An African tale

Salvage your safari plans with a trip to the Mara, and then wind down with a short hop to Zanzibar

- DAVID NDICHU

MASAI MARA, KENYA

If this is the year you had planned that safari trip of a lifetime to the Masai Mara, the outbreak of Covid-19 and the resulting travel restrictions must have been frustrating. But fret not, there’s a chance you can still salvage your plans.

The draw of the Mara is, of course, the annual animal migration. What people associate with the migration surrounds the spectacle around the Mara river as almost two million wildebeest, gazelles and zebras brave the Nile crocodiles lying in wait to cross the river to the lush greenery on the other side. Thousands are eaten, crushed or drowned in the crossings. Those that do make it to the other side face further peril from lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and jackals eyeing easy pickings.

However, the migration is not a single event, but a year-wide mass movement of animals within the Masai Mara (Kenya)- Serengeti (Tanzania) ecosystem.

Those same animals must make the journey south to the Serengeti again. This happens around October-November when rains start falling on the Tanzanian side and the grass is green again.

At this time, you can catch the animals, still in their masses, around southern Masai Mara and northern Serengeti as they make the reverse trip to Tanzania. The sight of over a million animals spread over a landscape as far as the eye can see is one to behold.

The Mara River tends to be lower in October. Herds can be seen splashing easily through the river without having to swim, making themselves vulnerable to the massive Mara crocodiles, who are lazily basking on the river banks having feasted for a couple of months. There are daily river crossings.