Agrey heron floated across the waters of Lake Tagalala, standing upright, feet submerged. The ears and eyes of a hippo were just visible above the surface, seemingly content to be doing the hard work for the passenger riding on its back.
Moments like this can make a safari. Alone in our small boat, deep inside Tanzania’s Nyerere National Park (formerly Selous Game Reserve), there were no other tourists, just us with hippos, fish eagles, crocodiles, buffalos, baboons and hitch-riding herons for company.
But was this the best wildlife sighting we were going to have today? Earlier, we’d heard that a group of Dutch tourists had seen wild dogs on the other side of the park. We’d driven for hours on rocky roads to where the pack had been spotted, searching until hope faded.
Deciding if our day had been a success (sunset and great wildlife on Lake Tagalala weighed against a missed opportunity
