Lake Mburo Part 2 - Charge of the Hippo

Just a couple of days after I went to Lake Mburo with Alexis, we had some visitors from the university of Groningen. There was a public holiday while they were here, so Max decided we should take them somewhere. So that is how it came to be that only four days after leaving Lake Mburo, I headed back there with Max, Eric, and Marieke.

We drove into the park, passing lots of Ankole cattle and crested cranes on our way.





Then we stopped for lunch at the restaurant by the lake, and once again a hippo came out to graze. The people at the restaurant later told that that particular hippo was known as Jennifer.



Jennifer was pretty calm at first, some kids were running around all excited and screaming but she took no notice of them. Nor did she take much notice of us taking pictures.

Jennifer was still there when we were finished lunch; in fact, it was between us and the restrooms. But she had been so calm, that it seemed it should be possible to walk around her. So Marieke set out. My back was to the whole thing, but this is what witnesses say happened next:

Marieke was circling around Jennifer and Jennifer looked at her. She looked back, smiling, trying to convey friendliness. But Jennifer was not impressed and began to charge. Marieke started running, faster than she had ever run before. At this point people in the restaurant noticed what was happening (a charging hippo is much quieter than you would think.) Max stood up yelling and waving his arms. Jennifer stopped and Marieke made it back to the safety of the restaurant. Jennifer went back to grazing and taking no notice of us. Marieke got quite a fright, but wasn’t injured.

Eventually Jennifer moved on, and we were able to get back to the car. We drove around for a bit on our way out of the park, seeing animals such as buffalo, antelope and more zebras.