Maasai Mara
The Mara is the northern extension of the Serengeti Plains. We traveled to Kenya in September to see the Great Migration, when a million and a half wildebeest and zebra leave the Serengeti in Tanzania in search of water and grazing, which persist in Southern Kenya when the plains in Tanzania dry up. It is the greatest movement of wildlife on earth.
Monday, September 27, 2010
The Great Migration is mostly about wildebeest, who survive by means of a strategy of sheer numbers. Many die calving in Tanzania, and many more crossing the Mara River to northern grazing. The river is clogged with more dead than the scavengers can eat. The months when the wildebeest herd is in Kenya are fat times for predator and scavenger alike.
The Mara is also home to the world’s greatest concentration of cheetah. We saw lion, leopard (in a tree!), cerval cat, many hyenas, hippo, giraffe, elephant, warthog, cape buffalo, Africa’s many species of antelope, and birds galore.
Base camp in the Maasai Mara was James Robertson’s lightweight camp, a tented camp set up the day before. It was located in the woods at the western edge of the Mara. Miles and I helped Douglass bake bread for lunch. I made a turtle loaf and he baked a rhino. This is classic safari living, complete with table, chairs, and personal wash basins.
