PhilHydePhotos: A Fortnight in the Wild: Chapter 3

There be Monsters

The first full day in the Wild. Extracted from slumber at the otherwise unheard of hour of 5:30am, ready to leave the camp at 6:00, sunrise beginning at 6:20...

Previous Chapter here: Into the Serengeti

The wildebeest (those that survived the night predators) were up and ready for their continued migration. They were not the only ones appearing on the horizon.

A flock of hot-air balloons

More and more crept slowly up into the golden sky, ten in all. 10 large baskets filled with about 16 people each. Each person paying a small fortune (over $600) for the pleasure.

10 x 16 x $600 = nearly $100,000 per day.

They say that it is a "once in a lifetime experience". I'm not sure wether this relates to the fact that you will be financially bankrupt afterwards, or maybe due to the 'severity' of the landing...

The same thing happens every morning in season.

Each flight ends in a 'controlled' crash, with the basket on its side being dragged through the bush and animal byproducts. The vultures look on in anticipation...

However, we were not heading up into the air, we were heading for the Mara to try to see the wildebeest and zebra attempt a crossing. Having had the ballooning experience in the Maasai Mara many years ago, I'm still recovering from the shock...

We crossed via the safe route to the other side...

Now you may think that having a million or more wildebeest crossing the Mara in the week that we were there would make spotting a crossing as easy as tripping over an elephant turd. Well, you'd be wrong. We met many people that had been there for three or four days and seen nothing more than a large number of wildebeest (choose your own collective noun; a 'confusion' probably being the most accurate) wandering aimlessly up and down the river banks, stepping occasionally into the rivers edge, then wandering off back where they came from.

They had, however, tripped over several elephant turds...

There is no overriding order to a herd of wildebeest. One picks a direction at random, the others follow, or not. Then they change their mind. It's probably overstating it to say that they have a 'mind'. They behave more like a typical committee meeting.

Here is where Ian's abilities once more come to the fore. We did see a crossing. We saw more than one. We saw ... well, that will become clear in later chapters.

The classic way to spot wildlife on safari is to keep an eye out for other jeeps. My first experience of a crossing was many years ago in the Maasai Mara. There were literally hundreds of jeeps on each side of the river.

Ian doesn't operate that way. He seems to be able to think like a wildebeest (probably not a great compliment after having said they have no mind). Many times we would meet with a large herd of jeeps awaiting for a large herd of wildebeest to cross, and after studying their behaviour (the wildebeest, not the jeeps) he would shake his head and drive upstream, where a crossing would take place witnessed just by us. He can think like a wildebeest, anticipate the behaviour of a herd of wildebeest, and he can drive like a wildebeest, fearing no bush or ravine, except maybe the odd hippo. Being in the same jeep as Ian is somewhat akin to a Disney roller coaster ride without the safety belts.

We stopped at 8:30am by the banks of the Mara to check out the latest movements.

The latest movements mostly concerned hippos. Not all the rocks turned out to be rocks.

On driving past a bush and nearly running into this beast is one of the few times I've seen our wildebeest of a driver panic and put his foot to the floor regardless of the terrain before us. These animals kill more humans than any other mammal in Africa.

When in the water they are safe (providing you are not also in the water. Swimming is not a common pastime in Tanzania). This one was not in the water. This one was right next to our jeep and it was not happy to see us. Time to exit stage left.

The crocs looked on in amusement as we sped past and our lives sped past us too.

Hippos may be herbivores but they are not pacifists. They kill each other and they will kill you. You have been warned.

We stopped to breakfast near a large pod of these behemoths.

While sitting there eating our basic rations of bacon and egg sandwiches, sausages, fruit, yoghurts, fruit juice, coffee and other essentials of life (especially the coffee), we watched enraptured by their attempts at romance...

...and their eccentric habit of lifting their bottoms out of the water, pooping large volumes of liquid manure, whilst furiously wagging their short tails to allow others a whiff of their sprayed digestive prowess.

With hippos, the shit often hits the fan.

While sitting there appreciating nature with all its associated smells, an elephant wandered past appreciating the smell of our breakfast. Caught between a raging hippo and an unstoppable elephant. This should be a metaphor for something...

He may have been pleased to smell our breakfast, but he was clearly not impressed by our presence. I protected my wife by waving a camera in front of the beast. Colour me a hero.

Meanwhile, the wildebeest had been gathering on the other side of the river. Was this to be the start of something big?

One had even tentatively left the throng to roam alone by the rivers edge. He soon. however, changed his 'mind' and went back up, only to be overseen by a passing hippo. It's funny how hippos show little interest in a million passing wildebeest, but show them a human with a bacon sandwich...

Gnu's on the far bank, hippos on the near. Sounds like a Dire Straits song...