Sleeping Hogs

At the moment I am working with Dave Thomas down on HMS Raleigh, and we were reminiscing about our trip to Swaziland.  Dave has travelled to Africa many times but Lori, his wife had not, and he wanted someone to organise it all for them both.  The only thing Lori was not too keen on were the creepy crawlies, so I planned the trip to be in Swaziland's winter, when no self respecting bug would be seen out in the cold.  So there were Dave, Lori and myself, sitting around the fire in Mlilwane, enjoying our after meal drinks and doing a spot of star gazing.  We were the only people sitting out that night, it was wonderfully quiet.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught some movement, there was something out there.  There then appeared three warthog from the inky blackness of the surrounding area, which approached us without a care in the world.  The tusks on the mother were enormous and I curled by legs up under myself, as it just felt safer to do so!  As they had come into our space and not the other way round, we made no sudden movements and watched with anticipation as to what would happen next.  What did happen next took me completely by surprise, and also Dave - who has travelled nearly as extensively as I have in Africa.

One of the younger warthogs, which was still the size of a large Labrador and supporting very big teeth/tusks, pushed Dave's feet out of the way of the fire, dug a small bed shaped hollow in the ground and promptly lay down next to the fire to keep warm.  This was obviously their bedroom for the night and we were in it.  A snout lay gently on Lori's foot and the mother took stock of the situation, eyed me up, and then went to bed on the other side.  I don't think any of us breathed for a minute.  We sat there for a while with our mouths wide open, we then finished our drinks and quietly crept off leaving leaving our hogs snoozing by the fire.

Now that was certainly an African memory not to forget.