This morning we left at 6:30AM. Since it is Mayuko’s & Shampei’s last day for game drives, Veta & I let them pick which seats they wanted in the truck and set the agenda for the day. We still have another day and they leave for Tokyo tomorrow morning. The English couple, Lynn & Steve, went for a hot air balloon ride and planned to join us afterwards. Honestly, Lynn is a pain in the ass. She has a really high-pitched, shrill voice that is grating on the nerves when she speaks, and she never stops talking. By the end of the day my ears were bleeding and my head is pounding. I would love to shove a pile of elephant poo in her mouth to shut her up.
Enroute to the park, we encountered a family of elephants with a baby that was only 2 months old. As we entered the park, the sun was rising and it was going to be a clear, chilly, yet sunny morning. Right off the bat, we saw a female lion trying to drag her kill over to a bush so she could hide it from the vultures that were circling overhead. Her plan probably was to hide the body and come back to feast on it later. Then we saw more females together hiding in the grasses watching the wildebeest. During this time of year food is so plentiful that lions just practice killing to hone their skills, which is why we sometimes come upon carcasses with lots of meat remaining. The lions are too full to finish.
We then drove to see some more cheetahs. This time we saw another female and a young cub relaxing by a tree. Since we had had such a productive morning, we decided to stop and have breakfast. The lodge had packed a breakfast for us and our guide took us to a spot to eat. He set up a table and chairs and we had French toast, fruit, croissants, boiled eggs, sausages, and coffee or tea. The five of us ate as the British couple drove to meet us from their ballooning adventure. When they showed up, the wife, a regular Chatty Cathy, talked and talked without stopping to take a breath.
Duncan, our guide, is fantastic. He is also Masaai and from a nearby village that is about a 2.5 hour walk from the lodge. He has young sons who also share his passion for animals. Duncan is very funny and entertains us with stories of the bush while mixing in lots of facts about the animals and the geography of the area. He has such a jolly round face and eyes that twinkle with excitement when he finds animals that will make a great picture. He has a sixth sense for finding cats and is very familiar with their behavior. He loves to drive us to a sight and then circle it in the truck so we can take pictures from all angles. We are fortunate again to have another great guide. He told us to holler Seemama (Swahili for stop) when we want to take a photo.
It was about 10:30 and Duncan suggested that we head to see a crossing. Since seeing one is why we all came at this time we all quickly agreed. There are several crossing points so we drove to one. When Duncan saw the position of the wildebeest, he said we should go and check out another crossing point instead of waiting. We all reluctantly agreed. So off we went. As we pulled up to the next point, we could smell the decaying bodies of the fallen. Vultures were everywhere as if at some sort of convention. When we stopped and parked by the river. The shallow water was littered with carcasses and vultures feasting. Crocs were waiting along the banks and in the river I could see their eyes peeping out of the water, just waiting for a late breakfast. The wildebeest were closer to the river at this point. So we sat and waited.
The wildebeest were on both sides of the Mara River calling to each other. They were doing a kind of dance. One side would run towards the river and then stop only to turnaround and run back away from the river. Then the other side would do the same. This back and forth dance went on for quite a while. I found it quite entertaining, but the Brits were getting very impatient. So Duncan suggested that we drive a bit to see if we could spot anything else and in the meantime drive back to the initial crossing point to see if any new movement had begun. So off we went.
It was about 12:45 when we got back to the initial crossing point. As we pulled up, Duncan said, “Now this is promising!” Across the river from us, we could see a huge cloud of dust from the wildebeest running. On our side a small herd was vocalizing to the other side. Again the river two-step began. Then all of a sudden the cloud of dust got thicker and a small group of wildebeest came running down the river bank and jumped into the river. Then the multitudes followed. It was truly a spectacular sight. Then we noticed one croc had clamped onto one of them. The wildebeest was fighting, but the croc had too good of a hold and pulled it under the water. I took pictures thinking the croc was pulling him down from under the water, but when I later looked at the photo, the crocs jaws are actually clamped on the wildebeest’s shoulder area (photo attached above). Even the zebras joined in the crossing. The whole thing took about 40 minutes and involved, per Duncan’s calculations, about 10,000 wildebeest…absolutely incredible. After that, we headed back to the lodge for lunch at 2pm/
My lunch consisted of an avocado salad, pasta carbonara, and fresh berries and cream for dessert. After lunch, we headed out around 4pm for the afternoon drive. We saw lots of giraffe, cape buffalo, and a very rare sighting of a rhinoceros family: mother, father and baby. They were in the tall grass so my pics are not that great. Our drive ended with a big male lion lying in the grass roaring for his pride to return to him. This was a spectacular day.
At the end of the ride Lynn announced that she and Steve want to go out at 6:30am and return to the lodge at 9:00am for breakfast. So instead of riding with them, the lodge arranged for us to have our own car so we can go out for the normal drive and my ears will get a break from Lynn’s shrill voice. The sad part is that we will ride with a different guide in the morning, but have Duncan for our final drive in the afternoon. Oh well, I hope to see another crossing and that happens late morning to early afternoon. Can’t wait to see what the morrow brings.
Lala Salama (Goodnight)