into
A f r i cA
A journey through KenyA’s legendAry
lAnds And iconic cultures
By Kellie Davenport
our Maasai guide Milton Kariankei shouts. That proves to be an epic
understatement. The open-top 4X4 hurtles over mounds of earth and
across deep ravines, cutting through thickets of trees. We catch some air
for a minute as my white-knuckle grip on the sidebar tightens. We’re
racing through Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve seeking out the
most elusive of Africa’s Big Five animals: the leopard.
Moments earlier, Milton received a tip on his walkie-talkie that a
speckled feline had been spotted nearby. Like ants racing toward a picnic,
10-plus safari vehicles converge along a dirt path on the Kenyan savannah.
My heart still thumping from the wild ride, I’m breathless as a regal
female leopard casually strolls by, a few feet from our vehicle. Seemingly
unaware of the camera lenses fixed upon her every stride, the lithe cat
silently saunters toward a tree, leaps up onto a high branch and slowly
disappears from view.
This only-in-Africa encounter is just one of many on my tour through
two of Kenya’s most fabled and wildlife-rich regions: Mount Kenya and the
Maasai Mara.
A week before my leopard sighting, I’d landed at Jomo Kenyatta Airport
in Nairobi, Kenya’s frenzied capital, which buzzes with human, animal and
vehicular traffic. After basking in East African city life for a couple of days, I
board a bush plane en route to Mount Kenya, Africa’s second-highest peak. »
In the shadow of Mount Kenya;
Maasai warriors (opposite)
24
Summer 2018
CAA SASKATCHeWAN
ZANDbergeN/AlAmy
“Hold on, tHis migHt get bumpy,”