Do hippos ever swim in the pool?

Alex posed this question to the swim-up bartender during our pool stay on Saturday evening. I laughed when he asked, but the guy said it's happened before. WHAT. A hippo has walked up the hill, slipped past the wooden posts designed to keep them out, gone unnoticed by the guests and employees and gotten INTO the pool?!? Dang.

Well, I believe him....because I witnessed it.

Our room was situated on the ground floor, directly facing the pool. We had a view of the pool and the Nile behind it. Very nice. Before we headed up for dinner, I sat on the patio staring right at the pool preparing to call Rachel to congratulate her on completing her first half-marathon. It was about 8pm, so it was completely dark except for the pool lights (underwater) and the room lights along the edge of the lodge.

So I dialed Rachel's number and sat back in the chair. I noticed a large, dark object blocking the dim lights from the pool. Hm. Has that been there the entire time? I don't remember a statue of an elephant near the pool...? I don't remember a huge chair there...?

Then the object started to move. Waaaaaaiiiiitttttt a minute. What is THAT?!?!?!

Meanwhile, Rachel was still on the line trying to figure out why I'm whispering, "I think there's a giant hippo 20 ft from me right now. Holy crap."

Let me repeat that: a giant hippo was standing with its back to me, drinking from the pool about 20 ft in front of my face.

When it started to move, I picked up my laptop and followed it, obviously keeping my distance. (I didn't have time to grab my camera, but I really wish I had.) I know Rachel couldn't hear me due to the shoddy skype connection, but I was frantically whispering, "there's a giant hippo here and I'm following it. This is crazy. This is crazy."

I walked about 40 yds with the hippo, but then he slipped off into the night. I never heard it make a sound. Their surprisingly agile. I walked back to the patio, attempted to call Rachel about 13 more times unsuccessfully and wandered up for dinner.

That was crazy.