As I held on tight and leaned further into the Land Rover to keep branches from whipping into my face, it occurred to me that this felt a lot like the safari ride I once took at Disney World, except that this was not pretend.
Our guide had received a call about a rare leopard sighting, and he was racing along the preserve’s roads, taking the tight turns like an experienced Formula 1 racecar driver. Neither large bumps nor deep divots in the narrow sandy track slowed him down. But instead of a black-and-white checkered flag, our goal was a gold-and-black spotted cat, one of the more elusive of Africa’s “Big Five”.
The feature photo for this post was recognized with an Honorable Mention award in the Landscape and Nature category in the 2023 North American Travel Journalists Association Excellence in Travel Journalism competition.
