Kenyan Safari: Amboseli...in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro

Day 7:  We woke up early in anticipation of seeing Mt. Kilimanjaro, but unfortunately it was cloudy towards the mountain.  Amboseli is famous for being at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Althought Kili is in Tanzania and Amboseli in Kenya, this is the best place to view the mountain with wildlife in the foreground.  Any pictures you have seen with Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, etc in front of Mt. Kilimanjaro were taken at Amboseli.

Despite Kilimanjaro hiding behind a curtain of clouds, we had a great full days game drive.  We saw so many elephants!  Amboseli is blessed with springs that rise up from below ground and create small lakes and giant marshes which give water and life to the wildlife in this otherwise arid land.  The springs come from the glaciers on Kilimanjaro, which trickle underground through porous volcanic rock, only to resurface in Amboseli.  It's of course a scary prospect to see what will happen to the park when the snows of Kilimanjaro melt away for good.

Besides the elephants we saw lots of zebra, wildebeest, hippos, and ostriches.  The excitement of the day came; however, when Elisha spotted two lionesses off to the side.  We drove up towards them and it was clear that they were on a mission.  So we followed them from a distance along a road that was going parallel to their movement.  As they moved on, they passed some wildebeest, which to our surprise, the wildebeest actually kind of chased the lions away.  The lions then came near another road, where we posted ourselves so we could cross the roads.  The lions, when they got near the road, sort of sat and lied in the grass.  From the way they had been on a mission before, I was figuring they had come down to the marsh to hunt.  But our guide, seeing them relaxing in the grass, said that they were just resting and nothing would happen and that we should carry on.  But something told me to tell him, no, we're going to stay and watch.  I think it's b/c the cats were acting fidgety and not really sleeping the deep sleep like they usually do.

So I convinced the driver to stay.  Sure enough, eventually the lionesses got into total stalking mode.  When this happened, the driver called over the radio about it and suddenly a bunch of vans were speeding our way.  It was kind of crazy because here were these lionesses trying to hunt and vans were speeding in and tourists screaming and yelling.  But the lions must be used to it, b/c they deftly moved through the vans, used the ditch in the road as some hiding, crossed the road and got within mere feet of 3 zebra.

All of our hearts were racing.  My heart felt like watching the waning seconds of a tie Arizona march madness game.  I was, of course, rooting for the lions.  Elisha, changed heart though and started rooting for the zebras.  In the end, the zebras never presented themselves in the right direction...if you're a lion, you want to attack a zebra head on in an ambush, so you can get the neck.  If you're from behind, you have to deal with that powerful butt and those legs.  So because the Zebra never faced the right direction, the lioness made a weak attempt at the foal, but the zebras got away easily

Day 8

We woke up early again and witnessed an amazing sunrise.  Also, Kilimanjaro was cloud free, so we were able to glimpse it!  It was hazy, so it wasn't a perfect view, and it clouded up before we started game driving, but it was still amazing to finally see the behemoth snowcapped volcano rising above the wildlife-covered plains.

We did a morning game drive through the park in order to get to the Tanzania border.  Along the way we saw some rarer species like gerenuks (antelope with giraffe like necks that can stand on 2 feet) and oryx.  But the best thing we saw was a mom with 3 young males playing around.  I love cheetahs!  They are so cute

lion maneuvering through the vans

lioness getting pretty close to the zebra

look how close the lioness is to the Zebra

Kilimanjaro with Mwenzi on the far left

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Kenya Safari: Lake Nakuru National Park

Day 5

We spent most of the day driving from the Masai Mara to Nakuru town.  Near Lake Naivasha, we met back up with Sammy and the Czech couple.  We then finished the drive to Nakuru.  We were staying at a hotel in Nakuru (again, I wished we were camping by the lake, but during this time of tourism downturn, hotels might actually be cheaper than camping since camping prices are set by the pricey National Parks.  But since we were in the city, it also allowed us to watch the Germany vs Argentina world cup championship game.  Unfortunately, my team lost.  Pobrecito Argentina.)

We spent the early evening walking to Lake Nakuru and the entrance gate with some British folk.  Along the way there were hundreds of kids, and they all yelled out to us "How are you?"  We don't think they actually knew what was going on, and some were so young that we figured it was the first words they had actually learned.  But by the time we got through the little village area and down to the park, our following of children had swelled.

That night, we stayed up to the wee hours of the morning watching the Germany vs. Argentina championship game, which went into extra time.

Day 6.

We woke up early to do a morning game drive through Lake Nakuru National Park.  During the drive we visited a nice viewpoint overlooking the salty lake as well as visited a waterfall.

Nakuru is home to one of the world’s largest densities of rhinos in the world and one of the best places in Kenya to have a chance to see them.  During our game drive, we happened upon 4 separate rhinos.  The park also had huge herds of buffalo.  Typically the park is filled with pink flamingos; however, the lake has been increasing in volume—so much that it’s flooded a large portion of the park—and with the increase in depth of the lake, it is not good habitat for flamingos.  So there were only a handful around. 

The afternoon and evening was spent driving back to Nairobi and then on to Amboseli.  The route to Amboseli partially used the Nairobi to Mombasa road, which is crazy busy with huge truck, which makes for some crazy driving.  I don’t think the Czechs were used to this kind of driving, so they appeared quite nervous, but actually our driver, Ambrose, was very safe.  We had switched from Sammy to Ambrose b/c Sammy needed to stay in Nairobi to properly fix his van