Day 7
The next day we continue our experience of the wildebeest migration, leaving our camp about 8 am after a good breakfast. Our vehicle Is by itself on a grassy knoll above the river watching and waiting. We can see great herds of wildebeest and zebras who have already crossed over on the other side of the river calmly grazing on the greener fields. But we pass many more wildebeest waiting for the right time to cross over themselves and we hear the sounds of low mooing from many nearby animals. We suddenly see four young wildebeest swim back from the other side of the river, fighting the current, and we are told sometimes the mothers who have been separated from their offspring call for their young and they risk another crossing to go back to their family.
We later are fortunate to see another crossing in the late afternoon, this time including a few zebras, who jump in after the wildebeest and swim across to solid land. We understand it is not very deep in this river but swimming is necessary and there is a current that could indeed confuse a young animal.
As Judy pointed out to me, the difference between yesterday’s first crossing and the two crossings we experienced today was intense numbers and chaos in the initial experience and the smaller groups and more managed control thereafter. Although she also noted that it could just be a difference in our perception between the surprise of the first time we saw the size and immensity of the wildebeest in motion and the second time when we expected to see mass movement.
Shira’s comment upon seeing the migration: The number of wildebeests was astonishing. There were as many as the eye could see and it was really amazing to see them run and cross the river. There were also some zebras, but I wished we saw more that crossed.
Drake’s comment was: What is so amazing is to see all the wildebeest and zebras crossing the river. There were about a thousand wildebeest and we saw a crocodile hunting the wildebeest.
Elsewhere today, between the two migration sightings, we saw more hippos up to their nostrils in muddy dirty water and many more wildebeest and zebras getting ready for their time to swim together to more fragrant land.
Back at our camp, we play dictionary with everyone (the kids doing a great job) and have a very good dinner. Then packing up for our departure the next day
