A long day planned today – down to the Mara to see if we could see a crossing of Wildebeest – not sure what they were thinking of crossing them with. Maybe a village idiot as they are all as daft. After a long drive, bumping across vast open plains, grass eaten short, and small herds scattered here and there, we got to a likely crossing point and joined a fleet of vans and jeeps to wait for the herd to cross. As a blade of grass will frighten a Wildebeest, they were very skittish as they approached the water. carcases floating by probably didn’t settle nerves, neither did the gathering of vultures and crocodiles. After a number of false starts with the herd dashing back to the plains, they eventually strated the crossing (basically one of them was having a quiet drink and got shoved, then the rest followed). The nervous energy drove them across and had them cl;amber up the far bank, usually one on top of each other. A crocodile snapped one of them up, and two calves swam back, now separated from the herd. The other thousand or so made it, and lived to tell another day.
Next up, cheetah and a cub sunning themselves, just before we stopped for a picnic lunch on top af a hill. Lions, lionesses, and cubs rounded out a long and dusty day.