Going on Safari
I believe it was in grade eight that my class had the assignment of writing up a list of things we wanted to do in our life. Now there is a blockbuster film called the Bucket List which comedically presents this process. On my ‘bucket list’ I am sure that I wrote ‘go on a safari.’ I can now saw that I have accomplished this goal and did I ever have good luck in doing it. Of course, the trip was not exactly as I envisioned it but things rarely are. For one thing, I never thought I would go on safari with three grandfathers I had just met. The benefit turned out to be that one of them is an avid hunter in Wyoming and Utah and as a result has an amazing eye for spotting animals in the bush.
Art, the hunter, is one of the reasons that we had such great luck and this was particularly the case with our near cheetah experience. We were driving down this one offshoot in the Serengeti specifically looking for cheetah. Cheetahs need really open spaces to be effective hunters and this area was a wide open plain with a variety of herd animals, including gazelles, impala, wildebeests and zebra, prime hunting grounds for a cheetah. We drove and drove and drove without any luck. As we came close to the end of the road we were all a little disappointed and started to turn back down the way we came. We are driving along when suddenly Art bangs on the top of the car to get our drivers attention. He points out a bush where he thinks there is something laying down just out of sight. Our driver doesn’t really believe him but as he backs up to take a look you could just barely see a tail flicker on the ground. We took a small detour and were able to be about two meters from the most beautiful, sleek cheetah. The cheetah was so accommodating and let me take a few of what I think are my best photos so far. But then after a few minutes of waiting patiently the cheetah got up to move behind a different bush to catch some shut eye. You can check out some of these photos in the gallery.
