Seventeen very intrepid and persistent safari travelers found the migration with me, today, big time. We figured out how the unusual weather has impacted the herds, and we spent several awesome hours just driving slowly through them, observing thousands and thousands of wildebeest.

But we saw much more. Two packs of wild dogs is about as unusual as snow in June in the Midwest. Wild dogs are under siege in Tanzania, after being saved from extinction by a consortium of American zoos about ten years ago. As Africa’s most efficient killers they are demonized now by the Maasai who are actively poisoning them.

The Maasai in northern Tanzania have long known how to deal with lions, hyaena and leopard, but wild dog was never an abundant species here. Dog are such efficient killers that their attack is super-fast and even if then driven away, the original bites are so intense that the victim has little chance of surviving.

As the human populations developed, and as stock grew more and more valuable, every loss is doubly painful to a Maasai family who has struggled to achieve new financial success.

But without any further judgment about this conundrum, this was a hugely successful day for our safari. Few people this season have even found the big herds, much less seen dog. It wasn’t easy.

We started through the Ndutu forest in mguu, essentially pre-quicksand, twisting and turning like a four-wheeler in a circus. The guys had to go fast or they’d sink, so until we reached the plains outside the forest at just a slightly higher altitude, the slipping and sliding was considerable.

Once on the plains we navigated by compass. We had information from good sources as to where the migration wasn’t, so by process of elimination and good track signs on the veld we headed south and east of Ndutu.

We found the first of the herds near the Maswa hunting reserve. We can’t enter a hunting reserve.

The first sightings were of hundreds of zebra, lots of Grant’s gazelle and beautiful large herds of eland. Eland are spectacular on the veld, the largest of the world’s antelope and beautifully colored in pastel browns and reds and tans. Despite their enormous size, they are shy and run from us at first sight. But with binoculars you can see a hundred eland in front of their dust, leaping sometimes 8-9 feet into the air!

We moved north and west along the edge of the Kakesio valley and were soon in the midst of a nursery herd of wildebeest: thousands if not tens of thousands of mothers nursing an equal number of young I figured were about 3-4 weeks old. But unlike the weakened young we saw in the north, these guys were frolicking, kicking, running to and fro, wonderfully healthy.

We continued over the course of the day through all male segments, through yearling portions and back into sections of mothers and babies. At the end of the day I figured that the total herd of over a million to a million-and-half was split, half in the hunting reserve and half where we sailed over the plains.

This was an area very close to Ngorongoro Crater. So we traveled south of Ndutu about 20 miles over trackless plains and then found the herds.

The Kakesio Valley is one of the most beautiful and remote areas of the Serengeti, just northwest of the crater. Unlike so much of the rest of the veld, this valley was carpeted by new grass, and the herds were there in the tens of thousands.

But they also extended north towards Mtiti, our route home, so we had really lucked out.

We decided to have lunch on a ridge overlooking the Kakesio. As everyone got out of the guys and my guys started to set up lunch, someone noticed in their binoculars not far away our first pack of wild dogs! Then, cheetah! Some jumped back into the car and went immediately to the new, exciting finds. After lunch we all watched the sleeping dog and our last car which got stuck had the good luck to see a second pack of dog!

The day began at 8 a.m and it ended around 3:45p. Of course the four cars stopped for all sorts of sights, including the rarer and rarer golden jackal and herds of eland that exceeded a hundred.

But the majority of the day excluding our lunch time was spent riding and bumping and slipping. No pain no gain. But a safari day of the sort I personally will never forget.