January 2, 2018, evening

This evening’s event was a boat ride on the channels of the Khwai River, lined with pampas grasses, papyrus, and waterlilies. The animals don’t eat the pampas grass so it can grow quite tall. Among the water plants were water lilies, water chestnuts and salvinia molesta, an invasive plant from South America that is choking off some of the waterways.

It was such a pleasure to be on the water, with its cooling effects on yet another hot day. Early on, we cruised past a dead tree that was playing host to three waterfowl – an African Darter flanked by a white breasted cormorant on the left and a reed cormorant on the right.

There was a group of about 8 hippos with a baby, possibly only a few months old. Needless to say, the hippos weren’t as pleased to see us as we were to see them. There was some grumbling and yawning. The “yawning” is actually an aggressive behavior, an attempt to warn off any interlopers. The baby is always kept between two female adults, to protect it from crocodiles. Yes, we did see a few crocs as well.

We stopped for sundowners at a small island in the channel. I’ll miss this when we return home.

We returned to our lodging to pack yet again. Living out of a suitcase is getting old.