Kenya 2023: Chapter 13 – The Suck

We left the sleeping lions and headed out to the center part of the park as there were reports of a lone female cheetah on the hunt. It had rained the night before and the Mara was wet. The roads were now roads in an academic sense: they were made of dirt and were once passable. Lenny's driving skills were put to the test as we got into it. The accelerator was pinned as we got into a muddy stretch and he drifted the truck back and forth down the road. If you stop, you’re stuck, so down the road we went: back and forth, back and forth, sideways, straight, sideways. We noticed lots of other trucks doing the same thing. After a few minutes of dancing in the dirt, we regained more solid ground. 

By now, there were dozens of trucks converging on an area, a sure sign that there was a sighting. All of them were attempting to navigate the slippery conditions and avoid deeper puddles. One truck was completely sunk to the chassis in a deep rut in the road, a small toddler in a car seat in the back. Ed asked Lenny if there was anything we could do to help, but because of liabilities between companies, it was uncommon for aid to be rendered. It was also a risk for whoever attempted to pull them out as they could also get stuck. Given how sunk the truck was, the driver would require a heavy lorry to pull him out of the mudhole. Greg, having just watched Jarhead on the flight over, referred to it as The Suck.

 We parked up and watched the female watch her potential prey. She was hard to see in the grass when she would lay down, but every so often she would advance on a herd of gazelle. While waiting  for the cheetah to do something, we watched all the trucks around us. Ed counted 38 trucks at one point, but that was after a bunch had left, so we know the number was closer to 50. Mud flew from tires, steam kicked up, the trucks spun around wildly. It was an insane place to be, but the cheetah paid no attention. Another guide truck ended up pulling the very sunk truck out of the Suck. We cheered.

The clouds broke and a blue sky bright with sunshine made an entrance. We pulled up the road to try to get in front of the cheetah in the event she took off after something, but she bedded down and almost disappeared again. Most of the trucks left by 9:15 and by 9:45 we headed out too. There would be no hunt today.