The Crossings

Back blipped
I am well improved, so 7.30 am we set off towards the Mara River, fingers crossed to see a crossing. We passed the airstrip, where we will fly out on Thursday morning & went Northwest. We stopped to see a Lilac Breasted Roller, that came even closer to the jeep, to pose! Shortly after this, we saw a herd of Wildebeest in the distance across the river, at crossing number 1. Apparently, the regular crossing points are numbered 0 to 10. We waited in an area back from the river, along with lots of other jeeps. The ranger’s control where the jeeps can wait. Some Wildebeest looked down towards the river, moved off, then others did the same. After 40 minutes, 1 Wildebeest made the brave decision to cross followed by 1000s more, we had a spectacular side view of the crossing. The jeeps rushed forward to get into position, a bit of a scrum, as the drivers want to get their jeep in the best position. Around 4000 Wildebeest crossed, successfully as far as I could see. It was just amazing & something I will never forget.
We then moved on to crossing number 0, where another herd had gathered, they moved this way & that, even past a large herd of elephants who were accompanied by egrets. While we waited, we were chatting to 2 Chinese ladies in a neighbouring jeep, they were sharing snacks & shared tongue of duck, sweet potato & spiced beef, with us. I shared antihistamine ointment with them, as they had been bitten. We passed the items across, out of the roof tops. We also had our picnic lunch while waiting. After 4 hours during which the Wildebeest were too wary to cross, we decided to move on.
Back at crossing number 1 there was another large herd gathered, about 10 minutes later they started to cross & we got into the head on position, which was fabulous.
It started to rain heavily on the way back to camp, we were delivered to the door of the tent! Some rumbles of thunder & rain overnight.