Am seated in my car, its about 6:20pm, my camera pointed at the sunset, a bit to my left is a family of cheetahs, one of the most famous cheetah families, in the Maasai Mara, I am praying that they’ll give me a great series of silhouette photos. I took my eyes off the scene for a few seconds to confirm i had the right settings, I look up from my camera and see the cheetahs climbing one of the safari landcruisers, whoa, surely my prayers have been answered quickly too…
They were two, then three and finally all four cats were on the roof and bonnet of the car. I promise, If this happened to you, you would probably piss yourself, but not these two tourists, they decided to pop their heads out of the sunroof and take selfies! Before they got on top of this specific car, they were on another one, with a couple inside, from the looks on their faces they were mortified. (See first Image). As I continued to click away I thought to myself, if she was on my car would i take the selfie? Would you?
I got to meet these two brave guys Dhaval Shah and Upesh Mungra who were visiting Maasai Mara from Jamnagar Gujarat India. Dhaval said to me “It was very scary and exciting at the same time to be that close to a wild cheetah. Its the boldest and most wild thing we have ever done and that its an unforgettable experience.”
Welcome to Wild Kenya – This is the famous Malaika and her 3 cubs and they love to climb cars mostly to get a better view of the plains, the perfect vantage point and maybe even for fun. In fact, Malaika got the behavior from her mother – Queen. This Generation of Cheetahs have climbed countless cars frightening or exciting many tourists. Do not forget for a minute though, these are untamed wild animals. They are also the fastest animals on land so anything can go wrong anytime and very fast.
Luckily, as many times before, there was no incident, Malaika and her family gave us a great show and even greater pictures and then she was on her way to spend the night in nearby bushes.
Just another day in #WILDKENYA
U had a great luck to take selfie with cheetah, & lucky also that u see the cheetah, V didn’t have a single look of cheetah in my trip to Masai Mara
Hi Bijal, sorry to hear that, there are many cheetah families in the Mara. I hope you get to see one of them when you visit again. I will be posting more cheetah pictures so keep checking this section of my website…