Migration begins

Nature works like a clockwork. It takes no breaks and no time-outs. The sun does not rise late because it set late or the leaves do not stop falling off in autumn because it just does not want to. Everything is routine, irrespective of whatever havoc we humans wreck on earth, especially in the animal kingdom.

While we all are fighting for survival from the corona, the Great Migration of the wildebeest in Africa has begun. We cannot travel or migrate but nothing changes the routine of these animals.

The great migration is the movement of vast numbers of the Africa’s wildebeest, accompanied by large numbers of zebra, and smaller numbers of Grant's gazelle, Thomson's gazelle, eland and impala. These move in an annual pattern which is fairly predictable. They migrate throughout the year, constantly seeking fresh grazing and, it's now thought, better quality water.

This time of the year, the magnificent plains of Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve are crowded with international tourists to see the migration but this time, the Kenyans have it all for themselves. This weekend, thousands of mostly Kenyan visitors travelled to the park to witness the migration and the Govt is finally seeing the light – domestic tourism itself is a huge industry while it concentrated only on international.

Sadly, today when we say, “great migration” we have only images of the thousands of migrants leaving the cities to go back to their villages.