Go on Safari/Witness the Serengeti Migration (Masai Mara)

Wow … again, I say, WOW. Can words really describe the majesty and wonder of this experience?

Two goals get completed with one trip. To truly understand this experience, you have to have an idea of what we had already experienced as a group on our first day of safari. We were staying in a top African resort … not top Kenyan resort, top AFRICAN resort. We had taken a small aircraft to get there, our tents overlooked a river with hippos and crocodiles bathing in it daily.

I am feeling a wave of separation anxiety just typing this. Anyway. We had seen just about everything … lions, giraffes, ostriches, zebras, warthogs. We even sang the Oh-Wim-Oh-Weh song as we crossed the Masai Mara. We took iconic pictures in front of the Acacia trees. I even petted a rhino!

The only thing that was missing was elephants. And for those of you who know about my misadventure going whale watching, you know that for some reason large, grey animals avoid me.

But I digress. We did see elephants on our 2^nd day of safari. LOTS of elephants, big mommy elephants with their babies next to them!

But we had a mission … the two hour drive to where the migration was taking place. And when we got there we knew it … and we lucked out!

The reason I say that is the driver told us we were going to miss the actual migration because the wildebeest move during the morning and graze later on, by the time we were supposed to get there. We got near this river and saw a bunch of crocodiles, but suddenly my colleague Kye says, “Hey, look down there!”

A few hundred yards down the river we see something amazing. Our driver rushes down the river to meet up with a dozen or so jeeps that were surrounding the riverbanks on either side, waiting to catch a glimpse of one event … to see the thousands (yes, thousands) or wildebeest that had gathered on one side of the riverbank cross to the other side.

This may not seem that impressive to you, but believe me, these jeeps had been waiting there for three hours for a reason. We lucked out because we got to see it happen without the three hours of waiting. We are sitting there watching when suddenly five wildebeest wander into the river, checking out the area to make sure there were no crocodiles. They hurry back up to the riverbank, kind of like a child who is dipping his feet into really cold water and then scurrying back to safer, warmer, land. But instinct kicks in … and suddenly, as if some voice was calling them from heaven, the wildebeest descend upon the river. Check out the pic:

It was like watching the crossing of the Red Sea …. Sort of. In any case, there are few things in life that are truly AWEsome. And this is one of them … one of the seven wonders of the natural world.