After all the great sightings on our first full day safari we did not think it could get much better. We asked William (our guide) if we could look for some birds as we both love them and what ever else we see on the way. We set off at 7h30 am, it was a lovely sunny day.
Just a few minutes from Kandili Camp we found hyenas feeding. A few meters down the road we saw a mother and baby too.
We went to the same park as the previous day to Musiara Mara. William took us to see the Marabou Stork, Crowed Crane, Yellow Billed Stork and then on to the Elephants. We saw many lions, wildebeest, zebras, Topi Antelope, Giraffes, Buffalo, Eland, Mongoose, Jackals and much more.
It was time to decide on a lunch spot, we told William that we loved the previous spot, and that he could choose. We started heading towards the river and William saw large herds of wildebeest approaching from the opposite side of the river. He told us that we might witness a migration today. As we came closer we saw many other vehicles parked and waiting for the possible crossing. We decided that it was about lunch time so we left and headed to our lunch spot. We set up lunch close to the river and watched the hippos as we ate. We had a lovely conversation with William about the park and Kenya and where he saw his beloved culture going in the future. After a long lunch we packed up and William found out that no crossing had taken place. We went on up river to look were the wildebeest where and if it looked like they could cross.
We changed spots 3 times, and on the last we got a front line view of one of the worlds most amazing spectacles......."THE MIGRATION"
We sat and watched as the Wildebeest decided which route was best and every time we thought they might go they pulled back then finally one of the Wildebeest took charge and jumped in the the fast flowing river. The crocodiles waited down river for the Wildebeest to get dragged toward them. Dozens of Wildebeest jumped into the river at a time spurred on to get to the other side. The Crocodiles targeted their prey carefully biting down on the necks and legs of the Wildebeest, the screams they gave out were spine chilling as they thrashed to escape, what ensued was 20 minutes of an emotional rollercoaster though a lens every now and then looking up to see the big picture. One of the lasting images for us was towards the end when a large croc had a hold of a baby Wildebeests leg and it was out of the water with its mother spurring it on but was sadly dragged back in to the river, then as quick as it had started the herd was on the other side and the crocs were finishing off their kills. We were all emotionally and physically exhausted after the event.
We then had to collect ourselves as William had heard that there may be an even bigger herd trying to cross further up river so we took of in a race with 30 other 4x4s in hot pursuit fighting for the best viewing position. We arrived at the first crossing point and found a great position however on the other side of the bank there were 20 other vehicles blocking the route so the wildebeest moved on which in turn created mayhem with the 4x4s scattering and charging down river to the next crossing point, again the vehicles on the others side blocked the route for them and they continued on. However William said that they must cross at this point so we stayed in position. It was about this time that the park rangers had enough of the vehicles blocking the crossing and told them to leave, sadly there was not enough light in the day and the crossing would have to wait for another day. We started back towards Kandili camp recounting the amazing experiences we had seen during the day and laughed at how lucky we had been.