GREAT MIGRATION AND 2ND GAME DRIVE 24th of 27 Emails‏

Hello Loved Ones and Great Friends!

How are you all doing? Well, we hope. We have heard that colder weather has come to Boise and elsewhere. It will be tough for us to come home to winter, but we do miss all of you very much and are looking forward to seeing you again. It seems like we have been gone forever and become part of Africa ourselves. The wonder and majesty of this land continues to awe us. We just want to breathe and absorb it in. After being amongst the people for most of our time here, we are now enjoying wild Africa on exciting safaris and game drives. We've not gone on that many, but what we have seen has been beyond our wildest dreams. Here's what happened on our 2^nd game drive in fantastic Maasai Mara:

We awoke early a 5:30 AM to the gentle voice of our steward bringing hot chocolate to our zippered tent along the river. Throughout the night we had heard elephants trumpeting nearby, some poor animal screaming in pain or distress, and all kinds of other strange and sometimes melodic sounds.

The early morning hours are full of beautiful and exotic bird sounds, sometimes drowning out the sounds of the big bull frogs and other little creature sounds of the night. We were glad we had tightly zippered our tent and even blocked the zipper with the floor mat and patio table outside. Corwin & Peggy had not done that yesterday after we all arrived and the baboons & monkeys got into their tent & sacked through everything! But, their steward quickly came over and straightened it all up.

What a phenomenal morning safari it was! We first saw the mother leopard with her twin kittens again. They were having for breakfast the big Grand Impala she had killed that we had seen them dining on yesterday afternoon. But, this time there was only about half left and she was moving the remaining part up the tree to keep it from the hyenas and other scavengers.

It was amazing how strong she was. Along the way, she tore off pieces of meat as the Impala got wedged in the trunk and provided leverage for her to tear off a piece of meat. She was very hungry this morning. She had probably not hunted last night, because the Impala was providing several meals for her and the kittens.

We next came across 7 lions, but still no male yet...until, the big lioness walked into a nearby thicket to join a big, Black-maned male...the King of Beasts!

He was magnificent. We thought of the black-maned maneaters of Tsavo, who were males and killed 143 railroad workers in the late 1800's, as depicted in the movie, “The Ghost and the Darkness.” This animal's paws were huge and you could see why one powerful swat would knock over a zebra easily.

It was fun to watch the obvious affection between the two beautiful animals. The lioness is usually the hunter. Whereas, the big male is somewhat lazy, until some kind of danger arises. Then, he is the strong protector of the pride. It's amazing how close we are able to get to them. The animals have become quite accustomed to vehicles. But, our guide continued to give us strict warnings about not getting out of the truck and that animals have the right of way all the time.

Later that morning we saw another group of cheetahs, this time on the savanna. They were obviously hunting and sleek in their movements.

We decided not to try to follow them, but regretted that later in the day when we learned that the Disney Nature Film truck had done that and filmed a kill.

Finally, before taking off for the river, we saw a huge, male lion asleep under a tree. We could have practically reached out and touched him. He was yawning and stretching and rolling over on his back, which sometimes made him look a little foolish.

But, when he got up and looked at us with those big eyes and huge, powerful body, we remembered just what this magnificent animal was capable of. The males do a lot of sleeping during the day, more than the females, especially when her sleep is being disturbed by the kittens. Many times the male will go off by himself, so as not to be bothered by the kittens. We wondered where the rest of the family might be.

A major highlight of the day was traveling for an hour to the Mara River for a viewing of the wild we will never forget. We drove through thousands of wildebeest's and hundreds and hundreds of zebras. They were in groups and long lines heading for the river as part of the Great Migration known all over the world.

They are leaving Kenya and headed for Tanzania and reach around 2 million wildebeest annually. They are looking for fresh grazing ground and actually go in kind of a circle, crossing rivers along the way.

It's been called the “8^th Wonder of the World.” Fortunately, we are here during the closing days and watched thousands of wildebeest's and zebras push in groups and walk in many long lines over the savanna plains and down to cross the Mara River. There was also on display many elephants, hippos, giraffes, cape buffalo, warthogs, impalas, topis, gazelles, etc. Huge crocodiles were waiting in the river.

We waited for a couple of hours as the wildebeest and zebras would push toward the bank, drink, then seem to lose courage to go any farther and move back. Then, a crossing started. It was not as big a mass of confusion with water swirling as it would have been a month ago when the migration was in full swing. But, we saw a huge croc slide off the bank and glide mostly underwater toward the crossing animals. It was suspenseful to watch and a bit terrifying.

Fortunately for them, he was a little too late. If there had been a longer line of just 5 or 6 more in that particular group we would have seen an attack. He continued in that spot, waiting for the next group to try to cross. We wanted to stay, but had to hurry back for lunch and the next safari at 4 PM. Frankly, the girls were happy about that, because there were many baby zebras and younger wildebeest in the crossings. It was a FANTASTIC event to watch.

On the way back to the lodge, we drove by the leopard kill in hopes of seeing the mother and her two kittens again. But, they were gone, as was all of the Grand Impala, except it's head and horns. Either the leopard family, or the jackals, hyenas, vultures, or other scavengers of the wild had completely finished that meal off, or dragged it elsewhere to eat. The bloody dirt was kind of gruesome...but, it's the law of the jungle, as they say.

Well, better close for now.

Have a great day!

Dick & Lawana, hoping we don't become some big cat's meal out here!

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