Weekly Wilderness Webinar 12
Today we watched as a group of inexperienced, younger wildebeest made a poor river-crossing decision. They struggled to climb the bank at the far end. Many were dying, their bodies were piling up and started to rot, as those of their clan who will still alive tried to clamber over them.
The vultures arrived in their droves for the feast. They are equipped for bush-clean-up and are the predator that eats 70% of meat on the vast Masai Mara and Serengeti plains. Without them, the rotting carcasses would decay and carry diseases that would kill many Savanah-living creatures, in the air and on land.
We took a trip with our virtual host to the Olduvai Gorge, where the vultures lay their eggs in sparsely-sticked nests n individual rocky ledges. The gorge has existed in the cradle of humankind over 100,000 years. It is well known to the Masai who know how to find the purest water, in its upper reaches. Masai-men, tall and dignified in stature, leave a legacy and inheritance of community here that is boomeranged by the caves.
To reach dead prey on the plains the vultures sometimes have to fly hundreds of kilometers. They are airlifted with their primary feathers in thermals designed by the structure of the caves, and sustained there, like circling stars, by their secondary feathers. They float to their prey, as opposed to flying direct, thus working together with nature to preserve energy for their conservation-clean-up.
LIFE INSIGHT 1
As we watched the Grippon Vultures swoop in to clean up the debris of decaying wildebeest who had not made the river crossing, we noticed the natural balance in nature. Something dies, so something else can survive. Everything has its place, unlike in western society, where often life and death become skewed because of disconnectedness, exploitation, greed, and ill health and disease.
It was acknowledged by Claire that more nature conscious people living in cities today try to emanate this balance in nature, by recycling.
LIFE INSIGHT 2
As we wander through the 100,000 year old Olduvai Gorge we recognize that are insignificant in comparison. We honor the continuity in a modern age where things keep changing, and the way in which the Masai, the vultures, and the Gorge carve out an interdependent, sustainable, existence together.
Life Insight 3
We discussed the Masai, their dignity and stature that comes not from wealth or possessions but from an inner knowing about themselves and the earth share life with.
Many Masai have to leave their tribe and land to be educated for westernized work, but they always circle back to their roots and sense of belonging with their own land and tribe, something many of us lack in our busy, transient life - a sense of rootedness and belonging.
We agreed, as tourists visiting with them we need to slow down and listen. We cannot make assumptions but be openminded to learn their cultural truths and ways. If we do our lives will be enriched as these people are few that still exist, able to live interdependently with nature.
Please join us on the next Weekly Wilderness Webinar next Thursday at 12.30 (GMT +1) to learn some amazing takeaway, life-changing insights as we continue to focus on
THE MOMENTOUS WILDEBEEST MIGRATION
The Final Encounter
To join in please email me on wildernessencountersafrica@gmail.com
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