8 Go on a safari

Close your eyes and think of Kumaon

Close your eyes and think of Kumaon. The Maneaters Of Kumaon. There's something about looking at a leopard unchained, crouched on the branch of a tree, watching you from its throne while you sit in a precarious, open-ended jeep. And that something clutches at your chest. It's fear. It's exhilarating.

A memory of jungle folklore floats up into your headu00a0 leopards and panthers are the only two wild cats who are mean-streaked, who attack you unprovoked or even when they're not hungry. Yet, you can't stop staring into those ochre eyes, mesmerised.

A safari has that effect. You're slack-jawed from keeping your mouth open in amazement. A giraffe glides up to you gracefully at sundown, its neck so stretched that you have to crane your neck up to see those ridiculously long eyelashes. A herd of zebras, looking like striped horses, linger next to a watering hole.

Two lionesses lounge on a tree at a wildlife park u00a0PIC/JUPITER IMAGES

An African elephant, its fanned ears flapping, aggressively charges at you and swerves at the last minute, while a notoriously bad-tempered rhino advances, then changes his mind.

During a mad dash back to your luxury jungle camp at midnight, the jeep's headlights throw a spotlight at a startled lioness, crossing the path. Even the sight of hyenas, those reviled animals that were a part of your growing-up Jataka Tales and The Lion King, take on a wondrous hue when you catch them roaming a reserve.

A safari teaches you to respect the environment. When you sign on to watch an animal in its natural habitat, you can't help but want to do something to protect them, to invest in their endangered future.

You track gorillas in the mountains, swim with sharks deep in the ocean, sail to a rock in the middle of the sea to watch silky otters dive about or catch dolphins muck around your boat. Watching nature this way makes it so personal.

A safari also gifts you with the unexpected. At the Bannerghatta National Park near Bengaluru, our van drove smack into a sight straight out of Animal Planet. A tigress and her full-grown cub were killing their prey. A deer's neck was clenched by giant jaws.

The big cats were twisting it, inch by inch, while the deer feebly kicked about. That was the best thing about a wild parku00a0 these animals were fed everyday, but they kept their predatory edge. They never lost their natural instinct.

Nature is untamed, free, wild, feral. At a wildlife safari, you see animals the way they should be. Not holed up in a zoo, listlessly lying on a cemented floor and having stones thrown at them to make them twitch, or roar. The Madagascar guys got it right.