It is one of nature’s great showstoppers: two million wildebeest, zebras and antelopes careering, leaping, tumbling and splashing across the Mara River on the plains of Tanzania. The river is a perilous obstacle on an ancient journey steered by rain clouds and instinct. I am spellbound as the performance unfolds in front of me.
Witnessing the wonders of the northern Serengeti is No 7 on the original “bucket list”, the experiences that the cancer-stricken characters played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman determine to tick off in their 2007 film of the same name.
I liked the joke — after decades reporting on UK immigration policy I would mark my departure from BBC News by attending the Great Migration in Africa. Then, on the July day I said my farewells to Broadcasting House, a doctor confirmed that I had prostate cancer requiring significant surgery.
I am lucky. It has been caught early. And, what’s more, my bucket-list adventure now has a Hollywood plotline.
Humanity seeks to mark the junctions on life’s journey; the changes in direction. In Tanzania, where vast numbers of wildebeest risk the Mara crocodiles as they press north for fresh pasture, the challenge of moving on takes a spectacular form.
It is no surprise that the Great Migration features on so many people’s bucket lists. A rough count suggests there are 150 safari trucks lined up on the southern bank of the river, parked so tightly that the wildebeest are struggling to find a way through to the water; on the north side I am in one of just three vehicles. Our radio picks up the remonstrations of frustrated tour guides opposite as bushrangers try to control the chaos. To meet the herds and avoid the hordes requires preparation and agility.
What you need to knowStandout stay Magashi, in the east of Rwanda, was a revelation. When I arrived three hippos were snoring just outside my tent, one of eight elegant rooms overlooking the glassy waters of Lake RwanyakazingaWho will love it? People who want more than the big five — the bird life, plants and trees and scenery are all extraordinaryInsider tip To understand Rwanda make time for the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a moving and sobering experience (tours from £15; kgm.rw)
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Big cat tales around the campfire
“We follow the thunderstorms, track the zebras and gazelles, monitor the wildebeest and the crowds,” says Jean du Plessis, Wilderness’s head of operations in Tanzania. He explains how they position their mobile luxury encampments to give clients the best chance of seeing the migration. “Each camp may be relocated every four months,” he says. “Six months after we leave a site no one would know we had been there.”
This summer Wilderness has pitched its tents at Usawa, a concession inside Serengeti National Park, close to nine possible crossing points. With the road bridge recently washed away, most tour operators cannot reach the northern bank (“Such a shame,” du Plessis says with a smile) and guests are virtually guaranteed crowd-free scenes of an act of unforgettable natural theatre.
A lion rests in the Serengeti
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The setting sun encourages safari stories around the log fire at Usawa. I recall the elderly male lion that I had encountered snoozing with a harem of loyal lionesses — his body wore the scars of battle, his teeth blunted by a life of hunting. Our guide, Saidi, said that the animal knew he would be replaced by one of the two younger rivals we could hear roaring close to the camp into the blackness of the night; soon he would have to move on.
In the glow of the embers this landscape feels ageless, but change is the only constant in the Serengeti. “You might imagine that the extraordinary creatures which roam the savannah have always been here,” du Plessis says. “But in the 1890s almost all of east Africa’s grazing herds were wiped out by a devastating cattle virus. In the 20th century, poaching and official game-control measures took elephants, rhinoceroses and buffaloes to the edge of extinction.”
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Preserving life and building community in the bush
Today, though, there is a positive story about humankind striving to restore and conserve this fragile and precious environment. Wilderness sees itself as part of the solution. Founded in Botswana in 1983 as one of the first ecotourism operators, its luxury safaris help fund the conservation of six million acres of natural habitat across Africa.
“Wilderness works with the authorities to manage the national park and has set up training programmes in nearby schools,” du Plessis says. “We empower local people, bringing employment and investment that will protect the wildlife from poaching and habitat loss.”
Du Plessis established his first eco-camp in 1999 — a few tents beneath a waterfall tumbling over the towering rift in Lake Manyara National Park, also in Tanzania. Now part of the Wilderness portfolio, the story of Manyara Green Camp is also about change and adaptation.
