![]() ![]() Of course, the obligatory wildlife photos were shared with friends and family, inclusive of clever captions decrying their relevant animal groupings. The safari proved a singular travel experience that stayed with me long after I returned home. Australia’s ancient language shaped by sharks.Fits of puerile laughter, comparable only to schoolchildren discussing flatulence, ensued. “Look, they’re doing the business!” I exclaimed to my travel companions, a couple celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. As I watched their valiant amorous activities, the temptation was ineluctable. The opportunity arose when we stopped to observe ‘a business of mongoose’. ![]() These collective nouns begged for further wordplay. But along came ‘a tower of giraffes’, ‘a confusion of wildebeests’ and, reposed contentedly under the blazing sub-Saharan sun, ‘a bask of crocodiles’. ‘A bloat of hippos’ was a witty and whimsical linguistic contrast to the almost Orwellian ‘nest of vipers’ and ‘murder of crows’ that I had always attributed to poetic license. My smile matched his as I laughed at how apropos the word seemed at describing this mass of bulky beasts. “A bloat of hippos!” he answered rhetorically with the grin of a man who knew this tidbit of information would delight his guests. “Do you know what those are called?” the safari guide at Botswana’s Chobe Game Lodge queried while I watched a large group of hippos unabashedly bathing in the waters of the Chobe River. ![]()
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