A Kudu from South Africa

When I got the invitation to travel to South Africa, I remember writing to Arun– what to do I am no wildlife photographer! He replied back- enjoy the things with your eyes! That was one good advice. I tried to follow it too and yet the trigger happy camera finger would go on its own!

If you have visited the national parks in India you can’t help but compare your experience in South Africa. I know it is like comparing apples and oranges but I end up doing the comparison.

In a forest they say the animals at the bottom of the food chain are many times more in number than the ones at the top. This is essential to maintain the balance. So you spot deer commonly in India and you spot Kudu commonly in South Africa, they are at the bottom of the food chain.

But in India the forest is thick and it is so easy for the animals to hide in it. They might be 10 meters away from you but so well hidden that they might as well not be there. In South Africa they call it a bush. And it resembles a bush and not a forest. So you see a lot more animals out there in the wild. Or maybe it is the South African magic that makes all the wildlife sightings so easy. What else could explain sightings of lions, rhinos, cape buffalo and elephants (note the plural) in just two safaris. Whereas it took me five years to spot a tiger in the wild in India. The leopard has been elusive to me both in India and South Africa. but then I have patience.

I wonder what is it about South Africa that makes me so nostalgic? Maybe because I was a tourist there, I didn’t had the luxury to take the big beautiful country for granted?

It is a lazy Sunday, enjoy the picture of Kudu from South Africa.