That Hippo Who Almost Killed Me in the Okavango Delta of Botswana

Ion Volentir
8 min readAug 7, 2024

don’t usually partake in contests of any kind. Never had that habit. But when I saw the latest writing prompt from the Globetrotters traveling publication on Medium, I couldn’t resist it.

By Dimitrios Fanourios Pischinas

don’t usually partake in contests of any kind. Never had that habit. But when I saw the latest writing prompt from the Globetrotters traveling publication on Medium, I couldn’t resist it.

Wild: that’s exactly how I’d intuitively describe most of my life experiences. As most of these experiences are, directly or indirectly, related to traveling, I could share a wild travel story.

But when it comes to picking out the wildest, I realize it’s not straightforward. I first have to think about what is wild.

First definition that comes to mind: the opposite of civilized. Has to be in, well, the wilderness.

Then it evokes images of wild animals — a common pair of words. Has to feature some.

Lastly, to me it inspires emotions of peril and looming death… Has to be the story with that hippo in the Okavango Delta of Botswana that combines all the three elements.

Perhaps — despite the cartoon stereotype — you are aware that hippopotami are not among the friendliest of animals. Rather the opposite. According to…

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Ion Volentir
Ion Volentir

Written by Ion Volentir

Real Life Stories You’ve got to read it to believe it! These true stories seem almost too good to be true...

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