Eleven new folks joined us this morning for the safari in Kenya, although most of the day was spent driving from Nairobi to the Masai Mara Game Reserve. We still had time for a four hour game drive in the afternoon, and while afternoon game drives haven’t been as exciting as morning drives, the new folks still got a great variety of animals today, including just about every major mammal that we’ve seen previously except for cheetahs and leopards. Thinking back to my first day on safari nearly two weeks ago, the excitement of seeing a wild giraffe or hippo for the first time is pretty tremendous, and it was fun to hear the stories at dinner.
For the rest of us the exciting thing today was seeing just how many wildebeest are here at the northern end of their migration route. At some points the landscape was filled from horizon to horizon with black dots, while in other places we would see single file lines of the shaggy beasts that stretched for hundreds of animals. Beyond the scale of the scene, watching a few young animals jumping in the air and acting frisky despite the obvious dangers that they face every minute of every day gives the impression that these aren’t unhappy creatures, despite their often unhappy fates. Africa is a hugely awesome place.
