As you will learn later, I took up windsurfing during our holidays at the Kenyan coast but I never got beyond the beginner’s level, basically due to lack of practice.

There are two fresh water lakes in the Kenya Rift Valley, Naivasha and Baringo. The former is a weekend destination for many people in Nairobi that we use to call “water babies”. The lake was not a reserve and it was open to people to sail and fish at will while staying in the various luxury hotels spread along its shores [1].

Lake Baringo is much further away to the dry north and to get there requires quite an effort and it is not really suitable for a weekend break. We visited it sometimes as a stopover when heading for other destinations and perhaps twice as our final destination.

Lake Baringo has an area of 130 square kilometres and the Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel Rivers are the rivers that feed it. It has no known outlet but it is believed that its water seeps through the bottom into some underground current where it finds an impermeable layer. There are over 470 species of birds there, occasionally including migrating greater flamingos as well as a Goliath heronry located on a rocky islet known as Gibraltar that is an amazing sight!

The lake was believed to bee free from Schistosoma parasites and also that its crocodilian inhabitants, because they were not disturbed, also did not bothered swimmers and sailors. The hippos, however, were “normal” and it was advised to give them a wide berth, as there were quite a number, particularly near the shores. Despite this potential danger the local Njemps fishermen moved about the lake in tiny boats and rowed with some special paddles that they fitted in their hands!

We always camped at Robert’s Camp and we spent time walking and driving around the lake in search of some of the rare birds that were present there. One occasion we shared the camp with some colleagues from Muguga that were keen on sailing and they had also brought their windsurfing gear.

They insisted that I borrowed it to have a go. I put forward the excuse of the low temperature of the water trying not to mention my concern for the hippos and, to a lesser extent, the crocs but they insisted.

I had seen the abundant hippos present at the lake and pointed this out to them but they convinced me that, as far as they knew, there had never been an accident with either hippos or crocs. Seeking consolation in the way the Njemps fishermen move around the lake, I thought that the windsurfing table must have been at least twice the size of their boats and, therefore offer more protection in case of an attack.

So I bit the bullet and ventured into the lake! It all went well starting in the open water, far from the shore and eventually my friends, seeing that I would manage on my own, went on sailing, faster than me and soon I was forgotten by all!

After about an hour of sport, not being really used to it, I got tired and decided to head back to our camp. This meant coming closer to shore where the hippos were! Luckily I managed to sail in the right direction and eventually I got within a short distance from our camp. Now I needed to get there! This was easier said than done.

Between me and the camp there was a shallower area that could only be negotiated through a narrow canal and there, in the middle of it, a pod of hippos were doing whatever hippos do when they are inside the water as a family!

I was in a tight spot and quite concerned! I decided to do an exploratory approach to the beasts to see how they would react to my presence and then stop. I did so at about twenty metres from them and they replied with some grunting but nothing else happened. I took this as a half-hearted warning to the semi-naked human that was approaching them.

The situation was becoming tricky but in what I now regard as a foolish (but rather courageous) move, decided to go for it and gathered speed, trying to keep to the side of the channel where I saw no hippos.

Although I thought I was going fast, I am sure I would have been dead meat if the hippos wished to go for me. Luckily, they only watched me pass and snubbed me by showing me their fat rear ends! Eventually I managed to hit the coast at full speed and felt very relieved.

When my colleagues returned to collect the table I was already relaxed and kept the incident of the hippos to myself.

[1] See: https://bushsnob.com/2019/11/23/lake-naivasha/