Nelsons odhi Rusinga (and Tokyo): The eighth, ninth... oh, a few thousand wonders of the world

I think there's a Paul Simon song about photos like this.

Considering it leads to a jewel in a country in need of tourism bucks from the outside, the road to Maasai Mara National Park leaves a lot to be desired. When a driver chooses the dirt road to the side of the paved highway rather than the prescribed lane, you realize there's going to be a little extra time to "enjoy" the ride.

It's not a bad view to waste those extras hours on, driving past Maasai tribesmen still herding goats and wearing red cloth blankets as they must have done centuries ago, and watching the wide savanna open up as you head south toward Tanzania. And a bumpy six hours after leaving Nairobi — with just two stops our driver "offered" us to "stretch our legs" at roadside curio shops as we entered tourist territory — we were on the doorstep of the park.

At sunset that evening we watch the wildebeest migration, labeled in Kenya as the "eight wonder of the world." (Though Wikipedia says a few dozen other things lay claim to the title as well.) And, remarkably for a small tree stand in the middle of a vast plain, we had cell phone reception. (Which I consider the ninth wonder of the world, since I can't get reliable reception in my own home.)

The guy who lined up the safari asked if we were ok with "a tent." Um, I guess we were all right with roughing it for a few days. Here's Timm before the table filled up with breakfast.

Among the other wonders were a shower and flush toilet in the "tent" we had reserved, the safari driver's uncanny knack in finding exactly the animal we were looking for, the three course meals served several hours from civilization at Ilkeliani camp, and of course, the wildlife. It's like The Lion King in person.

The two moments from our safari that stand out in my memory aren't really captured in the photos below. As we drove into the park that first evening there were a few thousand wildebeests ("gnus" in Swahili, or "government cows" in the words of our driver Joseph), making their way on the annual famed migration from the Serengeti to feed on the grasslands of Maasai Mara before returning to Tanzania. Joseph wasn't far off with his joke; with the grunting and standing around grazing it was like a really large head of especially hairy cattle in Kansas.

But as we peaked over a small hill the view opened up to what must have been a hundred thousand gnus, just thick in every direction. There's six million of them or so migrating together (hence the "wonder" myth), so who knows how many we really saw. It was a brown ocean, slowly moving ahead.

After we'd driven around following wildebeests and happening upon giraffes, zebras and antelope for a few hours, we were headed back. We turned on a trail near a stream and Timm yells "hippo!" Joe slammed the brakes, and the startled hippo, which are huge in person, reared up nearly completely out of the water, turned and darted the other way into the water. The whole thing lasted seconds.

The protected gnus move a lot more casually when the ubiquitous safari rigs drive by them, so the hippo encounter got our hearts pounding. The animals in the photos below are moving slowly, fortunately for the amateur photographers, but they are still pretty amazing.

The wildebeest clean-up crew. We timed the safari just right, running into such a large herd on our first trip into the park. A day later they had already moved on, leaving maybe a few hundred stragglers.

Giraffe takes a little bite. A few minutes later another joined him.

Acacia tree and a lingering gnu.

This was as close as we came to the classic television image of the migration. They really do just line up by the thousands at rivers and streams, and someone says "go" and it turns into this living, pulsing (and grunting) flow of beast.

As Joseph would say it, "zeb-rahs."

The safari traffic was inconsistent, but would usually flock when a pack of lions or something rare like a rhino was spotted. We found lions with these two, and were lucky to have such a sparse crowd.

Vultures in an acacia tree. They are really ugly, but the vultures kind of fascinated me

Caught this girl just waking up, with her den of 14.

Then she went hunting while the others slept. She had a gazelle in her sights (its right behind the bush), but made a loud move and blew it.

From our van, Timm looks out over the horizon as the sun sets.

Black rhino. This was the one animal I thought could do some permanent damage if he felt like we deserved it.

Hippos hanging out just under the water on a warm evening. They were pretty shy, but it seemed like they were multiplying under there by the way eyes kept popping up.

Sun roof! (This was the one place in the park our driver let us get out and walk around. There's probably no rule one way or the other, but it felt kind of cool to be walking where the hippos could come get us.)

Another nap we broke up. The lions give you this annoyed look that says, "Are you a wildebeest I can eat? No?", then roll over and go back to sleep.

Silhouette, huh?

Cape buffalo. I think these are in what's called "the Big Five," along with rhinos, elephants, lions, leopards and giraffe, though I have no idea why. They don't seem cool, or particularly rare. I'd put hippo in the club instead.