The time I kissed a hippo

Mwah!

When I was first told about Jessica, the world famous hippo, I couldn’t quite grasp what I was hearing. A hippo that had been saved just after birth, raised by humans, and is now the only one of her kind in the world that can be touched, fed, and even kissed?

Tonie and Shirley Joubert, Jessica’s ‘parents’, found her just hours after birth, washed up on the banks of the Blyde River near their house outside Hoedspruit. She had been swept downstream by the devastating floods of the year 2000. Thirteen years later and Jessica is now like a real daughter to the Joubert’s. While Tonie shows us one of the 91 documentaries about Jessica before our meeting with her, I hear a grunt from the river below the lapa. She is just as curious about us as we are about her.

Weighing in at a whopping 1040 kilograms, Jessica is a large, round bellied bundle of cuteness. Each of us gets a turn to feed her slices of raw sweet potato, stroke her on the nose, and give her Rooibos tea from 2l Coke bottles. “The tea has to be warm and sweet otherwise she won’t drink it,” says Tonie. When it is my turn to give her some tea I am astounded by her calm and sweet nature. Half her body is on the raft on the river and her eyes stare bizarrely at me as she waits, with mouth open, for her drink. I give it to her and then place a kiss on her wet and slightly hairy nose. It’s hard to believe that this is one of Africa’s deadliest animals, killing more humans than any other animal on the continent.

She may be deadly but she sure is a cutie

Once the feeding and drinking is done, she swims over to the side of the raft and everyone gets a chance to put their feet on her leathery back. “Are you afraid?” Tonie asks me while I remove my black sandals. “No, why?” I reply. “Do you mind getting a little wet?” He tells me to put my feet on her back and to wait until she holds her breath. Hippos hold their breath between 30 to 40 times a day. When she is ready, Tonie tells me to sit on her back. Sit on a hippo’s back? He assures me that it’s okay, and I do it. For about 20 seconds I sit, somewhat bewildered, on the back of a world famous hippo named Jessica. It was incredible!

Hi Jessica, it's Mignon. I'm just chilling here for a little while.

Please don't eat me?

We round up our adventure with a stop at the giant baobab (upside down restaurant) down the road from Jessica. It doesn’t matter that the restaurant is closed because we are too occupied climbing, hugging and photographing this unique and mind blowing piece of nature. We take in the beauty as the sun slowly sets and make our way home for some much needed rest. Have you met Jessica the Hippo?