Park moments

As you drive into the Nairobi National Park (NNP) from the Main gate, the Hippo Pools is found at the far end of the park. We usually drive a full circuit of the park, and Hippo Pools is a regular pit stop. As you drive out of Hippo Pools, you can opt to go towards the Athi dam - further away from the main gate, or drive down to the East and Maasai gates and onwards, to the park forest and the Main gate.

If you drive towards Maasai gate, the road gets a bit hilly. There is one particular spot where the road dips and forks into a stunning plethora of acacias and a small riverine (one of the numerous seasonal rivers and tributaries within the park) flows across the road, adding the touch of perfection to the scene. The bridge over these, sometimes tiny, streams are tarmacked and fairly straight forward to drive over. The one at this spot, however, is a bit notorious because the "bridge - back to road" drop is uneven and shoddy.

This spot is one of those places where I, and I'm sure other park and wildlife enthusiasts, dream of sighting leopards, or something rare. It simply speaks of magic sightings: the perfect place for an animal. Oh, the visions I've seen there...But of course the places we seem to think are ideal for viewing animals are probably not that ideal, and merely the effects of our brains fantasising. The animals themselves seem to frown upon the "perfect" locations, and we usually end up sighting the more common impala, other grazers, or monkeys rather than what we expect - spectacular maybe, but not exactly singular.

Being the dreamers that we are, we persistently search deep and hard as we pass by our magic spots. What if we do chance upon a spotted creature, lurking in the acacias, or near the stream? What if there is a flap of a white and black fluffy tail hanging from a branch. What if? Oh, the possibilities!

And a few weeks ago, we had our what if moment.

It all began with our pursuit of happiness which in our case is the unmatchable pleasure of sighting some lions. The drive at the park was getting a bit frustrating for us as we are rarely satiated unless we have a visual of our beloved lions. Do not get me wrong we were thrilled to have seen 7 rhinos, 2 jackals, and numerous giraffe, zebra, impala and related folk. Yet, the lion sighting beckoned us.

We left Athi damn happy. We had seen a crocodile - it's snout peeking out of the waters - still and deceptive, zebras were traipsing gaily into the water, drinking up, and then walking away, three hippos frequently popped in and out of the water, as if unsure about whether they wanted to hide or not. We were also fortunate to see a number of white rhinos as we drove towards the Hippo Pools.

Once we arrived there, we heard a few reports of a big maned lion at number 29 and hastened to search for it. Our thorough search was fruitless and we proceeded again to number 6, and the lone tree areas - a haunt preferred, these days, by the park lions. Still no luck. Once again there were rumours of 2 lions at number 18 near some murram pits. Typical of insane park fanatics, we drove back to the other end of the park only to see two rhinos, definitely not lions, at the said pits.

Ever optimistic, or perhaps ever stubborn, we continued to journey towards the Hippo Pools, and onwards towards the cheetah gate where a fellow visitor had told us they had sighted, briefly, Athi (an identified and famous NNP lioness) and her cubs. It was another dry run for us and we didn't get to see Athi or her elusive cubs.

However, that drive will be etched in our memories forever - another one of those incredible wildlife moments that happen fleetingly, but are so vivid and unique they leave a glorious feeling of awe in your life.

On our way to find Athi, we drove towards the Hippo Pools and used the same route where we dream of sighting a leopard. And for a change we drove extra slowly over the bridge. In that precious moment, a movement caught my eye and I screamed, "Shalini! Crocodile!" And, there it was in the relatively shallow riverine, barely 5 metres away from us - a crocodile, snout and eyes visible, gliding away from the bridge as though we had surprised it into life. Oh, it was so thrilling! I could see its round, beady eyes looking at us warily, and then before we could click a photo or capture a video, the miracle crocodile had slunk into the depths of the brown water.

I can see it even now. What a rare sighting! The crocodiles we have seen at the park are usually at the Hippo pools, Athi river, or at the dams. This visual led to so many questions - why was this crocodile here? How did it get here? Why was it brownish? What would happen when the water dried up? Were the unaware grazers around us aware of the danger lurking so close? How wonderful! How exciting!