Category: kenya

It’s our last day in Amboseli, and it seems to have come around very quickly.  We started out with an early game drive, and the intention to try and find the lion we saw last night.  We didn’t succeed, but we did find something even more exciting – a group of 3 cheetah.  The cheetahs in Amboseli are very shy and so they’re quite an unusual sighting.  These 3 were certainly not keen on hanging around, and by the time we stopped the jeep they were already loping off into the distance.

Before long they were nothing more than specks on the landscape.  They were so hard to see that we ended up climbing up on top of the vehicle in order to get a better view.  By this time the word had got out over the radio that we’d found cheetahs and more vehicles kept racing in… alas, they saw nothing.  These were well and truly ‘our’ cheetahs!  We tried driving on further in the hope of intercepting the cheetahs, but unfortunately that was the last we saw of them.

After breakfast we had something different planned – a visit to the nearby Maasai village.  Of course, we couldn’t not stop when we saw some interesting wildlife en route to the village.

The visit was something we had mixed feelings about.  On the one hand it was interesting, and certainly a good opportunity to support the local people, but on the other hand it feels rather uncomfortable to visit a village of people who are all standing around on display for you. Additionally, there was rather an expectation that you would buy things at their market, and we ended up spending about an hour going from one person’s stall to the next, all the while not really wanting much of the goods on offer.  The standard way of trade here is negotiation, and that’s not something that either Mum or I are particularly good at.

We were shown around the village by one of the young Maasai men, and I have to say that we had some very interesting discussions.  I was particularly amused that when we left he wanted to exchange e-mail addresses.  To have the e-mail address of someone that lives in a village with no running water or electricity seems rather incongruous!

After the village we visited the school – one very small building, packed to the brim with children between the ages of about 3 and 6.  They were very keen to be photographed, especially one lad who pushed in front of all the others to be in every photo – a bit of a menace for the photographer!

Back to the lodge, where we were running late for lunch.  The lodge has really emptied out the last few days, and so the dining room has been mostly empty.  When we arrived, one of the waiters told mum that they were getting worried because we hadn’t shown up for lunch yet, and they’d been wondering where we were.  We were a little surprised, but thought no more of it.  When we sat down, we were told that there was a chef’s special that lunchtime.  To our surprise, the waiter brought over a few bowls, each containing a traditional Kenyan dish.  It turned out that they’d read the comment form that we’d filled in the night before, where I’d written that much as I’d liked the food so far, we’d hoped to try some Kenyan food.  They took the form to the Chef, and he obliged us!  The food was good, and very filling.  We had a beef stew, spinach and a mixture of potato, maize and beans, accompanied by ugali – a mixture of maize flour and water, cooked fairly solid, which is used to scoop up the rest of the food.

In the afternoon we went for our last game drive.  We had a valiant effort to try and find the cheetahs again, but they didn’t want to show themselves.  We ended up watching some elephants as the sun set, stopped to photograph a goliath heron in the dusk, and then called it a day.

At dinner this evening there was another surprise awaiting us.  We were just finishing our coffee when all the lights were switched off.  This had happened on one previous occasion, when a birthday cake was brought out to someone.  The cake was brought out as part of a procession of all the kitchen staff, with someone holding a burning torch at the front, and everyone singing.  As on the previous occasion, the procession came out and danced around the dining hall.  Mum and I thought that it must be for someone in the group at one of the other tables, so we were totally amazed when the cake was brought to our table.  It turned out that they’d brought the cake as a thank you for our long stay at the lodge (most people seem to pass through for one or two nights only, so our 4 night stay was quite unusual).  The text on the cake means ‘Goodbye and welcome back’.  We’ve certainly been made very welcome by the staff during our stay, and we were already very impressed by the trouble they’d taken for us over lunch.

Lots of young folk on our afternoon game drive today – first we happened upon a pair of crested cranes with a couple of chicks, and then a little further along, a pair of ostrich with a family of 11 chicks.

I’m glad I’m not an ostrich – those eggs are huge, imagine having to lay 11 of them!

We drove out to Lake Amboseli.  I’ve been a little confused since we arrived about the lake, as all we’ve seen are a number of swampy areas, none of which seemed to quite qualify for the title.  Today the mystery was solved – the lake is currently completely dry, although that could change any day now as there has been a lot of rain in the hills.  Normally, by this time in the year the lake would already be wet, and teaming with wildlife, it must really be spectacular.

We drove around the lake area for some time, but didn’t come across much wildlife.  This sand grouse was pretty much all we saw, so we headed off and found ourselves an elephant herd.

We’ve spent a lot of time on this trip watching elephants, there’s always something going on. This afternoon was no exception as we found ourselves watching one of the more intimate moments of an elephant’s life.  Or so you’d think… privacy is not really an option within a herd!

One of the elephants in the herd had come on heat, and was being courted by four hopeful suitors, all of whom were following her around hopefully.  It was interesting to watch how she flirted with the one, and scorned the advances of another.  It became clear very quickly who the lucky man would be, and he wasted no time in getting down to action, with the three runners-up, and of course, the three of us in the jeep, watching.

