What it takes to become a NatGeo Explorer

"I saw some movement in some bushes and I told them, ‘There is a predator here. Leave the zebras alone. Focus on this lioness and see what she does '", Kiragu said of the story behind the award-winning photo [Courtesy]

It’s a chilly and dreary morning, with heavy rain just abating at the gates of the Nairobi National Park. Murphy’s Law came in strong this morning. It’s only 7am but it seems like everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong.

“Don’t worry, as soon as we get into the park, all that will melt away,” Clement Kiragu says, in high spirits. I relax a little, and as soon as we begin the game drive, it turns out that he is right. We came to the park because that is where he is most in his element, and it is beautifully therapeutic, as if there is an unwritten sign saying, “You have now entered a worry-free zone,” that you instinctively understand.