A Fortnight in the Wild: Chapter 5

Don't Go That Way...

Warning: Contains some disturbing images

Previous Chapter: The First Crossing 

We shared our lunch break with a pod of hippos, but not our food. They had to get their own.

Hippos are generally not cute or cuddly. But here was an exception...

Although we opted out of cuddling for now...

Almost every time you see a hippo, all you get is something that looks like a rock that occasionally farts. This time, in the Mara, we saw more hippos out of water than I have ever seen before. They normally only come out of the water at night, in search of grazing. They are herbivores and need to consume vast quantities. In the day however, their skin tends to burn in the sun thus they stay submerged for long periods of time, needing only to raise their large nostrils above water for a gasp of air. 

Being a herbivore does not stop them from being extremely dangerous. Try to stop that urge to cuddle them...

Lunch over, we decided to track a herd of wildebeest that we had seen the day before, further up-river. 

The river at first seemed void of life...

...and pretty much void of water too. 

The void is deceptive. Firstly, a lot of those rocks are not rocks. Secondly, a lot of that water has teeth. Thirdly, around the next bend:

A large and growing herd, but it was close to a part of the river generally considered uncrossable. 

One reason may have been this...

Not conducive to comfortable travel.

The herd was not impressed. Murmurs spread amongst them. "Not bloody-well going in there mate!"

They soon started to walk nonchalantly away.

This was not to be our second crossing of the day. That would have been too much to ask for.

But we did ask...

After tracking the herd for an hour up-river (not difficult to do when there are several thousand of them) they stopped near this banking, a well recognised crossing point.

They went down...

They went up...

They started to cross!

CHAOS!!

They went back...

This was obviously not the time to cross. 

Except...

They went for it!

All of a sudden, the whole lot went into stampede mode.

But here be dragons...

This was not a safe place to cross. All warning signs has been ignored! As they reach the other side, it looked like they may all make it, but...there was a struggle in the background...

The calf that was left behind...

Trapped!

Escaped!

but wait, all is not well...

Escaped from the jaws of doom, but destined for the jaws of something else soon. Another song in the making...

He will not last long.

---

This crossing was finally over, leaving us elated at having witnessed the rushing hoard, gutted at seeing a calf gutted, privileged to have seen nature in all its stark reality, uncomfortable in having seen such a wild scene, and also slightly uncomfortable in having to heed the call of nature. They really should put toilets on these jeeps.

It was over.

Or so we thought...

Next Chapter You Shall Not Pass