For the last few weeks I have been revisiting my trip to East Africa in 2016. Today, I have some images from the Selenkay Conservancy and Amboseli National Park. The main reason I went to East Africa was to visit Uganda and trek to see gorillas, but since I was in the area, I added on five nights in Kenya. It was a place I had always wanted to travel to, and the add-on gave me a bit of a feel for the country; which I absolutely want to explore in greater detail in the future.
One thing I didn’t get to see in any real detail was Kilimanjaro. All of the amazing images from Amboseli of elephants with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background was not my experience, as it was quite hazy and I inly had a brief glimpse of the mountain. Hopefully next time!
I hope you enjoy my selection of images for the day. You can find some older posts from my trip here and here.
One of the homes in a Maasai village that I was able to visit during my stay.A gerenuk stretching for tasty leaves on an acacia.A gazelle and her calf.
A secretary bird strutting along.
A flock of flamingos at the Amboseli marsh.A pair of gray crowned cranes. A curious hyena cub
I’ve shared some photos and stories before from my time at a Mara river crossing, and thought I would share a few more images for my monochrome Monday post. I hope you enjoy, and wishing everyone a great week.
A lone gazelle tries his luck crossing the river. My guide explained that the gazelle typically cross in small groups or alone, as there is a huge risk of them being crushed by the larger wildebeest and zebra. Unfortunately, crossing alone makes them prime targets for the crocodiles.
Part of the first wave surging up the bank.
There were only a handful of zebra amongst the herd.
The crossing came in waves; a group surged across, struggled to get up the banks, and just as the last few wildebeest worked up the bank, the next wave would surge forward to cross.
It may seem a little strange to post photos from a Masai Mara wildebeest river crossing for a post on ambience, but honestly, the ambience was a very integral part of the experience for me. When you are watching a nature program, they presenters do an excellent job of making a river crossing seem like an amazing spectacle – which is absolutely is!!! They also do an amazing job at making it seem like a secluded experience, which it absolutely is not!
We left our camp at 6am for a 2+ hour drive to the potential crossing point, in the hopes of getting a good parking spot to watch the action. On route we passed wildebeest in the thousands, if not tens of thousands, some marching the direction we were headed, and others, heading in the direction we had come from.
Wildebeest as far as the eye can see.
I had never anticipated being the only person there, but I also didn’t expect to find quite so many other people there. But, the atmosphere was a lot of fun. I spent time chatting with my guides and with the people in the vehicle next to us while waiting to see if possibly the wildebeest might make a move. They were certainly taking there time, and a good number of people gave up as the afternoon wore on.
The view from our vehicle at the crossing point. Land cruisers, jeeps, minibuses and land rovers, packed in like sardines and even double parked, all in an attempt to see the action.
When the gazelles approached the water and the crocodiles practically licked their lips, we collectively tried to will the little antelope back from their gruesome fate.
People in the vehicles were saying things like “Don’t go in the water, it isn’t safe!” If only they would have listened.
I saw five gazelle attempt to cross the river, and only two made it out.
And when at 3:15 the wildebeest started crashing through the water, those that were left were all uttering the same things “amazing”, “mind-blowing”, “unbelievable”.
The atmosphere surrounding that stretch of river on that day in late September, really made the experience that much more special.
A surge of wildebeest crossing the Mara River in the Masai Mara, Kenya. There were plenty more vehicles on the opposite bank!
