Amboseli

Towards the southeast of Kenya, very close to its border with Tanzania is the Amboseli National Park.

Kenya’s Tsavo East, Tsavo West, and Maasai Mara are other fantastic game parks. What sets Amboseli apart is the huge variety of birdlife in it besides the wildlife.

I was driving from Maasai Mara to Amboseli non-stop starting at 6:30am and passing Nairobi at about 10:30am. I was blessed with great weather and was nearing the turnoff to the unpaved road to Amboseli.

I saw a group of giraffes on the roadside and as I admired them…

… one of them decided to cross my path.

All this excitement made me miss my turnoff. I retraced my path and soon found the dirt road that stretched for 18km to the little Amanya camp, my stay for the night.

I made the turnoff and soon was appalled at the road conditions.

The road had deteriorated so much, maybe because of recent rains, and it was like driving on a grate, lots o vibration, dust, noise.

The grass and brush on both sides was alive with many types of birds and I could snap a picture of a colorful one while driving.

Google maps do not work well in Kenya, I have seen them work in many countries very accurately but have been consistently been taken to wrong spots in Kenya.

Couple of hours of driving later, I reached the park gate and paid the entrance fee. The fee was $60 for 24 hours period and since it was 4:30pm now, I could visit the park until 6PM closing today and most of the day tomorrow.

It was awesome to be able to self drive in this game reserve. I spotted a couple of ostriches, a brown and a black one.

Just like the literature said, there was a wide variety of birds everywhere I looked there were marshes everywhere too.

At a far distance, I could see a few hippos.

I kept driving in the rough road, marveling at the birds.

A solo wildebeest was grazing, I guess it missed the great migration of wildebeests which happens annually in October.

It’s neck hair looked translucent.

A Maribou Stork was posing for me…

Many other storks were in the distance.

The Amboseli lake ahead of me had another variety of birds.

The weather was perfect and it seemed I was one of the very few visitors today. Since the gate closed at 6PM, and the road was bad, I timed my out and back trip carefully. I exited the park at 6PM.

The next morning I was blessed to see a great view of Kilimanjaro summit, since yesterday it was shrouded in cloud cover.

The camp I was at had a unique location affording an uninterrupted view of the Africa’s tallest peak.

The camp had just a few yurt like structures. Yesterday as I walked to the dinner in the camp restaurant, I saw a scorpion racing me to the entrance. I pointed it out to the usher and she promptly stepped on it, turning it into scorpion pulp.

Today I traversed the same three kilometers at the start of the game drive and enjoyed it in cooler temperatures, yesterday was too warm.

Every few minutes I could see a slightly different look of the Kilimanjaro.

Further ahead were a couple of hyenas and they were furtively looking at me.

From behind the brush, they kept checking on me.

after a while, they went by their business.

The clouds changed their direction and Kilimanjaro was looking clearer.

A black and white bird was very common in the area and I marveled at its beauty.

At a distance there were several water buffaloes.

Another hyena crossed my field of vision.

The Amboseli lake had many flamingoes.

The mountains and trees, the lake and the wildlife, all looked to be in perfect harmony.

The lake was calm and the cool morning weather was relaxing.

I couldn’t get enough of the friendly looking hyena.

Apparently he (or she?) was thinking the same.

A spoonbill stork was pensively looking at the marsh.

A pelican was looking for its meal.

A hadada ibis was lurking around.

A stork was wondering how to finance its kids’ education.

At a distance, I saw the Amboseli airstrip and a big solo Elephant walking in the bush.

The elephant was rather a fast walker and a tourist vehicle was following it.

Several flamingos were gathered in one spot.

Inside the national park was a lodge and I decided to visit it.

More Egyptian geese were wandering about.

A vervet monkey was lounging around.

A baboon saw me and took off, keeping a close eye on my next move.

I saw the lodge but it was closed.

As I drive further, there was another big lodge that was functioning.

It had a giant majestic entrance and big wood carvings.

There were beautiful lawns for people to enjoy.

Lot of spots in the cafe for taking in the scenery and wildlife.

The colorful Ugandan bird was showing off.

The giant acacia tree and the lawns made the lodge look very serene.

Decor of the lodge was pretty impressive.

After enjoying the hospitality of the lodge, I started driving back to my camp. The wildebeest greeted me again.

A congregation of birds was standing by in the marsh.

The birds’ variety and huge numbers made me remember the visit to Okavango Delta in Botswana.

The downside of self driving for me was my inability to recognize the names of the birds.

However, I remembered Shakespeare ‘s phrase, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”

I kept on enjoying the presence of the birds while being oblivious of their species’ names.

Soon I was at the entrance of the park.

I bid Amboseli goodbye and continued on the bone shaking dirt road towards Nairobi.

Although I saw fewer big animals compared to Maasai Mara, the park was beautiful, had awesome views of Kilimanjaro and its wetlands were starkly different than the savanna.