We had a great safari for which I thank you very much. We saw a huge migration of several thousand crossing the Mara River and it was an amazing experience of life and death. Three outstanding and unusual experiences for us, even though we are old hands on safaris :-

1. A mother cheetah and her cub, on the prowl for food, startled a civet cat out of its hiding, the cub started chasing the civet cat and a cat and mouse game started between the two. All this while the mother cheetah ignored the civet cat and her cub playing, as she was more concerned about her prey , some Tommies a long ways off. We managed to get great photos.

2. During the huge crossing of the migration, some of the wildebeest drifted into the territory of the hippos. One hippo was not particularly pleased and was so angry he chased one of the poor wildebeest, already exhausted from the crossing, bit into his stomach and killed him , before wandering off, having vented his anger! Amazing encounter for a herbivore!

3. At the same crossing , a crocodile came swimming , targeting a tired wildebeest on shore , who stupidly jumped back into the water, followed by the crocodile, who tried to take a bite off his rump but did not succeed. Both were swept away by the rapids, the crocodile first followed by the wildebeest, who landed right into the mouth of the crocodile but the croc did not attack him! They then swam towards the opposite shore, wildebeest first followed by the crocodile.

The wildebeest tried to get on the rocks , stepped on top of the crocodile , got on the rock only to fall back into the water, with the crocodile following. Again the crocodile opened his mouth as if to nudge the wildebeest on to the shore. The wildebeest lay its body semi in the water as it was tired. We were expecting the crocodile to take the opportunity to grab the wildebeest but it did not. After a couple of minutes watching the wildebeest , it swam away! Can you believe that? It must have just eaten and was full or it was a very charitable crocodile. The wildebeest survived to live another day!

Meileen C.
Singapore
September 8, 2013 to September 12, 2013