After the show was over, the four elephants all wandered off, although not before having a quick dust bath.

There are always more elephants to watch, though, and we turned our sights to a group which had just emerged from the swamps.

Leaving the elephants behind, we drove for about 20 minutes before coming across a gazelle running at high speed.  Since there was most likely a good reason for the gazelle to be running, we followed the direction in which it had come, and within a few minutes found ourselves a lion.  We snapped a couple photos with the engine still running, and then as the lion started moving off, Peter put his foot down and we tried to drive around to intercept it further along – a far less direct route for us, of course, compared to the lion who could just cut across the grass.

It appears, however, that just like buses, you wait ages for a lion, and then a whole group turn up at once.  We’d not gone all that far when we realised that there were a number of vehicles parked up ahead – a sure sign that there was something to see.  Yep, another two lions, one of which was collared.  We decided to stop to take a quick few photos, before continuing our hunt for the original lion.

We took off again, and tried to hunt down our original lion, but to no avail.  Lucky that we had such a nice photo op with these two.  After some failed attempts to get some elephants silhouetted in the sunset, we headed off back to the lodge.

We were up at the unearthly hour of 4am this morning, as we had a treat in store – a sunrise hot air balloon ride.  Along with 6 others we were driven about 6km away from the hotel, outside the park boundary, to the balloon launch site, in time for a 6.30 launch.  It may have only been a short distance to drive, but because we were driving out in the bush, it took us about an hour, and was a very bumpy ride.

Getting the balloon prepared was a job for many hands, the pilot and about 10 others.  First they lay the basket on its side, and tested the gas burners – a spectacular flame throwing display, and then the balloon itself was laid out and filled up with air using a couple powerful fans.

Because there was a fairly strong wind, the pilot made the decision that we should get into the basket whilst it was still lying on its side, rather than first getting the basket and balloon upright and then climbing in.  That was a bit of a challenge – it meant climbing into the basket, and lying on our backs with our feet in the air, and holding onto ropes.  Once everyone was in, the pilot blasted the gas burners a few times, which felt like my ears were going to be singed, the balloon lifted, and the basket slowly righted itself.  A couple more blasts and we slowly lifted off the ground.

What an amazing experience!  I was slightly nervous beforehand, as I have no head for heights (put me two steps up a ladder and I start to panic), but like flying, this was fine.  The ground slowly dropped away, and before long we’d spotted our first wildlife – two elephants up ahead.  As we gained height, so did the sun, and we were treated to the most beautiful warm light, our finest sunrise so far on the trip.

We slowly ascended through the cloud up to a height of about 7500ft above sea level.  In practical terms, about 3000ft above ground level.  Once we were through the cloud, the peak of Kilimanjaro revealed itself.  After enjoying the view, and learning something about hot air balloon flying, we descended through the clouds again, and floated along looking for wildlife and a good landing spot.

Because of the recent dry weather, the area we were over, which is an important wildlife corridor, was not as populated as normal.  Still, we saw gazelle, rabbits and genereks.  The poor gazelle were quite alarmed by our presence and ran every which way.

Our trip was planned to be one hour, but because of the winds, it took us longer to get lined up for landing.  In fact, we had to first rise up again to catch the winds blowing in a different direction, and then when we were lined up better, start another descent.  The balloon carries enough gas to keep it flying for about 2 hours.  As we approached the ground, our pilot pointed down to a tree which had something colourful around it – ‘that’s breakfast’, he said.  Indeed, once we landed, we were driven to the very same tree, under which was a table set for breakfast, a waiter, and a chef, ready to cook omlettes and crepes.

The landing itself was a little bumpy.  We touched down, and then skipped across the ground a few times before the basket finally sank down gently onto its side, and the balloon collapsed.  Still, it was a lot less dramatic than I might have imagined!  After enjoying the breakfast, which was accompanied by champagne, we all piled back into the jeep and bumped our way back to the lodge.

Since we didn’t have a game drive planned until the afternoon, we thought it was a good opportunity to take advantage of the pool, and to sort through some of our photographs.  In reality, though, we both sat down on the bed and fell asleep until lunchtime.

The clouds have cleared a little, and we got our day off to a good start with some elephants, and a nice view of Kilimanjaro in the background.

After leaving the ellies, we continued driving, and I had a lot of fun trying to photograph running wildebeest.  It’s quite a challenge when the jeep is moving fast as you bounce around an awful lot.  I’m amazed that I haven’t yet gone flying when the jeep made a sudden swerve or stop.

We spent a bit of time driving around by the swamps, which are filled with bird life.  As well as the egrets and grey heron, we spotted a goliath heron, a couple squacco herons and a pair of pied kingfishers.

There’s a small hill next to the swamps with an observation tower at the top.  We parked the van and took a walk up there.  There was a good view down to a small group of hippos as well as wildebeest coming in to drink.  Unfortunately they were too far away to get really decent photos.

