Happy Henry the Hippo would love to make your acquantenance and have you sign his guestbook when you come to visit him! He's a quite friendly guy after all.
During the 20 years I lived in Kenya, East Africa I had many encounters with hippos; fortunately none of them turned ugly. On one occassion, I was with a group of friends camping at Lake Oloidian, near Lake Naivasha. As it got dark most of the children curled up in their tents, but we adults continued with our conversation around a lovely camp fire. Suddenly a few of us saw a hippo walking near us on the land!
Oh me, oh my! What should we do?! Fortunately the caretaker at the campsite knew what to do - he gently waved his flashlight at the hippo and 'guided' him, so-to-speak away from where we were and back to the lake. Phew!
But the scenerio actually didn't stop there. Four of us ladies shared a tent and in the middle of the night, I woke up. Guess what I heard! The constant sound of that hippo ripping and chewing grass for hours. Oh, my goodness... and the way I needed to relieve myself. You guessed it... I did not leave the tent!
Interestingly the Hippopotamus eats at night, for up to six hours. They leave the water at dusk and settle in a grassy area near a lake, arriving by the same path every day. These are known as “hippo paths” and their grazing areas are called “hippo lawns.” They can eat up to 80 pounds each night, sometimes including fruit and other vegetation.
You can see photos and more of the story here -
http://ministry2kenya.blogspot.com/2014/03/camping-with-africas-wildlife-some-of.html