by Helen Gies, 2026, Biology Major, Chemistry Minor, she/her/hers

The sun rose over Maasai Mara, as we work our way through the park. We chant “1, 2, 3 chance, 1, 2, 3 leopard” repeatedly, as it helped us find lions yesterday, courtesy of our professor. We only have thirty minutes left before we finish our last drive through Maasai Mara National Park before going to Nanyuki for the next part of expedition.

Moja, mbili, tatu chui! Moja, mbili, tatu chui! Moja, mbili, tatu chui! I repeat in my head. 

I realize we are starting to loop back to the entrance, so I lock in for our last chance to see  a leopard. As we bump along the road, we look up in the trees for hope. Suddenly, someone spots a gazelle carcass hanging over a tree branch. Leopard. We frantically search the tree and the surrounding ground, but cannot find the predator. It looks like a recent kill, so it must be nearby.

We slowly continue our journey, repeating “1, 2, 3 chance,” as we travel along the grassy landscape. I observe a baboon family playing as I scan the bushes, hoping my sleepy eyes can find movements. I see a shadow. I rub my eyes. I see something walking in front of a bush as we drive past it. 

“Simamma!” I scream. The land cruiser jolts to a stop. “We have to go back. I saw something, I swear.”

“What was it?” my friend asks.

“I think it was a leopard, but I’m not sure. It was definitely something, we have to go back.”

The car goes in reverse and Francis slowly drives us back. “Keep going,” I say, pointing to the bush, where I saw the creature. After a torturous few minutes, we are there, with high adrenaline.

There she is. A stunning leopard laying behind the bush. She sees us coming and gets up. She moves a few meters and lays down in the sunshine, ready for pictures. She stares at us and rolls over. I’m shaking. I cannot believe this is happening. I try to position my camera and zoom in, but my hands won’t steady. Everyone is climbing over each other, three or four people standing on one seat, trying to get a glimpse. She is gorgeous. I am in total disbelief. We spend around ten minutes watching her, only a few other tourist vehicles were nearby and came over. She slowly walks further within the grass, every second a little smaller. Soon, we can only see the grasses sway as she displaces them. 

We all take a breath together. Finally driving away and towards the exit. Our chanting had worked. When we arrive back at our campsite, we run to find our professors. 

“Guess what we saw! A leopard!” We scream four separate times.

They are all very excited for us, though they have already seen leopards a few times, so it is less exciting for them. Our ecology professor Kiringe laughs as we tell him, but is clearly happy for us. He tells us that it’s good we saw one, or else they would have lost their streak of finding a leopard every semester.

We have one class that day after lunch, but everyone is a little distracted. The rest of the afternoon is spent packing for our trip to Nanyuki the next day. We chat and laugh about our time in Maasai Mara, which was initiated with seeing lions enjoying an early morning meal, with hyenas watching from across the road, ready to take the leftovers. We couldn’t watch for long, as we were driving to a lecture at the Maasai Mara Predator Project, but it was an amazing view.

We are looking forward to the next two adventures ahead of us on expedition. Nanyuki will bring us to Ol Pejeta Conservancy, where we will meet the last two Northern White Rhinos in the world and we will, learn about the conservation efforts for the Black Rhinos in Kenya. Lastly, we will be traveling to Rwanda for Mountain Gorilla trekking and to learn about their conservation.

Over 20 days of amazing experiences is only a quarter of the way through. As we pack, we wonder how we got lucky enough to be here.