This Week At Angama #140

The Jackson Wild Summit is a renowned film festival and international conference that takes place in Jackson Hole, in picturesque Wyoming. This year the conference was meant to take place in Austria, but Covid-19 ultimately meant that a virtual summit was the best way to go.

It was an incredible stroke of good fortune that Fiona Tande and Faith Musembi, both 2019 Fellows of the programme, approached Angama about hosting the very first Kenyan chapter of the Summit. Getting the go-ahead from our Co-founder and CFO, Steve Mitchell, led to several weeks of intense planning culminating in what has been the highlight of my year so far.

It’s always exciting for me to share the Mara with guests – everyone has such a different experience of it, which often helps me to see the Reserve in a completely new light.

This opportunity was particularly special as I got to see the Mara through the eyes of both budding and established natural history filmmakers.

And of course, our usual host of brilliant characters made a point to put on an incredible show, as only they could. The abundance that the Mara has to offer never fails to impress.

In their typical unpredictable way, we had several days when it seemed that the wildebeest disappeared down towards the south, only for them to reappear tenfold shortly thereafter. They clearly aren’t ready to say goodbye to the Mara just yet and we are certainly happy to still have them around.

Lions also appear to have been bit by the travel bug as males move into new territories and form new coalitions, as is the case with Ololashe who lost his brother a little while back but now seems to have bounced back with a new coalition mate.

This male with his distinctive upper lip is also new to the area having made his way from the Greater Mara – a significant distance away. He has been nicknamed “Bob Marley” and was hoping a female he was with could be potentially ready to mate. Though she didn’t seem to be interested at all, his flehmen response was quite a sight to behold.

Whenever I think I’ve felt every possible emotion in response to the drama unfolding on a daily basis in the Mara, a new experience adds to the list.

It was an incredible week of learning from the best of the best and working with an extremely talented group of filmmakers to tell impactful stories of the Mara. The film we made on Angama Mara guide, Sophie Sadera, is quite possibly one of my proudest achievements while here and I cannot wait to share it.

This time a year ago, these zebra got caught in a sudden storm and could only opt to nervously wait it out. [f 4.0, 1/800, ISO 200, -0.33] photograph by Adam Bannister