SAFARI – THE SERENGETI
We had seen scattered herds of wildebeests, zebras and gazelles on our way onto Naabi Hill, but leaving it was the true great migration spread out before us. Every year starting in January, 1.7 million wildebeests are led by 260,000 zebra from the southern Serengeti to ultimately the Kenyan plains in the summer, with around 470,000 gazelle tagging along, as well as other miscellaneous beasts of the plain, all moving towards the rains and water. Around 500,000 calves are born during a period from January to March, and around 250,000 wildebeests die during the migration (predators, exhaustion, etc) and we drove into the middle of this vast movement for several hours before the herds finally dwindled down to nothing. But…there is never “nothing” in the Serengeti – there are great winged birds flying, hyenas lying in the long grass, far off giraffes, and the occasional group of big cats sheltering under trees–or sleeping up in their branches– from the overhead sun. When the jeep would stop, we heard the bird calls or creature sounds carried on the breezes that swept the plains. It lifted our spirits to see this vast untapped and unspoiled wilderness teeming with such a profound affirmation of life on this beautiful planet of ours.