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 »
In the shadow of Mount Kenya;
Maasai warriors (opposite)
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WINTER 2017
AMA INsIdER
ZanDbergen/alamy
“Hold on, tHis migHt get bumpy,”