Bright....no... dark and early, we dragged ourselves out of bed and made our way to the cars. It was 5:45 and though I'd slept really well, some of the adults didn't with all of the mooing of the wildebeests. We got in our respective cars while Grayson and Tom loaded up picnic breakfast and lunch boxes.
We drove North, heading towards the Sand river which eventually merges with the Mara river. The road was pretty nice and as per usual, the feeling of driving in the morning was exhilarating rather than sleepy.
Tom had warned us in the blah blah last night that we'd have to be very patient today - sometimes you have to wait for hours before seeing a crossing, and sometimes it just never happens. Wildebeests were hardly predictable - go figure.
It wasn't long before the landscape changed into more open vistas with only the occasional tree. We started to see lots of bones and vultures... another killing field?
Grayson rolled the jeep to a stop and just like that we were parked in front of a large male lion. Beautiful. Nearby, more of the pride were spotted... first, three lionesses with full bellies staring down a hundred wildebeests who seemed to know that the lions were full (a dearly departed friend perhaps?) .... next, a bunch of juveniles with the tiniest cub we've seen so far - its fur was almost dark brown and she looked to be the size of a very small house cat... next, three lioness with a couple of cubs.... another male lion a little younger than the first.... finally we saw three baby cubs the size of house cats with a large lioness watching over them from a couple of meters away.
It was no wonder that every time you saw a small river valley or depression in the plains that had long green grass, the thousands of wildebeests surrounding the area were uniformly thirty meters back of the edge of the verge.
By around 7:30, we got to the Mara River. At some points, Kenya lay right across this river, at other points Tanzania was still in sight. Grayson propped us up on the edge of the river with a great view of some hippos and crocs. It was then that we noticed a half upturned dead hippo being munched on by some hungry crocs. Crocodiles need to eat meat that has rotted a bit, as their teeth configuration lacks canines so they have a tough time pulling fresh meat off a kill. Because of this, they tend to drown their prey and sink it to the bottom of the river for a while until the flesh starts rotting.
However that hippo had died, it had clearly started rotting a bit - the crocs were having a field day. Their strength showed through in the violent bursts of energy when they pulled a chunk of flesh off and waggled it side to side until it suited them to swallow. So cool. It was kind of funny that both Beth and Abby asked during the encounter how the hippo had died... my guess was either heart attack or diabetes....
Breakfast time couldn't come any sooner - and to our surprise Tom and Grayson pulled into an open area and proceeded to set up chairs they'd packed away in the jeeps as well as a picnic blanket. The breakfast boxes redeemed the meal from last night a bit - bacon, pancakes, hard boiled eggs (ew... though Alex enjoyed the donations), juice, toast and a tin of pineapple and watermelon... yum!
After a leisurely breakfast, the boys got word that someone had spotted some black rhinos. We headed back where we'd come from before breakfast. Suddenly, Grayson just took off, and our adrenaline levels suddenly jumped in anticipation to match the jeep's acceleration. I felt we were headed for a crossing instead of the rhino spotting, and I was soon proven right.
We pulled up next to the Mara river and witnessed one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.... thousands of wildebeests were crossing to the North side of the river. Their bodies were teeming with nervous energy. On the near bank, thousands more queued up in a semi organized, equally nervous pack, poised on the edge of the riverbank. The bank itself was unpredictable - sometimes there was a bit of a sandy zigzag that brought some of the animals closer to the water level where they hopped in. Other times, there was simply a slope which ended in a small dirt cliff - the wildebeests that got pushed over to those spots would have to leap into the water below - sometimes a meter high, sometimes more.
The challenges with getting across the water were numerous. Like the mass start of the swim portion of a triathlon, there was lots of pushing and shoving, and even more kicking forwards and backwards. Then, there was the fairly strong current in some parts of the river, which caused the line of crossing animals to get warped and bent downriver, as if the current was simultaneously dragging them all downstream. The rocks, both under and above the surface were another issue - the wildebeests hooves (or paws as Beth called them) were not meant to tackle slippery surfaces. They would slip pretty badly when in the water, but when clambering over large smooth rocks that were sticking out, it was like watching New Canadians at the hockey rink for the first time, clinging to the sideboards for their life.
