Zebras roam near our camp ground as we set up our tents. The trees have green trunks. The baboons strip away and eat the soft bark of the trees. The exposed trunks turn green in the sunlight.
Beyond the trees, a wide open plain extends around the lake. Many rhinos, buffaloes, zebras and a few hyenas, warthogs and ostriches roam the area. Near the edge of the lake is a wide flat area of dry salt-encrusted mud. In the shallow water there are hundreds of flamingos and pelicans. It is the wrong time of the year. At other times the lake can be covered with tens of thousands of flamingos.
Between parks we stop briefly at Thompson's Falls. The water flows down like the hair of a young girl. It drops into a pool like endless tears of sorrow.
At Lake Naivasha, Kenya, We don bright orange life jackets and board the low, narrow motor boat. Our pilot and guide has a happy smile. He introduces himself as Captain Joseph and proudly points to the laminated name tag pinned to his chest with the words "CAPT JOSEPH" printed thereon.
He sits in the back of the boat, starts the motor and takes us out onto the lake. The heavy rains have stopped but the sky is still dark and ominous. The water is dull and slightly murky. I zip up my light rain coat against the cool breeze created by our movement.
We approach a cluster of hippopotamus. Hippopotamusses? Hippopotomi? We approach a cluster of hippos. About thirty of them huddled close together about ten metres from the shore of the lake. The top of their backs, nostrils, eyes and ears above the surface. They jostle each other, snuffling and snorting and occassionally yawning.
Captain Joseph stops the boat engine as we approach.
"The hippopotamus is not the aggressor. Man is the aggressor." explains Captain Joseph. "The hippopotamus, they are sleeping. One is awake and watches for all the others. The hippopotamus sleeps all day."
"At night they come out of the water to grass. They don't just grass for one hour or two hours. They are grassing the whole night."
"This is as close as we can get. It is not safe to go closer. But the hippopotamus is not the aggressor. Man is the aggressor. See the baby hippopotamus. It is climbing on the mother's back.'
He starts the engine again and moves the boat a little closer. The sleeping hippos watch us attentively.
We head for a different part of the lake and come across another cluster of hippos. Captain Joseph stops the boat engine as we approach. Apart from the background scenery, this group of hippos is pretty much the same as the last.
"The hippopotamus, they are sleeping. One is awake and watches for all the others." explains Captain Joseph.
"The hippopotamus sleeps all day. At night they come out of the water to grass. They don't just grass for one hour or two hours. They are grassing the whole night."
"This is as close as we can get. It is not safe to go closer. But the hippopotamus is not the aggressor. Man is the aggressor."
"How fast are the hippopotamus?" someone asks.
"Not as fast as this boat" Captain Joseph says with a smile.
The engine doesn't start immediately but after the second attempt we are on our way again. We come across another group of hippos. Captain Joseph repeats his spiel on hippo habits.
They main point he wishes to convey is that the hippopotamus is not the aggressor. Man is the aggressor.
We travel to the end of the lake as the air gets colder and the dark clouds drift closer. We land at a pier at the back of Elsamere, the property and home of the late Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free".
We look at the memorabilia around the house. Joy was murdered by a disgruntled former employee. Years later Joy's husband was murdered trying to protect a tourist from poachers. Man is the aggressor.
We watch a video about Joy's life. It is like hundreds of documentaries of Africa I have seen before but I watch it with new eyes. Now, I recognise everything. Yes, that is how the giraffe walks among the tea-bag trees. That is how the jackal creeps through the tall grass, glancing furtively around. How the impala run and leap in herds. How the baby elephant stays close to its lumbering mother. How the flamingo lifts its wings as it stands in the shallow salty water beneath the clear sky while zebra and rhinoceros roam on the nearby plains in front of trees with green trunks because the baboons have stripped them of their bark.
The video ends with Joy seated in the gardens of Elsamere, surrounded by trees and the sounds of birds. The tape segues into reality as I hear the same bird sounds outside the window. The same trees under the same sky.
Victor, our guide, asks us if we can give a lift to two rangers who need to get back to their station. Of course we agree. The rangers will take us to the river to see hippopotamus and crocodiles and they will expect a tip for doing so.
The hippos huddled close together in the brown river water. They jostle each other, snuffling and snorting and occasionally yawning.
The ranger shows us some lion footprints that have dried in the mud near the bank of the river.
We saw a lioness a few days ago at a distance but we all long to see the great cats up close. I half hope to come across one on this path. This is a foolish wish because it would be a dangerous encounter with us on foot. The ranger might have to shoot at it and I would hate to see the animal killed. It would be far better to see them from the safety of the vehicle.
What do I really hope for? I wonder. I let the thought go. The cat is there or it is not and my wishes on the matter won't change that. I remain vigilant and enjoy the excitement of possibilities as fate unfolds.
We walk downstream from the hippos to see twenty to thirty crocodiles lazing in the water by the river bank. They look like so many logs of wood that have drifted to the river edge, except for one or two that drift by their own volition.
The ranger tells of his job protecting the park from poachers. The poachers sneak in from Tanzania seeking rhinoceroses. Rhinoceros? Rhinoceri? Rhinos. In Tanzania the poachers have exterminated most of the rhinos. The rhinos roam over large areas that are hard to manage.
In Kenya the rhinos roam in smaller areas that are better protected. The poachers sneak over the border at night but the have to look out for the rangers. If the ranger catches them he will get a reward.
The ranger has caught many poachers. It is dangerous work. Usually they surrender and he arrests them. Sometimes he has to shoot them.
"Shoot them? And kill them?" a girl asks with alarm.
"Yes" the ranger says "of course." He seems surprised that we would question the situation and the obvious need to kill the poachers.
A serious look comes over his face. "They are bad people."
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