Hunting Painted Dogs. Part Four.

Day 4 - A Romantic Interlude

Sunrise

This morning was, thankfully, a late rise. 6am. Yeah. Great. 

As Annick was unable to tolerate spending the day in a jeep (the bush massage was not appropriate for her abdominal discomfort) we opted instead for a morning’s romantic trip upriver.

Generally speaking, hunting for dogs by boat is not the most effective option. 

Spoiler alert: We didn’t see any. 

So we left our camp (as seen in the above photo) in a flat bottom boat with outboard motor. And paddles.

Romantic yes? 

This is the Rufiji River, a wide expanse of water that eventually empties into the Indian Ocean. It’s banks are full of life. Unfortunately, so is the water. 

Kingfishers abound. This Pied Kingfisher was showing off his catch.

Whilst this Malachite Kingfisher looked on in envy.

A Saddle-billed Stork stood admiring the view. Being the tallest stork in town, his view was a good one. He was probably pondering the rationality of his name.

There were many other animals in the water itself apart from fish. Everywhere you look there are hippos. And worse.

These mahoosive whale-related beasts may be everywhere, but they are notoriously difficult to photograph. A bit like whales really. As soon as you get within range, they bugger off. Dive, dive.

In this case; Run away! Run away!

Usually, only their nostrils and eyebrows are visible above water, although we did happen across this happy hippo pair, reluctant to leave the safety of their sand bank. Reluctant because, if they rejoined their pod, just a few meters away, the calf would likely be killed by the boss man. I suspect that she had been sleeping around.

As we persisted in remaining close, photo-snapping away like a frenzied crocodile (as opposed to the other sort), the mother decided that she would charge towards us. As we were in deep water, they passed us by beneath our boat. We remained unscathed, which was nice because there are more than just hippos in that water. Anyway, being charged by a baby hippo is kinda cute.

As we went further upriver, the valley sides got steeper, the banks came closer together and the water ran faster. Simple physics you know.

Here we passed by a couple of our co-campers. There was Jamie, happily fishing for Tigerfish (even the fish here sound dangerous). Sindy seemed more reluctant. Perhaps she had heard that, only days before, whilst removing fish from hook, something else leapt for the very same fish. Teeth met hand. It ended badly. For the hand.

The fish wasn't too happy either.

What was it that had those teeth? On turning the bend, we saw it, heading in their direction.

(Cue 'Jaws' music.)

Should we warn them? If so, how to do so in time? The crocs travel faster than we could. We would only arrive in time to see the remaining flesh and bones, if any.

They were everywhere, littering the banks. Who would be crazy enough to get out of the relative safety of the boat and go fishing on these deadly banks?

We decided it best to carry on and remember them as good friends.

Sad really.
Funnily enough, we havent seen them for a while...

We finally arrived at the furthest point we could navigate, as the waters were now travelling rapid enough to be called, er, rapids.

Ian, our intrepid guide, leapt out to battle off any hiding crocs. Thankfully he was armed with a stick. And sandals made from motorbike tyres. The crocs stood no chance.

This was to be a toilet stop. Tricky that. If you squat you have to develop the habit of 360 degree vision. And standing there dangling seems an invitation to disaster. Like fishing for crocodiles really.

Still, we survived intact, and we pushed off and floated downstream, using the paddle to beat off the hippos.

Like I may have said before. Romance isn’t dead.

On our return, we stopped at the camp for an onion-free lunch, followed by a much anticipated and very much needed, onion-free, siesta.

We set off mid afternoon to continue our hunt for dogs. We had not given up, although a feeling of impending failure was beginning to descend upon us. We had, by now, traversed most of there territory. Unfortunately their territory is the size of Greater London! But with notably less pubs. 

We found this pack of hyenas instead.

These animals are not the most beautiful, but they have hidden depths. Although, as their role in well known films tells us, they do scavenge, actually 90% of their food comes from hunting. And they are bright! Probably more intelligent than chimps. They can solve problems as a group, often using silent communication. Other communication though is a bit of a laugh.

Who’s the boss? The females. They have three times the amount of testosterone than the males, and they have willies!! Being a male is not easy for hyenas. 

A bit like for us really. (Ooops. Did I just type that out loud?)

One of their favourite aperitifs is this cute little bambi. A new-born Impala can run within three hours. Those three hours must rate as one of the world’s most tricky. They are easy pickings, sitting ducks. But you’ve gotta be close. Baboons have perfected this by evilly befriending adult impalas. They do so by dropping tasty leaves from the trees. Then, when the cute little baby is born, whoosh. Gone. 

Isn’t nature wonderful?

One of the predators that would munch on this little munchkin is this guy.

Yup. Another lion. From a different pride this time.

We seemed to fall over these beasts all the time. Many guests we met had seen none. Time to appreciate our guides, Ian & Simba.

One thing in common. The do all seem to want to show me their teeth.

Photographing the teeth of hippos I found much more difficult. Maybe because these big lumps are now being killed by the thousand. For their teeth. It is ivory after all.

It has long been assumed that hippos are a type of ruminent like the cow or antelope, but no, they may have four stomachs, but they don’t regurgitate to chew upon their own vomit. They make up for this lack of antisocial behaviour by violently wagging their tails whilst pooping, thus spreading their shit everywhere. 

Charming.

We finished the day with a light meal. This time the manager had the sense to segregate us, to stop me disturbing the peace.

We had taken it easy today to give Annick's internal parts time to put themselves in order. It seemed to be working.

We were wrong.

To be continued in the next blog, predictably entitled Part Five.

Day’s End

Daily Bonus: Annick's favourite iPhone image from Day 4:

A boat trip amongst deadly killers. Romance could die at any second.

Part one of this amazing story, 'Getting There' can be found here.
Part two of this amazing story, 'Selous Game Reserve' can be found here.
Part three of this amazing story, 'A Near Miss' can be found here.
The Next Part is Here!