The B of the Bang…

Occasionally, I feel strangely compelled to post about a photo that didn’t quite go my way; one that won’t appear in the galleries.  This is such an occasion.  While sorting through photos of cheetahs from our Kenya trip, this photo caught my attention.  No, it’s not a great image in itself.  It’s a bit too far out from the subjects. There is a lot of clutter in the shot (though that’s quite representative of the light scrub where cheetah’s like to ambush and chase).  It was shot in the full heat of the day (11:55:16 am to be precise) so the light is harsh and there is a ton of heat haze messing with the sharpness.  But it does show an instant.  The instant when a cheetah that had been patiently watching and waiting and hiding (for half an hour) low in the vegetation rose and took her first pace in pursuit of the impala on the left.  An impala whose day has, incidentally, just gone all wrong.  That transition happened in an instant and with no warning.  I’m mildly surprised I got anything at all. 

I may not have quite got the perfect shot here but it reminds me that I’ll be going back to see and to try and capture that ‘B of the Bang’ again.  Because that instant is just… Wow.  

And what of the cheetah, did she get to eat?  Well, somehow in the ensuing dusty maelstrom the impala scattered but she doubled back to the right onto a Thompson’s gazelle and brought it down a little deeper into the bush and out of our immediate sight. We caught up with her a minute or two later.  There will be more of that later…  

One other thing to mention if you are contemplating a safari.  We first spotted this hunting cheetah at 9am (that’s almost breakfast time on an early game drive).  So it was nearly three hours before the conclusive action happened.  If you really want to see things happen, you need to be prepared to watch and wait and wait and wait a bit more.  Anything else is pure happenstance.  Not that it’s that much of a chore spending time (with a picnic hamper and cold drinks) in the company of these animals; we could have easily been at it all day.  We eventually left another hour later (at 1pm) after the cheetah had eaten her fill (I did mention there would be more to come later…). 

Now I come to think of it, it’s a bit like watching cricket.  Four hours sitting in the sun with drinks, some nibbles and engaging conversation of the team’s performance and chances in the hope of 30 seconds of high action.