Pole to Pole
Day 99: The Masai Mara to Seronera

Animal-spotting is every bit as obsessive as train-spotting and one of the gaps in my book is filled after little more than half an hour's driving when we catch our first sight of a cheetah. It's a solitary animal but its presence has a magnetic effect on the supporting cast. Thomson's gazelle grazing nearby freeze in mid-mastication. Impala heads turn and stare as if hypnotized. There is very little point in trying to run away from an animal whose 'maximum speed in emergency' can, according to my book, 'reach 110 k.p.h.'. The cheetah looks made for speed. Its head is small, body long and powerful, legs lean and slender. Cheetahs stalk their prey with infinite care and patience, moving to within a hundred yards before attacking. The suspense is so sustained, the build-up so painstakingly slow, that in the fifteen minutes we are there nothing moves except eyeballs.
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PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Pole to Pole
- Day: 99
- Country/sea: Kenya
- Place: Mara River
- Book page no: 219
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RELATED LINKS
- Kenya
- Chapter 6: Africa
- Hemingway Adventure
- Amboseli National Park, Kenya (first day)
- Hemingway Adventure
- Amboseli National Park, Kenya (second day)
- Hemingway Adventure
- Wildlife and Nature
- Day 22
- Around the World in 80 Days
- Day 7
- Full Circle
- Day 21: Skardu to Concordia
- Himalaya