Robert Redford put his boots on the conference table and whispered: “Cheetah, fastest land mammal.” He had come to our New York office to screen a rough cut of Year of the Wildebeest. As the publicist for this documentary by Alan and Joan Root, I wore out the sprockets of this 16mm film. That was in 1974. A few years later, in the same screening room, as the dusty migration commenced in East Africa – hooves pounding, gnus lowing, cheetah stalking – I thought: Why am I here when I could be there?
Over 100 safaris later, including trips to Botswana, Namibia and walking around the edge of the Serengeti, I still find that it is this spectacular parade of nature – ‘the great migration’ – that suggests all is well in the world, even if it isn’t.
In 2020, when most travellers had to postpone their safaris, Kenyan operators reached out to locals, who seized the opportunity to see the migration without
