Not the best photo, I know. I cropped it so you can just about see what is going on in the papyrus to the right of the pelican. i.e. the rear end of one of Lake Naivasha’s hippos going ashore and the roaring, open mouth of another hippo who is objecting to the intrusion. Hippos have whopping teeth and tusks, and quite apart from being grouchy with each other, they also kill quite a few humans, especially fishermen. They are at their best when mostly immersed in water, and their surprisingly tender hides well protected from the heat of the sun. But even so, it always pays to be wary.
A glimpse of some of Lake Naivasha’s rich bird life (apologies for grainy old ‘out-of-Africa’ shot).
The lake is fed by underground rivers and is Kenya’s only freshwater lake among its Great Rift string of soda lakes. Many of the fresh flowers bought in Europe – roses as well as carnations – are grown in corporate-owned flower factories around the lake shore. Their presence has created jobs and some social services (e.g. company funded primary schools and clinics) for local people, but there are big costs too: too much water abstraction that has shrunk the lake and pesticide and fertilizer run off that have threatened fish stocks. There’s a good little video (7 mins) focusing on these problems and showing more of life around the lake HERE.
Tish Farrell 
There is always a down side.
Yep. And this is quite a major one, for wider environment included.
Maybe Noah was NOT swallowed by a whale. Maybe he was swallowed by a hippo?
It certainly looks to have mega swallowing capacity. I was astonished when I found I had caught the evidence of it
I’ve seen them “yawn” in zoos and I’m pretty sure Noah could have slid right down without any problem. HUGE mouths!
And v. big tumbos!
I would not like to tangle with one. A gigantic, ill-tempered water pig. Cool.
Sad that the flower industry has perks and adds beauty but then negatively hurts the lake and area…
And I did see the open mouth in the crop and like each photo – oh and I think the here are times in life when I am most happy when I “mostly immersed in water” hah! 💦💦💦
You know that’s a v. good thought, Yvette – getting immersed. No draughts in the bath either. (The wind is whistling through Wenlock today).
😊
My second spiky square pelican today!!! How amazing is that . . . and yours is just wonderful. Also loving your grainy out of Africa look 🙂
Cheers, Becky.
Wonderful photographs. Thank you Janet
Glad you liked them, Janet.
I love that last shot. Not easy to see the hippo on my phone, Tish. And no, that’s not because I’m in the bar 😜🐴🍹💕 xx
Ha!. That’s your story and you’re sticking to it 🙂
🍸🎹🎶💕
Lovely photos Tish; and so sad to hear of yet another example of corporate destruction of a natural environment, especially something as essential as clean fresh water. Here intensive farming and overseas-owned water bottling plants are wrecking havoc on our water supply as our government shrugs its shoulders and tries to find some distraction from their incompetence.
It’s as if everyone in power has completely lost the plot.
I think they are in a different play. A farce perhaps? Definitely a tragedy for the rest of us.
Funny how we are having the same problem. I am SO glad we have our own well. The sewage they drink in town is disgusting. They’ve really ruined the water almost everywhere.
Most of the UK’s water supplies are owned by foreign companies, or under foreign influence – US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, China. You have to wonder what kind of nation sells off its primary life-essential resource. And then we have the ardent Brexiteers bleating about a lack of sovereignty as if it’s a European Union problem, instead of an ongoing act of Tory privatisation. It’s the same with our power and rail network. Britain’s utilities have been sold off and the general public seem blissfully unaware or think it’s all the EU’s fault.
Blissfully unaware seems to be the statement of the day here, there and everywhere. We disposed of our Mexican immigrants and discovered that we had also eliminated most of our farms. There is no one to pick the crops now and rumors to the contrary, Americans won’t pick cotton. So we don’t grow cotton. We’re having trouble with all small crops that need to be hand-picked, like spinach and asparagus. We are okay on orchards and avocados, but everything else dies in the fields. We haven’t sold our water, but we certainly have leased it and polluted it to sickening levels. Why do we do this? Third-world countries think we only do this to them, but actually, we do it to ourselves too. How stupid ARE we?
Love seeing your old photos!
That’s very nice of you. I sometimes think I’m getting a bit old hat with them.
Well, I’m getting old hat with decaying flowers, then!!
Definitely not. Am still pondering on the agapanthus.
Pondering what, Tish?
Its strikingness mostly – silhouette, colours.
Oh, right!
A good one. My own experience with hippos taught me to be very wary.
Did you go to Lake Hannington? (Or whatever it is called now?)
Bogoria, I think. And no we didn’t. So many places I didn’t get to. Ah well.
Yes, Bogoria or something like that. Can’t win’em all. So few have seen what you (or I) have. 🙂
Kwaheri sassa memsahib.
You are absolutely right – take joy in what we have seen and know we are very very lucky to have seen it 🙂
Ndiyo Memsahib. 😉
Globalisation at it’s most insane! … love the hippo ‘yawn’ though. 🙂 and the pelican. 🙂
Insanity now appears to be the norm. Which is a grim thought for a Friday.