cheetah. They have a 5 tonne bite, which is greater than that of a large whale and they are responsible for more deaths in Africa than any other animal. You really don't want to get between them and the water! They are nocturnal so spend their days chilling in the water and at sunset they go hunting for food. When I say hunting, I really mean grazing as they only eat grass (how do they get so
Hippo Yawn
There were another 100 photo's of black shapes in water we had to delete before the hippo finally posed for us! big with just grass??) and at night they cover up to 30km to eat. In St Lucia they are regularly spotted roaming the streets at night, I can't say I would want to bump into one after closing time.
This weeks likes:
*Finally the hippos yawned for us
*The evening braai at our backpackers
*Our boat tour guide who kept us entertained by teasing the 3 loud American girls on the boat. When asking where people were from he dryly said "and we all already know about our America guests"
This weeks dislikes:
*The iPod tricking us into thinking we had lost all of our photos to date!
*The 3hr bus trip with our bags on our laps - I lost all feeling in my legs after 20 mins.
*Our first (and probably not the last) experience of African Tummy
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joools
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hooray for African tummy!
At last, some good news! Love the hippo pics though. I arrived back in the UK today and it's all good, if a little cold!