Love story with the wild
22 Dec 2013 9:09 PM GMT
I find myself globetrotting and treating myself to the sights and sounds of mother nature – from Europe to India to America to Canada, I eventually end up back home – Kenya, into tourism – an unexpected return with a surprising realisation of how personal you can get with the wild. One fine day, I was given the opportunity to visit a new place, so I grabbed it. Departure: The next day to Selenkay (a place that means ‘young girl’ in the Masai language). I touch down in a place of utter wilderness – my element: quiet, natural, wild. A warm cup of tea in my hand, sitting in the safari vehicle, and not even five minutes have gone by, five cheetahs, just around the ‘bush’ corner.
Destination: Gamewatchers Adventure Camp. My setting: A large mess tent, tables and chairs, a fire place, and peaking further behind the bushes, the top of what I know are dome tents. The many years of outdoor camping have brought me back to this very moment. I couldn’t remember the last time I slept in a tent on a sleeping bag. The tent is unzipped and my bags are placed in. ‘Your shower and toilet are behind the tent’ my escort tells me and points at a covered structure right behind my tent. He leaves me behind to settle in. (http://www.africa360.com/gwac_vtour_client/). I get a flashback of memories: cooking over the fire and watching the ‘sufuria’ (cooking pot) blacken with soot. Digging pit holes for different disposal purposes. Looking for different logs to see which one would be more comfortable to sit on. Eating in plastic plates with plastic forks. That was ‘then’. This is ‘now’: Ready-made delicious meals, my own private toilet, comfortable chairs, and a foam mattress under my sleeping bag. My adventure has begun. Game is spotted between the guide, the spotter and me. At a waterhole, having a sundowner, my guide says ‘keep an eye on it’. The evening sun starts to set, ‘they’ come in a group. Slowly. Large. There’s friendly shoves, sounds of displaced sand as a foot comes down. Pause. Suction. Flapping ears. Splash! – water – as it is used to cool off and quench thirst.
This... is Selenkay.
Email: aleema@gamewatchers.co.ke
Conceived by Kalyan Mukherjee, Consulting Editor, Africa Rising
Research by Aman Ramrakha
Guest Editor: Abhishek Choudhary
Destination: Gamewatchers Adventure Camp. My setting: A large mess tent, tables and chairs, a fire place, and peaking further behind the bushes, the top of what I know are dome tents. The many years of outdoor camping have brought me back to this very moment. I couldn’t remember the last time I slept in a tent on a sleeping bag. The tent is unzipped and my bags are placed in. ‘Your shower and toilet are behind the tent’ my escort tells me and points at a covered structure right behind my tent. He leaves me behind to settle in. (http://www.africa360.com/gwac_vtour_client/). I get a flashback of memories: cooking over the fire and watching the ‘sufuria’ (cooking pot) blacken with soot. Digging pit holes for different disposal purposes. Looking for different logs to see which one would be more comfortable to sit on. Eating in plastic plates with plastic forks. That was ‘then’. This is ‘now’: Ready-made delicious meals, my own private toilet, comfortable chairs, and a foam mattress under my sleeping bag. My adventure has begun. Game is spotted between the guide, the spotter and me. At a waterhole, having a sundowner, my guide says ‘keep an eye on it’. The evening sun starts to set, ‘they’ come in a group. Slowly. Large. There’s friendly shoves, sounds of displaced sand as a foot comes down. Pause. Suction. Flapping ears. Splash! – water – as it is used to cool off and quench thirst.
This... is Selenkay.
Email: aleema@gamewatchers.co.ke
Conceived by Kalyan Mukherjee, Consulting Editor, Africa Rising
Research by Aman Ramrakha
Guest Editor: Abhishek Choudhary
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