You Shall Not Pass
Warning: Even more disturbing photos!
As we started to come down from that emotional high, we had all but decided to leave (after a quick pee-stop) to get back to camp at a reasonable hour when, across the river, we saw...
...another herd, an enormous herd of wildebeest was stampeding towards the same crossing!
And they plunged right in!
They got to the first rock unharmed...
Then, en masse, to the second without misfortune...
and then, without loss, to the further bank.
But was it without loss?
Without us realising it, a wildebeest had been pulled down...
...and this was the last we saw of it.
Meanwhile, the vast bulk of the herd was still streaming past.
They jumped.
They crashed.
They leapt.
They flew.
They fought.
They plunged.
Their need was to survive.
They survived.
Except... for some reason, a small group had got separated from the rest.
The reason can be glimpsed to their right.
One adult wildebeest had been chosen.
One large croc...
...was joined by another two.
The wildebeest was held by three crocs but still stood.
It struggled to stay upright in the water.
It fought to get away,
to keep its head above water.
And then...
Yet another croc. A giant of a croc. It plunged straight for the poor wildebeest's neck.
It had its prey in a death grip. It twisted its entire body...
...to pull the wildebeest under the water.
Still, breathing, still calling, with one hoof up in the air, almost as if waving goodbye. This was its last moment alive. The river had taken yet another victim.
---
We were now totally emotionally drained. Some of the wildebeest were not feeling too great either. Some were not feeling anything at all.
Witnessing three crossings in one day had to be some kind of record. As was waiting so long to have a pee...
We turned and set off to return to our camp and a welcoming shower from some buckets of water guaranteed free from lethal animals. We were once more late. The weather had closed in and getting a shot of a good sunset was proving difficult.
Here can be seen little in the way of sunset, but a lot in the way of scorched earth. Scorched earth was everywhere. Fires had been set by rangers all over the Serengeti and Maasai Mara. And they were still going on despite being outlawed at this time of year. The rationale is thin. This is meant to be a natural, unmanaged environment. These fires are dangerous to the local wildlife. Animals such as chameleons cannot escape it.
It is also dangerous to humans, as we were to find out first-hand...
We continued back to camp in the growing dark. As we did so, we stumbled across another leopard!
This was becoming a habit. Leopards can be very difficult to spot. (See what I did there?)
This one was tricky to photograph in the near dark, and he soon exited stage left to leave his kill to some greedy hyenas....
So, ok, you can't see the hyenas? They're behind that rhinoceros over there...
Another incredible day had come to an end. It was difficult to believe that this was only our second day in the Wild. Surely the best was now behind us?
Nope.
Next Chapter A Break from the Crossings
No comments:
Post a Comment