I kissed a Hippo

I kissed a hippo and I liked it. In fact, it was quite possibly my favourite travel experiences of all time.

Visiting Jessica the hippo was one of those things on our list that we hemmed and hawed about. We were afraid that the experience, advertised as a chance to pet and feed the world famous 'wild' hippo who lives with people, would be touristy and underwhelming. In the end we left the place agreeing that we would have easily paid triple the 10 dollar fee (each) to have had the experience.

As we parked in the driveway of the property and got out, we first got to see a baby male hippo that (like Jessica) had been rescued in a recent flood. Reaching over the 3 foot high, definitely not hippo proof, fence we stroked the one tonne creature behind the ears and even drew dads name in the film of mud covering its body. Two things I never thought I'd do.

Then came Jessica. Tonie, the man who had found the, then newborn, baby hippo washed up in a flood 18 years ago, gave us some background information; Jessica truly is wild, but chooses each night to come home and sleep in the garage on a mattress.

 We then brought two plastic coke bottles of sweet tea with sippy lids, and a bucket of dried corn down to a raft floating right next to the swimming hippo. She came up to our platform, I stroked her bristly nose, and she expectantly opened her mouth allowing me to shovel a handful of corn into her foot-wide jaw.

Next came the sweet tea which she guzzled down with gusto. But before she was done, I had enough time to lean forward and plant a big kiss on her huge wet nose. The same nose that roofed the foot long tusks (teeth?) that fight off crocodiles. It's incredible that these one and a half tonne animals kill more people then any other African mammal. And here I was stroking its leathery nose and running my fingers on its hard bumpy lip. 

After the whole excursion we watched Jessica do a terrific job of scaring away crocs (we didn't see any crocs so I assumed she was doing a good job), and chatted with Tonie about his experience of South Africa. All in all it was an unforgettable, once in a lifetime experience that I'm so thankful we took a chance on.