Viboko

Hippos.

During the morning game drive wet weather descended and we got absolutely soaked. Almost at the point of calling it off and retreating to drier climes, we came across a pride of lions by the road. It was one of my closest experiences to lions, and pretty special, especially because in a less visited place like Saadani, lions are less comfortable hanging around vehicles. They were not amused by our presence.

Added to this morning’s tally were bushbuck, red duiker, ground hornbills picking over the chargrilled remnants of yesterday’s grassfires, some very wet warthogs, African fish eagle, yellow-billed storks and woolly-necked storks. A great white pelican perching in a tree with various storks seemed to be outside of its typical range according to my research. When that happens I always want to write with a grand ornithological finding to an authority on the subject, so they can update their distribution map.

In the afternoon we had a very enjoyable boat trip on the Wami River, which teems with hippos, crocodiles and waterbirds, particularly herons and storks. Pods of hippos eyed us very suspiciously and we ate near one of them when the skipper threw the anchor overboard for a memorable packed lunch spot.

We saw an African fish eagle robbing a long-tailed cormorant of a freshly caught fish. The cormorant resorted to perching on the back of a hippo to identify a new meal. Other bird highlights were some palm nut vultures and bright blue mangrove kingfishers.

A marvellous weekend at Saadani was had by all.