The (Real) Great Wildebeest Migration

"The wildebeest begin their journey across the Mara River!" This post and photograph  just came across on my Facebook page. It is from the blog 50safaris and the photo was taken on their Great Migration Safari. 

The extraordinary annual Great Migration of wildebeest across the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem is one of the greatest spectacles in the natural world. Over one and a half million wildebeest partake in this journey! (To see all the day to day action from this safari, check out www.50safaris.wordpress.com. To join them on safari, head to their website for more details www.50safaris.com.)

It of course reminded me of the beginnings of my Great Wildebeest Migration which is how I originally dubbed a Facebook album and journal I started last summer which eventually became fodder for this blog. 

It was last year about this time in June that Vince began to talk in earnest about a possible international move. He had his sights set on somewhere in the Middle East, Qatar, Abu Dhabi or Dubai. I would wait a month to form my opinion on the subject. That July I had a trip to Ireland scheduled with my sister Cheryl and her daughter Jill. Jill planned to study Forensic Anthropology in Kells in County Meath and then to go to a riding camp at Castle Leslie in the border county of Monaghan. My sister and I went along for the ride adding on a weekend in Belfast and then north to Giant's Causeway in County Antrim and west to Counties Donegal and Sligo. 

We spent several days in Dublin where we were able to hook up with my dear friend Sheena. Sheena lives in Dublin - where she is from - in the summer and in Abu Dhabi during the school year. Her husband Alex has been working in Abu Dhabi for a number of years and their two sons attend the International School there. The last time I had seen Sheena was when she and Alex visited New York City a couple of years ago not long after the family had moved to Abu Dhabi. I was able to hear her first impressions of living in the Middle East then and I was anxious to hear how her feelings had evolved in the intervening two years.

We had a very frank chat about her life as a (female) expat in the Middle East one night over dinner in Dublin. She was very honest as I hoped she'd be. I found out that her opinion had not really improved much and I must admit I came away from our dinner a little less enthusiastic about the prospect of living there myself.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to early August 2012 when Vince presented the idea of basing our life in South Africa instead of the Middle East. After my conversation with Sheena, I considered it a much more attractive alternative and agreed almost immediately. It was soon after that when this photograph popped onto my Facebook page:

The photo is by Tim Lapage of Safari Experts, www.safariexperts.com. Tim had taken this photograph of the Great Wildebeest Migration from his airplane over the Serengeti. 

I had seen part of the migration myself in August of 1979 while on safari in Kenya and Tanzania. It was an awesome sight! One late afternoon we were even lucky enough to actually witness a cheetah kill. (Not so lucky for the wildebeest I admit but it is Africa and the circle of life as they say.) Two cheetahs brought down a wildebeest right before our very eyes. Our driver kept us in the game park well past the recommended time we were expected to leave to head back into camp. We were willing accomplices knowing this was an awesome sight we would probably never have the opportunity to witness again. We made it back to camp after dark and were severely chastised by our leaders but we knew we had been very lucky and we suffered the scolding gladly. It was like watching a National Geographic special in real time! 

Anyway, back to NJ in August 2012 ... I decided to begin a journal. I titled it The Great Wildebeest Migration after seeing Tom's post on Facebook and started recording the process of our migration to South Africa. It is hard to believe almost a year has gone by since then!

Our migration is not quite finished yet. I have just heard from the international shippers that the rest of our clothing and the few other pieces of chattel we shipped to South Africa is scheduled to arrive in the next week or so. I will surely blog about that experience very soon. Tomorrow I am going to the customs office south of Joburg to set up to receive our delivery! 

I would like to see the real Great Wildebeest Migration on safari again. But I think next time I would like to see it as Tim saw it, from high above the Serengeti in an airplane! Don't need to see another cheetah kill.