Along came a  'bird brained' heron who thought a wallow of hippos were going to a suitable place to sit. Until  Mr Cranky Pants tried to sidle up to him ever so steathily with the hope of an easy catch - For no reason too - a herbivore was behaving more like an omnivore.

The heron escaped - just! and flew off.

Clearly a slow learner, the heron then circled back around and tried to land mid river again, only to be met by the same

hippo who thought he'd have another swing at him.

Eventually the lethargy of the super hot evening calmed them both down and amazingly the heron got his ride.

By this time, this human slow learner is starting to grasp the concepts of symbiosis and co-existence as a normal way of life in this wilderness.

As the sun went down, the hippos woke up and proceeded to make trouble with the nearest object - usually another hippo. The grunting

and splashing about was awesome to observe - except when we could see an underwater current rapidly heading towards our boat and then we were engines on and out of there!

This play fighting between Mum and Bub was the only emotionally ( happy) charged behaviour I saw from the hippos . Mum was encouraging the baby to take her on and when he put his considerably smaller head right inside her mouth she tolerated it ( instead of chomping his head off )  as opposed to the sub adults around her who were in active battle at all times.

Did you know Hippos piddle backwards? Neither did I ! Yet another fun fact to tuck away for Trivia Night.

This was the moment I stopped my blind love affair with Hippos. We had come across two hippos arguing on the river bank - our guide had banked our boat deep into the sand, which was okay.. until it wasn't. The Hippos stopped their fighting and one turned to face us taking a few brisk steps towards our marooned boat. I knew by this time a hippo can gallop as fast as Winx. I abandoned my otherwise coveted position on the bow and scuttled back a few spots as the trusty guide tried to reverse throttle his way off the riverbank. I'm alive, so clearly he was successful but there a moment where I was glad I had kept my torso in one piece not two.