Masai Mara

Trip to Masai Mara, home to still about 2,000 Lions was pretty much a vacation by accident or say serendipity. When I would see my younger son hooked on to Discovery, watching the big cats prowl through the shoulder high grass on grasslands which appeared to meet the sky on the other side but appear never to end, I would always wonder, if they did exist in real world, or were just a fantasy of a nature possessed camera man.

Kichwa Tembo, the tented resort - they have a property in MP/India as well in collaboration with Taj, Mahua Kothi - was the place we lodged in, based upon the recommendation of a friend. Well equipped tents. Very clean surroundings. Set in a jungle and has immaculate hospitality.

This 1500 kms of unrestrained wilderness is home to primates, mammal, birds and reptiles. Well, clearly, there is nothing to match the primates of the Indian subcontinent, who do all that humans do, saving working on laptops - could be just a matter of time.

Animals, terrestrial and others, don't seem to recongnise political boundaries, they, following an age old instinct, ambulate into Kenya from Tanzania, just after the rains. The Mara river too heaves up during this time and crossing the river is an integral and instinctive part of the migration. Mara - meaning mottled - as the grasslands are patchy, and the shadow that a lonesome cloud castes on the grass shuffles like an elephant trampling grass in an intoxicated slumber.

This is true, to Indians, the African elephant is not particularly exciting. It is not a companion. Its looks are not gentle. You cannot expect it to help you climb on to its back with a tug of its trunk. But these tuskers merge very well with the primates and predators alike, walk some 25 kms each day, in search of food and water. The herd sticks together in a pattern resembling a military formation. The oldest and tallest is usually the leader of the herd, being first to take a peril head on, and the baby calves are protected by this formation.

Clearly, the high point of this tryst with the wild was Cheetah chase. An unwary water buck, strayed away from the herd, enjoying a drink from a rain puddle, was the vulnerable one. Cheetah ( apparently from the Sanskrit word Chita ) is a crespuscular creature, and prefers to chase than to stalk its prey. But a high alertness of the buck and an iota of miscalculation of the buck landed the springing cheetah in the puddle which broke her speed and saved the buck just by one inch - we saw the replay in a friends camera.

Well after a long safari, a delectable meal tastes even better, if you, as you return to base, encounter a pride leisurely basking the sun right in the middle of the road, mindless of all at least till the next chase or hunt for food.