Innards of Beijing

7:30 am, Peter scans the bushes with keen eyes. There’s something he can sense, that I can’t. All I see are dry pastures, and a rising sun.
“Shh! Be patient. If you’re lucky, I’ll show you something special”
In the Masai Mara National Reserve of Kenya, I never knew it was quite a task to find the Leopard amongst the *Big Five*
In the wide expanse, of Masai Mara, this *Paka* (cat) lives with the same spirit of a house cat. With the only exception that it can tear you in pieces without hesitation.
The night before, I met Alex, an amateur photographer from Australia, and listened as he described his adventure of finally spotting a Leopard after four days of extensive search.
Suddenly, all the spectacle, that I had witnessed in Masai Mara, fell cheap.
I didn’t spot a leopard, and everybody else had seen everything else that I had.
I rushed to Peter, my local guide, and begged him to show me a Leopard before I left the place.
The man asked for 400 shillings, and to date, it’s perhaps the most profitable exchange I've ever made.
I borrowed good binoculars from Alex, and I set the alarm.
6:30 am, We’re off, and after a few friendly exchanges with Peter, I knew he’d show me the most prized spectacle that Masai Mara could offer.
After half an hour of fruitless search, Peter gets news of a mother Leopard from his friends over the radio.
A mob had gathered around the tree she was sitting on, and if it weren't for the pastures, it did seem like a carnival!
But, as soon as we crawled through traffic, she escaped. I saw disappointment on Peter’s face. All the cars cleared and set off in other directions. but, Peter stayed there, for ten more minutes, and I decided to trust the guy’s judgement and didn't utter a word.
We were there, in the middle of the reserve, and Peter kept scanning the field. I did, at one point, think of telling him I was ok, and we could return, but there was something he was sensing, which I couldn't.
Suddenly, he took a jerky reverse, went off the trail, and just as I could ask anything, he started smiling.
A hundred meters away, from the initial spot, across usual trails, he parks next to a big tree, slacks up in his seat, and points out to a tree bark.
The mother leopard, the *paka ni wyumbari* sits there. He tells me to focus on the spots, and why they’re different from a Cheetah that we saw, a few days before.
He gave me a good five minutes as I soaked the moment, before he informed others, and we left, content, as the mob gathered again.