On our way back to camp, we spotted a pair of silver backed jackals.  They’re very shy and they didn’t hang around long enough for us to turn off the engine – very hard getting sharp pictures when the van is vibrating around you.

After lunch, our first few find were still inside the camp – a hoepoe, and some of the resident baboons.  The baboons are really a pest around here, and there are plenty of them on the grounds.  Given half a chance, they, and the vervet monkeys, would be inside your room in no time.  These baboons were on the drive away, and much as I’m not a great fan, I had to admit that the baby was rather cute, as it took a ride on its mother’s back.

We spent most of the afternoon hanging out with a couple herds of elephants.  Most of the elephants here are accompanied by large numbers of cattle egrets, which feed on the insects that are disturbed when the elephants tear out the grass.

Towards the end of the day, we waited for the elephants to come up from the water and make their way back to their night’s resting spot.  They crossed the road right where we were waiting, and flowed around us.  It was amazing to see elephants in every direction, and particularly to enjoy the young ones, who were running around in all directions and trumpeting triumphantly as they crossed the road.

As the sun started to set we saw a group of vehicles together in the distance.  We raced over to join the party and a found a group of 3 young lions walking away from us.  They found themselves a quiet spot in the palm trees, and stopped for a lie down.  We watched and waited whilst the sun disappeared, but eventually had to give up and head back to the lodge.

We had a fairly early start this morning as we had a long drive ahead to our next destination, Amboseli National Park, located on the border with Tanzania, and famed for its view onto Mount Kilimanjaro.  Despite the fact that Peter was worried about us reaching Amboseli in time for lunch, he was determined that we should have one last attempt to find some lions before leaving.  Accordingly, we took the drive through to the park gate at a leisurely pace, and once we approached the exit, took a few detours to maximize our chances.
Suddenly, there was some noise from the radio, and Peter shouted to us to hold on tight, and then put his foot to the ground.  We raced along the roads, thrown from side to side on every bend, rounded one final corner and spotted the giveaway sign of something interesting – another couple vehicles stopped together.  Yes, it was a pair of lions, and not only that, but further back in the bush, barely visible through the trees, they had a fresh kill.  One lion was resting in the shade of the tree, whilst another was having a bite to eat.

Of course, after savouring the fact that we’d finally found our lions, we couldn’t stay too long as we needed to get back on the road.  Most of the drive was back the way we’d come, along the main Nairobi-Mombasa highway.  I quickly appreciated how lucky I was to have slept most of the way down, because the constant ‘truck overtaking truck with another truck bearing down upon you in the opposite lane and then the van in front slamming its brakes on, or suddenly cutting in front of you to join in the overtaking fun’ was rather nervewracking.  To be fair, it was not quite as spectacular as the driving we experienced in India, but it came a close second.  Eventually I distracted myself by burying my nose in the Sunday newspaper, and used the opportunity to find out a bit more about Kenyan society.

After 6 hours of so of driving we arrived at Amboseli.  We were held up at the gate to the park for a while whilst Peter organized our entry.  Mum and I waited in the van and were quickly surrounded by people determined to sell us beadwork and odd trinkets.  They were very persistent, and we got rather fed up as they wouldn’t leave us alone, no matter how many times we said we weren’t going to buy anything.

The park itself is totally different from Tsavo East – a very open and much drier landscape.  There are a number of lakes, and swampy areas which are fed by the run off from snow melt from Kilimanjaro.  The advantage is that it’s much easier to spot the wildlife, but the scenery is rather less appealing, especially when Kilimanjaro is hidden by clouds.

The park is home to some wildebeest herds – the first we’ve seen since we’ve been here, and there are also quite a few zebra.  Because of the swamps, there are a lot of water birds here, including many types of heron.  After spending 5 days looking at red elephants in Tsavo, it was actually a bit of a surprise to see grey ones here!

The elephants here are far more relaxed around people than in Tsavo, and will happily stand very close to the road.  We’d hardly been driving for any time on this afternoon’s safari before we came across a small herd, waiting for us at a crossroads.  They obviously weren’t in a hurry, because the smallest decided to lie down for a nap.

After spending some time with the elephants, we decided that it was time again to concentrate our efforts on the lions.  It hardly took anytime at all before Peter spotted one, and we raced in closer.  Unlike Tsavo where we hardly saw any other traffic, there was a constant stream of vehicles stopping, looking and continuing in the time we spent with the lions.  We’d found a pride of 8, and we stayed for about an hour and a half, watching the lions slowly wake up and become more active as the light faded.  Whilst we were waiting, we were watching the wildebeest in the area, one of whom was slowly wandering towards the water and the waiting lions.  After a while, one of the lions, we assume the boss lioness, left the rest behind and started stalking the wildebeest.  It was amazing to watch her, but as the light faded it became harder and harder to see her.  Eventually we had to leave because of the camp regulations stipulating that you have to be in camp after sunset.

Driving back to camp, we saw a huge herd of zebra streaming past us, all making their way down to the waterhole, and of course, the waiting lions.