Africa Safari: Part III - Amboseli National Park, Kenya

After a wonderful three nights at Tsavo West National Park and the beautiful waterhole overlook, we hit the back roads out of the park. There is a shortcut through Maasai-land to get from Tsavo to Amboseli National Park. I was very excited for the guests to see a totally different environment.

African Safari Part 1
African Safari Part 2

Tsavo is covered in dry bushland and rocky hills, while Amboseli is more open, dry plains, with a central wetlands. The marshy wetlands are actually springs caused by the runoff and meltoff from nearby Mt. Kilimanjaro. The surrounding area is quite dry, making the marshes into a lush oasis for wildlife. While the park boundaries make Amboseli one of the smaller parks in Kenya, it is home to uncountable numbers of wildlife. It is not uncommon to see herds of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, elephants, gazelles, and buffalo from the foreground all the way through the background of your view. Pink flamingos dot the marshes, and hippos share the water with bathing elephants enjoying the cooldown.

And with all of these herds you also get a chance to see some of the big predators. We spent three nights at the Amboseli Serena Lodge, and ended up seeing lions multiple times, feeding hyenas, and cheetahs as well. "Amboseli" comes from a Masai word meaning "salty dust." Away from the lush marsh, the landscape is so dusty that the animals kick up a cloud of dust everytime they take a step. It permeates in the air, and in the safari vehicle, so a buff to cover you mouth and nose while on safari here is a must. I will say that while the dust is hard on your camera gear, it does proved some amazing sunset and sunrises.

We continued our usual safari schedule of an early morning game drive, breakfast, lunch, afternoon game drive, and then dinner. I did introduce the group to a relatively unknown South African wine variety called pinotage, and it quickly became everyones favorite.

Our lion sightings were very exciting since they were the first lions for our group, and the final of the 'Big 5' animals that we needed. The 'Big 5' include lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino, and elephant. Why is the giraffe not included you may ask? Well, the 'Big 5' is a term left over from the days of the Great White Hunter. In those days, these were the 5 animals that if you shot but didn't kill, they could charge you and kill you.

Much like in Tsavo, one of our biggest sightings at this park turned out to be a family of cheetah. We found a mom with four cubs who provided us with no end of excitement and entertainment. While the cubs were not necessarily very young, they still had youthful energy to wrestle with each other and climb anything they could. So I thought I would start the pictures below with a couple from our cheetah encounter in Amboseli National Park.

Two cheetah siblings take a break from wrestling to pose for a photo

A cheetah playground. Can you find it?

Early morning light over the plains in Amboseli

A spotted hyena walks back to the den after a night of mischief

I took this shot early in the morning, on my way for coffee before our morning game drive. Amboseli Serena Lodge

After a dusty drive through Masai-land we made it to the entrance of Amboseli National Park in Kenya.

Getting all moved into our new base of safari.

In between sightings of big game, there are hundreds of bird species to take not of, like this little bee eater.

The alkaline lake here is perfect habitat from lesser and greater flamingos.

Bigger animals, like this Cape Buffalo, also enjoy a cooldown in the marshes of Amboseli.

You can check out the location here on pinmapple.com:
[//]:# (!pinmapple -2.644199 lat 37.271022 long Amboseli Safari d3scr)

Lots more to come from my African safari!
-Dai Mar