August is the ‘Big W’ month for the Hemingways Collection

Ol Seki from the sky

In the Masai Mara, Hemingways Ol Seki Camp is watching the Wildebeest migration.  Literally hundreds of thousands of wildebeest are migrating across the Mara river into Kenya; spreading out over the plains and serving as lunch for the lions, cheetahs, hyenas and leopards that have been waiting all year for this dining bonanza.  

The herds gather at the edge of the river; looking at the chocolate brown water with suspicion.  Quite rightly too, the Mara river has some of the biggest crocodiles you’ll ever see.  With the predators massed in the water; and the pressure of numbers building up behind, eventually one brave wildebeest takes the leap and then a mad rush ensues as hundreds of animals swim and scramble across the river. 

 With steep banks, rough rocky river beds and thousands of animals, the crossings do get chaotic; great swirling dust clouds take shape in the air above as the herds arrive on the edge and the lowing sound of ‘uhhnngg’, ‘uhhnng’, ‘uhhnng’, mobs your ears as the wildebeest ‘talk’ to each other. 

 Those that did not make it across the waters are now providing food for umpteen vultures and marabou storks and anything left on the water’s edge becomes crocodile dinner.