"Guys, I am going to speed up a little. My friend has just spotted a Cheetah and we are going to try and catch it!" - those were the kind of words I had imagined I would hear during my visit to Kenya but I couldn't imagine what sort of a reaction from me would such words evoke. I was about to find out.
It had barely been 3 days into the trip and we were slowly warming up to Kenya and its wildlife, having spent a day in Nairobi and Lake Nakuru each. On the 3rd day, we were in Amboseli and were on our way back to the campsite from a visit to a Maasai village. It was getting dark as the sun had already set and our driver and guide Jackson was driving slowly looking out for birds and other animals. He would stop the Land Rover whenever he would spot something interesting and would share his knowledge about it and give us a chance to take pictures. We managed to see a few small birds and animals so far and were enjoying the experience as well as the landscape.
Jackson, who was connected to a few other drivers via radio, suddenly took a sharp turn, sped up and announced that his friend has spotted a Cheetah so he is going to drive a little fast and see if we can catch it. That had got to be the most exciting thing I had heard in a very long time! I and the 5 other tourists in the safari held tightly to our seats as we saw Jackson transform from a laid back driver to Jean Reno running away from Godzilla!
We stopped for a few minutes to allow Richard, our spotter, to take out a red flash light to enable us to see around at night. We could sense an urgency and excitement in both Richard and Jackson, something that was not there so far. All of us had forgotten about the colorful birds, the cute Gazelles, the shy Giraffes, the imperial Rhino and anything else we had seen till then. The pecking order in the African wild is very simple, the big cats - the lion, the cheetah and the leopard overshadow everything else when it comes to demanding your time and attention.
With the target clear in our minds, we kept driving in the dark, not sure what to expect. Other than the occasional communication Jackson had over the radio, no one spoke anything. I didn't know how likely we were to actually spot the cheetah, it was a huge conservancy, very dark, we were far away from where the cheetah was spotted, and the cheetah is quite elusive. I didn't have very high hopes, in fact, I was so excited and content just with the thrill of the chase that spotting the cheetah would definitely have felt like a bonus.
We crossed another safari vehicle on our way and Jackson exchanged a quick word with the driver in the local Maasai language before moving on. With every passing moment I attached a lesser likelihood of us finding the cheetah. It was so dark and we drove that fast that I wouldn't be surprised if he had crossed a few of them on our way without noticing them (or so I thought). Suddenly we heard a sound of excitement from our spotter pointing in a direction - Cheetah! And that's when I realized what does being on the edge of your seat really mean. He had every one's attention, we all looked in that direction and there I could see a Cheetah resting calmly… and another one nearby… and a third one! At that moment I knew this was definitely one of those rare trips that live up to all the hype - Empire State building didn't, Buckingham Palace didn't, Grand Canyon didn't, Lochness Monster didn't… IT did!
Jackson told us they are three brothers. By this time we all had our cameras out and ready and were taking pictures like crazy though it was pretty dark and getting good shots was very tough. Someone in our group enthusiastically used the on camera flash which annoyed the cheetahs. They all got up and started walking away from us. Jackson was quick to follow them in the vehicle and Richard did a good job at keeping the red flash light on them (animals are apparently not bothered by the red light). The cheetahs found another resting place nearby and we stopped the car a good 15-20 meters away at a good view point.
Jackson told us they looked well fed and have probably eaten a fresh kill they made (next morning we found the remains, skeleton and feathers, of the Ostrich they had killed). We sat there watching every movement of theirs through our binoculars and I tried to get a few pictures as well. After a while Jackson suggested we should let them rest and we will try and find them the next morning. As luck would have it, this would be the first and last time we spotted a cheetah on the entire safari.
As much as I am disappointed not being able to see a Cheetah chase a Gazelle in the open plains (our fellow tourists did later on), I am quite fortunate to having seen them in the wild and being able to observe them from so close. With the cheetah now extinct in India it was rare opportunity and I am glad Africa cares about its wildlife and still offers the less fortunate ones of us a chance to be there and get a flavor of the real wild.
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