Singita Lamai: October 2021

As the November short rain season arrives so has it turned the heads of the migrating wildebeest and zebra southwards again. From the end of June, they have spent time between the Lamai Triangle and the Masai Mara. The grass in the Lamai was burnt in July and, combined with the afternoon thunderstorms, it created beautiful grazing plains for the large herds. At one point there may have been a herd of 100 000 plus animals all along the gully that runs from camp towards the Kenyan border.

Crossings were almost daily – some a couple hundred strong and others more than 20 000 animals. This was a good indicator of how spread out the wildebeest have been this year. Most crossings occurred either just after sunrise or around the 11:00 to midday mark, very few took place in the afternoon and evenings.

The Mara River was lower than in 2019 and 2020 which resulted in considerably less drownings and meant the crocodiles had to work hard to catch and drown their prey.

Around the 20th Oct there were some very big thunderstorms in the central Serengeti and this appeared to trigger the herds to start pushing south again. Downstream from camp there were huge crossings throughout the day as the herds drained out of the Lamai Triangle and back into the Serengeti.

The herds appeared to be split with one herd sticking to the east and moving swiftly south while another spread out herd moved west and south. They have been coming through the Ikorongo reserve area and into Grumeti reserve area where they seem to either head west or cross south up and down stream of German Bridge.

Many of the female wildebeest are pregnant and will be pushing south towards the central Serengeti and then onwards to the nutritious grazing that Ndutu region offers as the rains in January and February bring the area back to life and coincide with the calving.

It has been an incredible season of having the migration herds up in the Lamai and we are all looking forward to what 2022 has in offer.