STEP INTO THE SAVANNAH

An intrepid on-foot safari across the Kenyan savannah bordering the Maasai Mara National Reserve reveals, at rivetingly close range, the rich drama of this unique African ecosystem. Exploring terrain inaccessible to vehicles, walk between remote lodges and luxurious f ly camps through lesser-visited conservancies, where guides share their intimate knowledge of its creatures, great and small

- BEN LERWILL

Early morning on the plains of Kenya, and we’ve wandered into a massacre. Predators swarm forwards. Their prey scatters, directionless and doomed. Bodies flail, jaws close, limbs tear. A massed battalion of Matabele ants has launched a dawn attack on a termite mound, and the result is mayhem — pity any poor termite hoping for a lie-in — although the bull giraffe wandering nearby, lithe and lonely on the grasslands, doesn’t so much as blink a long-lashed eyelid. A vulture glides overhead in the blue, no less indifferent.

But when you’re with the right guide, dramas swirl from the land. Facts, too. Matabele ants, we learn, take their name from a historical race of warriors known for their violent raids. Conversely, these pitiless insects are also the only invertebrates known to care for their injured. A termite mound, meanwhile, is as calibrated and complex as a metropolis, a nest inhabited by millions. “It’s made of soil so rich in iron that pregnant women traditionally consume chunks of it daily,” whispers the wide-hatted, khaki-clad Roelof Schutte, the guide in question. I look again at the skirmish taking place, a micro-battle for the ages in the morning light. When you’re on foot, the reasons to stop and stare come in droves.