Tanzania: we meet the Great Migration again

Another Maa word, the Serengeti means the “endless plain”. Dry, yellow savannah as far as the eye can see, the Serengeti seems like an ocean of grass gently swaying with the wind, only disturbed by the passing animals who seem like so many waves.

In the Serengeti, we get re-acquainted with the Great Migration who we had last seen in Kenya, in the Masai Mara, in August. The millions of wildebeest and zebra have by now crossed the border into the Serengeti in search of water and are wandering along the plains like an unstoppable tidal wave.

just back from Kenya

We witness an interesting scene that day. A seemingly unending column of wildebeest and zebra walk past a couple of resting (and intermitently mating) lions, fairly close, within 50 metres. As each animal walks past, it stops for a few seconds, turns in the direction of the lions, lets out a loud snort and continues on its way. Difficult to explain their behaviour. Perhaps it is their way of exorcising their terror of lions – when they know that the otherwise occupied lions will ignore them ?

regal couple
intruding on the regal couple