Mark Easton out on safari
“We had to move the camp three times because of flooding,” du Plessis says. “Then, five years ago, exceptional rains saw Lake Manyara rise dramatically, destroying traditional grazing lands and altering animal migration.” The herds are gradually being enticed back to the area, and the camp — now safely located above the waterline — offers a charming introduction to the thrill of safari.
On my arrival a flock of cranes fly in formation to welcome me. I take a canoe onto the lake, observed by two wary pelicans as young elephants splash in the shallows. That evening a solitary buffalo plods past the dinner tables as bush babies call from the trees. In my tent I press a button to slide back the canvas roof and sleep beneath the stars.
Bucket-list experiences — milestone products, as the travel industry describes them — are an opportunity to mute the noise of normal life. Here in the bush, with virtually no phone coverage, I can escape the tyranny of the timeline, finding space to reflect on the past and prepare for the future.
My return to Rwanda
My east-African exploration next leads me to Rwanda. I have been here before, flying in and out on the UK ministerial jet in 2022 to report on the home secretary signing a deal to export asylum seekers to Kigali. That frantic news day allowed no time to explore behind the headlines. Now I am back seeking my own kind of sanctuary.
Everything about modern Rwanda is overshadowed by the 1994 genocide and subsequent attempts to heal and reconcile. It remains a land shaped by displacement and dislocation; the refugee journey is central to the national story.
Like thousands of others, Alphonse, our guide at the luxurious Magashi Camp in Akagera National Park was born in a refugee camp in a neighbouring land. Ask him about the tribal conflicts and he resolutely replies: “We are all Rwandan now.”
Wilderness set up in Usawa during the summer
He is proud of his country, keen to demonstrate how Rwanda is writing a new chapter about restoration and renewal. Managing national parks was not a priority in the years after genocide — parts of Akagera were used to house returning refugees, with the remainder abandoned to cattle farmers amid widespread poaching.
“By 2000 there were no lions left here,” Alphonse says. “The last black rhino was seen in Akagera in 2007.” The park, established in 1934, was the only haven in Rwanda for the creatures of the savannah, but the refuge became contaminated by the blood of genocide.
“Look there!’ Alphonse whispers, pointing up into a tree. We drive closer and make out a powerful young male leopard moving among the branches. With a nonchalant glance at our safari vehicle, the cat clambers expertly down, sniffs the air and heads out to hunt.
A leopard clambering down a tree
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Reintroducing lions and rhinos to the park
Akagera has been resurrected. With conservation controls restored, the Rwandan government in 2015 began a remarkable restocking project — first lions from South Africa, then critically endangered black rhinos and, after some debate, scores of southern white rhinos were liberated into a landscape that had never been home to them before; 70 more were released this summer.
The sheer abundance of wildlife today is joyous. Big cats and their prey are here in numbers. Spotters come from all over the world to see some of the 500 bird species in the park. My favourite, a saddle-billed stork, struts self-importantly on the shore of Lake Rwanyakazinga.
The Wilderness camp at Usawa
“Do you think we could find a white and a black rhino on the same game drive?” I ask Alphonse. There is almost nowhere in the African bush where such a challenge is possible. We find grazing white rhinos quickly enough, countless giraffes and hippos, zebras, buffaloes, elephants, a leopard and even a shy serval. But with time running out the black rhino is proving elusive.
Suddenly, Alphonse stops our vehicle. “There he is — a young male!” he says, clapping his hands and smiling broadly. From the darkest of yesterdays, Akagera has found a path towards a brilliant tomorrow.
I leave Africa having witnessed the ceaseless migrations of a changing world. My bucket-list adventure has invigorated me ahead of new challenges in my life. The lesson I draw is that a journey may prove as meaningful as the destination — just ask a wildebeest.
Mark Easton was a guest of Wilderness, which has six nights’ B&B in Tanzania from £5,858pp, including transfers, internal flights and some extra meals, and five nights’ B&B in Rwanda from £4,505pp, including transfers, a tour of Kigali and some extra meals (wildernessdestinations.com). Fly to Kilimanjaro or Kigali