We watched as some of the animals, particularly the young ones, would get separated from the frantically crossing pack, and struggle for sometimes minutes to get back in the pack. We didn't see any of them not succeed, but we did see one large male who seemed to have broken a rear leg. He struggled to one of the little oasis rocks, trying to stand up, only to flop back on it's side in obvious pain. We lost track of him for a bit, but when that herd had decided it was going to take a pause from crossing, and the last wildebeest had crossed the Mara, the injured male lay at the far side bank. There was no way he was getting out of that water and up the steep bank. He would have to wait for crocs, lions or hyenas to put him out of his misery.
Phew. Lucky. So lucky. We'd watched the crossing for about an hour and a half, but it felt like five minutes. Although we'd all seen videos of the crossing, it was so visceral to experience it in person.
We managed to catch another crossing, but ironically all of the jeeps crowding in to watch that crossing started blocking the path of the oncoming wildebeests so much that they got skittish and called it off.
Tom and Grayson took us to some shade trees fifteen minutes away and we excitedly recounted our luck. We broke out lunch boxes and started to nibble away, when Grayson gave us a heads up that we were on the move again. They'd located another crossing not far from where we were.
We arrived to find about five other jeeps watching a smaller group (when I say smaller, it was still thousands deep) crossing from the North side back to our side. Just because there's a general migration pattern from South to North during this season, the wildebeests were obviously free to cross back and forth a few times, and these guys were headed our way.
Suddenly, I heard some excited tourist sounds from the other cars...like they were watching a gladiator's match. At first I thought it was their first crossing (we were total vets by then) but then we noticed an infant wildebeest being trashed and dragged underwater. Croc attack! The water was deeper at this crossing and the crocodiles were having a field day. One by one, we say crocs approach the line of wildebeests crossing the river. We saw at least two official takedowns, maybe three. The croc's modus operandi was to latch on, twist and drag their prey underwater, and they were pretty damn effective at it. In the aftermath, all you would see would be the tip of a floating body as the crocodile swam away and eventually dragged it under the water, no doubt searching for a good hiding place where it could wait for the meat to soften up for a few days.
Wow. We have seen so much. We had some more good conversations with Grayson while we finished our lunch boxes. He told us about his twin sister who had died a couple of years back. Her name was Grace and they used to call each other G. It sounded like they were very close. He also showed us pictures of his five year old daughter and three month old son (he actually said three months, twenty two days.... he's very precise :-)) and his wife - a very photogenic family.
We spent a couple of lazy hours after lunch, parked under a tree. The kids continue to amuse themselves quite easily and endlessly - it was hard to imagine just how well they'd get along in such tight quarters for such a long time.
On the way home, we saw a couple of interesting things, but nothing to justify slowing down much. We'd had an exhilarating day. However, when we saw a female ostrich doing a mating dance and a male ostrich nearby, the adult jeep decided to stop and see if there was going to be any action. He did end up taking a run at her, but she was playing hard to get and fluttered away from him.
Moments later, back driving, Grayson stops, quickly checks his binoculars and says "yes, a female lion with a cub in her mouth". What? He saw it from about 800 meters away?!?! We sped up to the scene, and radioed Tom to come back. Sure enough, when we got closer, the mortals in the car could see the cutest little cub in her proud mother's mouth. The lioness walked it over, quite casually, every once in a while dropping it and changing position then grabbing it by the back of the neck again. She walked right up to us, then down into a small gully, where she dropped the cub on top of another little one that was waiting there. They were so cute. Grayson said "she will go back and get another... you are so lucky to see this" - she did and we were.
We watched as the two little ones squeaked and played. In about two minutes, mama came back with another cub in her mouth and dropped it on top of the other two. She proceeded to lie down and lick them clean affectionately. The cubs had something else on their mind, and worked their way down the side of the lioness and convinced her to roll over and let them feed. The little nursing cubs were so cute - they would occasionally swat each other while searching for a nipple to suckle. We could have stayed there for hours.
What another special day. We got back to the camp about a half hour later, just in time for a little rain to hit the area. It was kind of a nice change as it was a pretty dusty day from all those wildebeests trampling in the sand and dirt. We are off tomorrow, and wanted to give Tom and Grayson a proper goodbye so we did that and gave them a good tip for the outstanding service and treatment they've given us over the past 11 days. I couldn't recommend them, Amanda and African Scenic Safaris more - absolutely outstanding in every way.
We finished the night off by playing a few rounds of 8-man President then stumbling home in the dark and the rain... and the constant mooing of thousands of wildebeests who had yet to make the crossing of the river.
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