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
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| lion maneuvering through the vans |
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| lioness getting pretty close to the zebra |
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| look how close the lioness is to the Zebra |
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| Kilimanjaro with Mwenzi on the far left |
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