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Song of the day; Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles.
Up early yet again- and Freddy took us to the local airport- basically a gravel airstrip on a flat piece of high ground. Another 10 seater aircraft, took us the 1 hour journey to the North- western Serengeti, home to our mobile camp, just south of the Kenya border, and the Masai Mara.
Within 250 yards of the airport entrance (represented by 2 white stones) we were at rivers edge, with 20 hippos resting mid river, yards from a large croc. Cornelius, our fabulous guide for the next 4 days, explained that they co-existed quite happily - hippos being herbivores and crocs carnivores. (I forgot to point out hippos were very meaty.)
Well, talk about large numbers of animals, over the next few hours we saw countless thousands of them - 360 views of wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, everything- but even more spectacular was our wait by the Mara river to watch a wildebeest crossing as part of their migration. Several thousand of these truly very stupid animals paraded up and down the far shore, eventually finding the most dangerous place to cross, where the current was strongest, and followed each other into the raging waters bellowing loudly. Quite a few die, drowning and floating off down river to become some predators easy takeaway supper. Some get half way over and then swim back, while most did make it to our side and passed a few feet from our land cruiser. If our technical expert old git finds out how to do it, we have a fab video to upload.
The crossing was probably the most amazing thing any of us old gits had ever seen - until the next day!!!
As dusk fell we moved on to our home for the next 4 nights - our tented camp. As we approached, Cornelius asked if we'd like a 'head-on collision' - his term for having cold drinks on a tray ready as we stepped out of the 4 by 4.
The 8 staff who ran the camp were lined up to greet us, including Baboo and Good Luck, our great waiting staff. We were to be the only guests for the first two nights, and as Cornelius showed us around we all couldn't believe how fantastic the camp was, just 6-8 tents - but what luxurious tents, overlooking grassy slopes where 150 yards away hundreds of wildebeest and zebra grazed without casting us a glance. After showers we sat down for sundowners, really tasty snacks and a fab meal watching the distant lights from Kenya and a star filled sky.
Truly unbelievable!
P
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