Amboseli
July 1-3, 2009
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Onto Mt Kenya
The drive to Amboseli is a long
one on a poor washed out gravel road. The park is right on the
Kenya-Tanzania border, with the backdrop of Kilimanjaro providing
unique picture opportunities. Most of the park is extremely dry
and dusty (dust got everywhere through the car and on all of our
stuff), but there is a system of swamps where all of the animals
group together to feed. In the other parks, the animals stay pretty
well separated (eg. the elephants hate the burping sounds that
wildebeest make, so they stay far away). Due to the single feeding
ground in Amboseli, all of the animals are pretty much forced to
live together, and it makes them easier to see.
On the second day, there were several highlights apart from the
usual animal viewing. Seeing a cheetah and a jackal play tug-of-war
with an impala carcass was certainly an interesting experience. A
lonely cheetah also climbed on a tree trying to hunt impala, not
soon after which we saw a lionness that was hiding in tall grass
trying to hunt zebra. We watched for an hour as it waited for the
whole herd to pass and attempted to snatch the baby zebra at the
back, but was not successful as the others noticed and turned to
protect the young.
Another thing that made Amboseli unique was that we camped in our
own tent, in a campground that was not really separated from the
actual park. This meant that animals could come into the campground,
and we were warned that there was a trouble-making elephant that we
should watch out for at night. The big piles of elephant poo metres
away from our tent sites were proof of that, too.
On the last night of our safari, we were also treated to some
excellent sunset picture opportunities. The next morning we had a
final game drive before returning to Nairobi, where we made it to
our hotel and finally could take a real shower. Two days later,
we embarked on the next leg of our journey, Mt Kenya! After sitting in
planes and then a car for a week, we were very much looking
forward to getting some exercise...
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Kilimanjaro in the morning |
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Lion trying to hunt zebra |
Baby zebra for breakfast? |
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Cheetah-jackal tug-of-war |
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Elephants and Kilimanjaro |
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Chilling in our campsite |
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Our kitchen |
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