We woke up at Northern Wilderness Camp for another early but tasty breakfast and headed off towards the herd we saw yesterday. We found it after an hour or so and it had not yet crossed but instead moved along the Mara River which was guarded by smug crocodiles. It was now simply a game of waiting patiently, but after some time Matthew suggested we could take a chance and check on another herd, of course that meant we may miss both but we trusted Matthew’s gut(?) in this and drove towards the other herd.

On the way we came across a pair of lions which gave around zero fucks that we were there, or at least it felt that way when the male lion got up, walked towards us while we were standing still and then passed us on the side no more than five meters away. I could almost hear Mona’s heart beating and for a brief period considered whether I should back down from the open roof but Matthew were ready to get the car moving if the lion would try to enter the car. Everything went well and we decided we should continue the search for the other herd.

We arrived just in time for the start of a rather impressive herd crossing, and despite more pictures than I’m willing to admit and even some video it’s hard to capture this but to sum it up it was an exhilarating experience watching it to say the least.

The main crossing lasted for just over than 30 minutes – and at times I had to fight the urge to just join in. During the period there were short pauses when the flow of gnus dried up – some animals hesitated so groups (families?) got split up causing sad moo-ing from both sides. So after the main crossing the courageous/reckless ones who had crossed once already did the crazy thing and crossed back again – after having a long look at the 50 or so bodies in the river that got trampled or snagged by crocodiles (which did not miss the opportunity to have a feast). Check the photo above again, those bulbous shapes you see are near the slope on the other side? Those are not rocks…

Once those crossed back and the herd was happily united, more came along from the original direction and suddenly it was fine to cross (again) – so some poor suckers crossed for the third time while we were having our lunch as spectators. As some say in Sweden “Alla skall med!” (Everybody shall join!)

Satiated with gnus for once day we did some game driving along Mara river, not far from the Kenyan border before heading south towards Kati-Kati (another mobile camp than the previous one we learned) in order to position us better for the return drive the day after.

What a day, we also saw some vultures enjoying gnus who did not make it to the river, and of course more elephants and giraffes. There will likely be enough photos from this trip to last me a lifetime of desktop background images. Last but not least we spotted another Leopard, that is part of it – behind legs and a tail but perhaps we could come back tomorrow and check again.

We arrived at Kati-Kati somewhat late only to find out we should go to the other Kati-Kati next to where we were – and signs would of course have been to easy so off we drove again. The “road” to this camp was by good margin the worst we’ve encountered so far. I was pretty convinced that we had taken a wrong turn when we had bushes on both sides and minor vegetation and vague traces of tracks ahead of us. Right about darkness came I spotted some fire a bit further along and yep, we were on the right “track” the whole time. After dinner we were so tired so we skipped showers and fell asleep.

We woke up at sunrise in Kati-Kati, and found two portable bowls of warm water outside our tent – good way to quickly fresh up before breakfast. While my omelette was being made I enjoyed the scenery to the tea – Serengeti is indeed beautiful.

We once again settled up in the car, and since we would spend at least 12 hours in the car all cushioning available where used.

The morning’s game drive presented a slew of lions, they could be sleeping or slacking off but there was in general a low level of activity as the day got warmer and warmer. We have now also learned that the clock in the car is not incorrectly set, but set to Swahili time. Swahili time starts at dawn, or 0600 so 1:34 would correspond to 07:34 – which to be honest makes quite a lot of sense as long as one is not up before 0600.

Giraffes often look well adapted to the Acacia trees while they munch on the high branches, as we saw one giraffe eat from ground vegetation it became apparent this was less well adapted but possible despite a somewhat awkward position.

Most animals we have seen are in smaller families or alone with some exceptions – zebras are larger groups or herds while wildebeest (gnu) seem only to exist larger volumes so far. Due to some weird rain patters migration was still on-going and we were hoping to be able to see a river crossing and thus drove towards Mara River in order to get there before it was too late in the afternoon.

We got there and found a smaller group (a hundred?) about to cross – just when a few gnus in the front checked the water another car came in close and disturbed them. Thanks Obama. Matthew explained that gnus were very into the whole “follow the leader” but interestingly the leader did not have to be another gnu – on the contrary zebras were the favored leaders, since they had great sight and in general seem to make better decisions than gnus – which perhaps isn’t saying that much.

As we headed for the Northern Wilderness Camp we passed a handsome elephant and it’s easy to become blasé of all the animals during a safari but they still have something majestic although sad about their lumbering way. After a bit of searching we got to the camp for the day and had another nice three course dinner. During dinner Matthew pointed no groups had seen a crossing in two days according to the other guides but we crossed our fingers for tomorrow as we went to bed.

Alarms woke us up and it was time for the last breakfast (at 0530) at Ang’gata before packing up our second home with all our belongings. Yawning and wearing fleece jackets we could at least comfort us with the fact that Ngorogoro Crater area opens at 0600 and since we were inside the Ngorogoro conservation area already we didn’t have to drive for a few hours to get there but rather 30 minutes.

Ngorogoro Crater is, as one almost can guess given the name, one big ass crater – the remains of a collapsed volcano from back in the days. Masai are allowed to live and herd their cattle here (when they were banned from Serengeti they “got” this permission) but it gives the whole Jurassic Park feeling when descending into the crater and seeing the volume and diversity of the wildlife.

I have not been able to reduce the number of pictures to a reasonable amount yet but will at least only post a few here.

Birdies

Hippos with baby on board

One of the world’s few remaining black Rhinos

At lunch we left the crater and headed towards Serengeti instead, we had our first night in central Serengeti at Kati-Kati wilderness camp so there was a bit of driving to get there. Serengeti started with setting pretty decent standards by after just one and a half km we were greeted by below sight.

Cheetah

Two brother Cheetahs

So how do you beat a Cheetah seen in broad daylight from close distance? Add his brother in the same picture.A few (tens of) photos later we continued and it didn’t matter a bit we got to Kati-Kati just in time for sunset. It was several other groups there which was a change from Ang’Ata but groups were placed with separate tables with their guides so we were the usual trio. After another nice three course dinner we had a quick hot shower we hit the bed after a long and epic day.