A large poster of Amboseli National Park in Kenya hangs in our drawing room. It’s a picture of the setting sun and it has always fuelled my desire to travel to Kenya and Tanzania. The opportunity for a week-long South Africa sojourn knocked on my door all of a sudden. The initiative was taken by Prodosh Saha and Pinaki Mitra. Aviana Tours & Travels planned and organised the journey; Prodosh of Rong Route took care of the business aspect.

They chose my friend Chitra Vanu Basu as the cameraman for the trip. It was actually a bonus for me as Chitra Vanu and I always make our jungle trips together. We needed to take the yellow-fever vaccine before leaving for Africa but just before our trip there was shortage in the vaccine supply. Finally, to our great relief, we were inoculated at the Indian Institute of Hygiene & Health about a week before our departure.

Our team consisted of at least a couple of people whom I knew. The rest were all strangers but we bonded during the journey. I got to meet some wonderful people in the process.

(Top) A view of the Masai Mara plains; a cheetah at Masai Mara. Pictures by the author

We left on October 23, 2008. We flew to Mumbai and boarded a Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi. The flight wasn’t crowded and we arrived in Nairobi on schedule. Two Toyota HiAce minivans picked us up and deposited us at Silver Springs Hotel. The rooms were good and we tucked in for the night. We had great dinner at an Indian restaurant, but the breakfast the morning after was even better.

We were up and about early to shift to Masai Mara. Our stay was arranged at Sopa Lodge inside the Masai Mara National Park. Our drivers Ben and Wilson came in the two Toyota minivans to fetch us.

A while later, it started raining very hard, so hard that the approach roads were under water! Water was raging all around and the ditches were overflowing. In certain places, the road had turned into a causeway. The cars began skidding, but Ben and Wilson were really good at navigating through the slippery stretches. One of the cars finally got stuck and we had to have the other car pull this one out. A lot of village kids rushed in to see what was happening. Some of us gave them lozenges and toffees. The villages are very poor, like in our country. We saw mud huts with thatched roofs. On the way, we spotted a few zebras and giraffes.