PRIDE AND JOY

Take a magical trip to the mesmerising Masai Mara reserve where lions and shy leopards rule

Look, there, on that branch,” said our sharp-eyed guide Sammy, cutting the engine of the 4WD and pointing to a female leopard sprawled high in an acacia tree, her long tail dangling from the branch. “Can you see her belly? She’s just had cubs.” He was as excited as we were to behold one of the Masai Mara’s most elusive wild cats just a few metres away, feasting on a recent kill. There had been rumours circulating around the Naboisho Conservancy that she had given birth under a tent at Great Plains’ nearby Mara Nyika Camp —which we would be calling home for the next few days—and here was the first evidence of it.

My partner Zak and I had travelled west from Nairobi to the Masai Mara National Reserve by light aircraft that morning, following a restorative overnight stay at the grand Hemingways hotel in the city’s suburb Karen (named after Blixen, the Danish author of Out of Africa). Soaring over the valleys newly made green by the October rain, towards Kenya’s border with Tanzania, I had a magnificent bird’s-eye view of a herd of elephants. On landing, we were picked up by Sammy in a luxurious six-seater Land Cruiser, which came equipped with a professional Canon camera, binoculars, wildlife guidebooks, cold drinks and delicious mini quiches, which we devoured eagerly, before setting off along the dusty-pink tracks of the savannah wilderness.