Bogie goes bonkers

If I were to write in absolute detail about what we have witnessed in the last 24 hours I would be practically writing a dissertation. Needless to say yesterday was a crazy day! So I will try to keep to the shortened version.

The morning started with unbelievably more crossings, the wildebeest just keep on coming and with more rains over in Tanzania their thirst for heading south does not abate. The morning crossings were indeed fraught and hindered by the presence of Notch and some of his females, who in the early morning had heard the sound of the wildebeest, who had again formed in Cul De sac crossing point. Notch and the cubs soon gave up but one of 'our' lionesses (from the Mgoro pride that we are following) did not. 

To cut an incredible sighting short she launched at many of the wildebeest coming up the bank and even took down a Thomsons gazelle. In a true photographers nightmare most of these were at long range or 'conveniently' behind a bush, but that just the way it goes sometimes!

Their was a lull in the crossings until mid afternoon, the rain started and soon fell heavily on the plains and thundered echoed all around. Again the wildebeest crossed, this time the sticky mud up the banks made for the most treacherous crossing we had yet to see. It was complete carnage, wildebeest struggled and fought to climb the by high banks Sadly a huge amount perished, drowning either by the ever increasing flow of the Mara river or being caught in the frenzy as they tried to escape up the banks.

We left the crossing whilst it was still in progress and turned our attention to the Mgoro pride, who had since the morning moved further up the plains, the wildebeest were headed right in their direction. The rain pelted down and a strong wind swept over the plains. With hatch tightly closed and windows up we still wanted to see what could be happening, even through wiper blades!

What was saw in the next 20 minutes was what we never thought we would see, a lion on the rampage, driven by the adrenalin of seeing the huge herds storming from the crossing. In the space of this time one of 'our'  lionesses, (one of our 'bogie' females...named due to a scar that two lionesses have in the same position under their noses) took down 4, yes 4 wildebeest calves! The poor things had been separated from the herds and proved the ideal chance for the lioness. So, it was now time for more hunting school. The lioness simply maimed the prey, called the cubs and and then let them practice their skills and we can tell you that these cubs are extremely advanced! The technique is definitely there and their confidence seems to be building day by day. The rain pelted down and the continuing photographers nightmare of almost impossible conditions gave us a chance to absorb what we were seeing and truth be told it was hard to keep up anyway!

It was a day of mixed emotions, seeing so many wildebeest perish was not an easy thing to watch, but at the same time it was a day of seeing nature in action and the harsh reality of survival on the plains.