The Wandering Cub: Crossing the Celestial River – Observing Wildebeest, Reflecting on All Beings
🕒 Time: Around 10:25 AM local time on August 27
📍 Location: By the Mara River in northern Serengeti
📷 Equipment: A7R4 + FE 100-400mm, and of course, most of the pictures I post are cropped. I love Sony.
I arrived at the Mara River at 7:30 AM, just as the wildebeests were gathering, their numbers swelling with anticipation. The banks of the river were teeming with safari vehicles, mirroring the dense herd of wildebeests on the opposite side, creating a scene that felt like two armies poised for battle, minus the flags.
The wildebeest leaders, always the first to test the waters, began to cautiously approach a slope at one corner of the Mara River. The rest of the herd followed suit, crowding around them. However, after a few tense moments, perhaps sensing danger or spotting crocodile tracks, the leaders retreated and moved to another nearby corner.
More than an hour passed, with the leaders repeatedly testing different spots. Finally, they seemed to conclude that the current location was not suitable and led the main group a few hundred meters to the left, searching for a more favorable slope. The safari vehicles, not wanting to miss a moment, quickly followed, creating a chaotic yet exhilarating spectacle that rivaled the wildebeests’ own movements.
The leaders tested the water again, but the presence of the vehicles seemed to deter them, possibly fearing that we would block their path.
Then, something truly fascinating occurred—the leadership split. One bold wildebeest broke away from the herd, navigating around a pile of rocks and trees, and stepped into the water with one front hoof. A small group of about ten to twenty wildebeests followed. However, the majority of the herd on the other side of the rock pile hesitated, turning back up the slope before finally deciding to test the river in front of them.
This created a confusing scene, with a group of wildebeests circling behind the rock pile, clearly uncertain about which direction to follow.
Another hour went by, and one of the two groups of wildebeests surprisingly returned to the previous corner of the Mara River! (We didn’t follow, opting instead to drive to a distant tree for some shade.)
After an unknown amount of time, our guide received news that the wildebeests had finally started crossing the river. We immediately rushed to the observation point at the corner of the Mara River. The crossing was a breathtaking sight, lasting about ten minutes, and afterward, we could see the somber evidence of the perilous journey—two wildebeest carcasses floating in the river.
But the drama wasn’t over yet. The wildebeests that had remained by the rock pile and trees, previously motionless, also began to cross the river! (They were too far away for my lens to capture clearly.) In a shocking turn of events, halfway through the crossing, they suddenly made a U-turn and… came… back…
It was only when I got back home and sifted through the photos that I realized there were indeed crocodiles lurking in the waters (Photo 7️⃣). In the video my family captured, you could faintly make out the wildebeests being snapped at. But in that moment, I was utterly stunned, as if after months of hard work, countless debates, and eighty iterations of design and code, the VP had suddenly declared, “Call it quits…”
In any case, those three hours were absolutely worth the wait. The crossing was nothing short of spectacular, but what truly captivated me was watching the wildebeests engage in a series of animated discussions. Leaders debated, factions formed, and during the execution, a few pawns were inevitably sacrificed… It was like watching the inner workings of a big corporation 😂
