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The great migration refers to the movement of nearly 10 million wildebeest and zebra between the adjacent Masai Mara and Serengeti National Parks. The herds will move north or south through the ecosystem depending on the seasons and relative supplies of grasses: of course along with them come the usual complement of predators, a raft of safari vehicles and steady turnover of cashed-up tourists. And us.
We arrived late in the afternoon and headed straight out for an afternoon / evening game drive in our custom pop-top, road un-worthy, beat-up s***box Toyota Torago (I felt like I was 10 years old again heading to swimming training). Dawn and dusk are invariably the best times to be in the National Parks (as the predators are more active) and this safari delivered. We saw almost every major species in the park, including families of elephants, giraffes, a bachelor party of grumpy buffalo, lions, Pumba's, a variety of dainty little antelope and of course the expected masses of zebra and wildebeest.
I was fascinated to learn that the zebra and wildebeest have a symbiotic (mutually rewarding) relationship. The wildebeest (a supremely stupid animal) relies on the zebra to let it know when it should be running from a predator, while the zebra (our fashionable, stumpy horselike friends) benefit from some added horns and muscle, as well as a tasty 'beesty distraction if a lion comes to call. We saw this relationship in action so many times: the wildebeest would continue grazing or stand watching a lion or hyena come closer (seemingly oblivious to the fact that it's about to get torn apart), while the zebra would watch carefully before bolting and causing a resultant wildebeest stampede. Very David Attenborough!
Nevertheless, the evening safari was just enough to whet our appetites for the next day, and made the 4am wake up call much more bearable. A pre-dawn safari under the stars delivered us to a ritzy hotel straddling the Mara River, and it was here we had lift off in our hot air balloon. As soon as we were airborne some unexpected winds forced us up high fast as a green balloon passed under us by mere metres. After we were sure we hadn't collided and fallen to a fiery death, there was nothing for us to do but enjoy the peace and quiet and spot some animals as we glided over the spotted plains of the Mara. For me the real highlight here was watching the animals move about below: the zebra would shuffle their dumb friends in to line and march the wildebeest across the landscape below, moving much like an ant colony do in huge congregations and orderly streams. Where no zebras kept watch, a pride of lions would be visible stalking near the column, waiting for their opportunity to grab breakfast off the sushi train. Further on we saw a young male and a lioness with a fresh kill, and eventually the sun broke over the horizon and illuminated everything in its light. The safari continued, and we looked and saw and admired; until at last we had to land and were whisked off to a champagne breakfast under a solitary acacia tree. Rough morning!
By 10am we had met up again with our fellow overlanders and had a full day's game drive ahead of us. I couldn't begin to list all the adventures we enjoyed in the next 7 hours, so I will focus on two highlights: the lion fiasco and the cheetah run.
Our driver Jackson saw a herd of giraffe on the far side of a small, dry creek bed and decided to cross it to get closer to them. In doing so he accidentally drove right up beside a full grown male lion and slammed on the brakes in panic. He tried to reverse but to no avail. We were bogged right beside him, and the vehicle was angled so the open pop-top would've been nice and easy for the lion to climb in and chow down on us. Our new friend Bec promptly descended into a full blown panic attack, and while Sjane was trying to calm her down she also surreptitiously pointed out a second male lying another metre or two from the first! f***! Jackson had already would his window up, and instructed us to close the top, shut our windows and hang tight while he radioed for help. The next 15 minutes or so were extremely exciting for Sjane and I (a feeling not shared by all inside the tin can): the herd of giraffe had all wandered over to see the what the fuss was about, and I couldn't help but think this had to be more fun than 4WDing back home. Eventually the other safari vehicle arrived and distracted the lion long enough for us to rev the guts out of our van and climb free back out the way we came. We were told later that the lion was carrying a wound on his hindquarters - thus making him even more aggressive and prone to violence than the usual male - and that the glass windows and metal chassis would've been no barrier to this 250kg killing machine had he wanted to tear us apart. Awesome!
The second highlight was radioed to us by another safari vehicle alerting those nearby to a pack of cheetah. We chucked a quick u-turn and made a beeline towards them at top speed. Cheetahs! One of the few big game we'd yet to see! We made it and identified 5 animal versions of Usain Bolt lounging under some low-lying scrub with a fresh kill (I couldn't tell you what it was because it's hindquarters were completely gone). The cheetah were breathing hard - thus indicating a very recent kill - and I was struck by the size of them! I had expected something slightly larger than a domestic cat (maybe a little more than two feet in length), but these guys were more like two metres from head to tail. We had just started pulling our cameras out and snapping away when our driver started pulling away and accelerating off at full speed. Bloody Jackson! It was only after 10 minutes of driving like his life depended on it that Jackson deigned to tell us that in order to see the cheetah we had strayed from the legal bounds for drivers and he had been madly trying to get away from the cheetas as soon as possible to avoid a 10000 shilling fine from the descending Park Rangers. Thank you Jackson!
Staying nearby meant we also had the opportunity for another pre-dawn safari to see the sunrise and some more adventures. We were lucky enough to catch a young male stalking alongside a herd of buffalo and another pair of mating lions (Sjane promptly started exclaiming about "lion porn" again), before it was time to brave the dusty roads back to Nairobi.
We need to thank Wendy and Nigel for their contribution to the Suitcase of Dreams; which went towards the various Masai Mara safaris. We also need to thank Cody and Kiona for the hot air ballooning - it was originally intended for our time in Turkey, but ISIL and our running out of time in Europe put a stop to that. I can't help but think the Masai Mara made an excellent location substitution. Thank you all. Our memories of the great migration will be something we cherish forever.
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