Well, that was emotionally draining. It was time to replenish our energy levels by restarting our stalled meal.
We arrived back to our original lunch spot to see the huge happy hippo finally tiring of its terrible toy.
The hippo had become bored and thought it was time for a lie down. Hippos are particularly good at lying down.
Left alone, the dead wildebeest was checked out by one of the many crocodiles hanging around. This crocodile was a monster, even by crocodile standards. And he was hungry, and when a giant crocodile is hungry, you need to pay attention.
However, there was 'nothing to see here', this kill was too fresh for today's banquet.
Now, in case you don't know, and why would you, crocodiles don't eat their kills straight away. Their teeth and jaws are designed (by a deranged madman) to capture and to hold below the water line. Not to slice up into nice little pieces and swallow à la steak tartar. Cutting they cannot do. Holding tight is their forté.
Marinading, for crocodiles, is obligatory. I quite appreciate it too. The kills are left underwater for a few days to 'soften up'. That is not quite how I do it.
Well, anyway, there we were, happy to have seen a hippo at play, perhaps disturbed a little by watching the death throws of a wildebeest, but overall content with our lot, looking forward to finally finishing our much delayed meal and then, at long last, relieving ourselves as nature intended.
But nature had other ideas in mind...
There were strange things afoot.
As already mentioned, there were many crocodiles hanging around here. Many more than I have ever seen before.
They were all there for a reason.
The marinading of another kill was complete.
MEAT'S BACK ON THE MENU BOYS!
It all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. The biggest crocodile with the biggest gaping maw that I have EVER seen decided, at that moment, to rip apart its lunch, and then swallow half an entire adult wildebeest in one prolonged nauseating gulp!
This is a picture that will be forever burned onto the back of my retinas.
As if that wasn't enough to upset our appetite, there were many many other crocodiles that came to join in.
This was a public party with all gormless gatecrashers welcome!
It turns out that swallowing half a wildebeest can mean limbs getting stuck in your throat.
And now they all fought for a piece. Uncountable numbers of crocodiles. Uncountable because they were writhing, snapping, swallowing, churning, heaving as if they were come from some deep, utterly vile level of Danté's Inferno.
To help break up the remains (as if you wanted to know) these giant horrors grip their marinaded carcasses and TWIST.
Several crocodiles twisting at the same time is beyond ethical description. Language has not been designed for this degree of absolute grotesque savagery.
Pieces of the carcass were ripped off and swallowed whole.
There was not total agreement as to which bit of wildebeest belonged to which lunch guest.
These two gargantuan monstrosities fought over an impossible to identify part of a once wildebeest.
The resulting brawl was simple underwater overzealous chaos. A macabre mess.
This truly is the stuff of nightmares.
This is the Godzilla of all crocodiles.
There can surely be no more fearsome predator.
An unforgettable meal. An unrepeatable experience. The stuff of psycho-horror movies.
Never to be obliterated from our minds, despite all psychological help.
Never to be outdone. Thankfully.
Never to be seen again this side of hell itself.
And we still hadn't been able to relieve ourselves.
Although...
...maybe I had...
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