Our family went on a safari in Kenya, and here are some images from that 10 day adventure. Kenya has excellent parks in which many impressive large mammals can be seen, such as lions, hyenas, giraffes, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, zebras, wildebeests, antelope, gazelles, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, and many more. There are also numerous birds and  reptiles to keep you studying the landscape. 

I think the most memorable experience I had during our time there was witnessing part of the great migration when millions of zebra, wildebeest, and antelope travel between the Serengeti to the Masai Mara preserve in Kenya. They move in search of better feeding grounds, but it is a perilous journey. We arrived just when a herd of hundreds of wildebeest were crossing a river. They were quite timid entering the water, and for good reason as there were many crocodiles lying in wait. They made their way to the edge of a cliff on one side of the river and stopped as the wildebeest in the front tried to accumulate the courage to go over the side. Finally one ran down the nearly vertical slope and dove into the river to begin swimming across. The others proceeded to follow. After a while some went down a much less steep area and made their way across from there. There was a juvenile who swam across, however his mother hesitated on the other side. Getting to the other end of the river and realizing his mother hadn’t crossed, the juvenile wildebeest swam back. A crocodile was in pursuit but the young swimmer managed to barely get to the bank before the crocodile could catch up. The mother and child wildebeest then both crossed together safely. The crocodile did catch one less fortunate member of the herd later on. Watching nature in its raw form like this is quite an experience. At the time, I was focused and fixed on the scene, but looking back, this was certainly a bittersweet event to witness, as it demonstrated how hard life can be for these animals, but also I’m sure a relief for the ones who made it across safely.