Amboseli Means Dust

9-10 july 2022

Up and out to our first Amboseli game drive--much dustier here and less vegetation. There are swamps, however, created by Kilimanjaro melting (thanks to global warming). We saw giraffes and elephants crossing the road, 4 cheetahs--a mom and four cubs (but too far away for photos), ostriches, zebra, gazelle, a baby giraffe, wildebeests (eastern have white beard; the ones in Masai Mara are western), secretary birds, vultures having a snack, Egyptian geese, boho rhebok, jacana birds (the woman mates with the male and leaves him to watch the eggs and moves on to the next man), blacksmith birds (they make a noise like hitting metal) and five kinds of heron.

There were a lot of hippos here in the swamps--also elephants, zebras and gazelles playing in the water. Teddy Roosevelt and the British are largely responsible for all the parks in Kenya--without which a lot of the animals would have been overhunted. Almost (but not quite) makes up for all that colonization stuff! We learned that the "big 5" are the big 5 because they are the five most dangerous animals to meet in the wild--buffalo (#1 most dangerous), elephants, lions, leopards, and rhino.

Unfortunately, too many clouds to see Kilimanjaro today. It seems like such a tease--all those rain clouds and no rain. We learned that you can tell which zebra is the dominant male because it loses its mane and typically controls 7-12 females. We saw some hyenas popping in and out of their holes/dens--one had a baby. We learned that elephants have 6 sets of teeth, each set lasting about 10 years which is why most elephants live to about 60--they can no longer eat at that point.

Also, they block off large areas of the park from elephants so the seeds (that they would normally eat) can actually grow some vegetation...then about 10 years later they open them back up. Elephants can be very destructive to trees. We stopped and ate our lunch and relaxed until the park rangers made us keep moving.

We also saw maribou (they wait for vultures to tear a carcass up then steal pieces from them), grand gazelles and Thompson gazelles, more impalas, and then watched a secretary bird stomp on a rat and throw it into his mouth! Crazy! TONS of elephants, ostrich and zebras today.

We also went to Observation Hill (Karrie climbed the whole thing, but I just went up high enough to take a photo) and saw a ton of starlings. Amboseli is Swahili for dust--and there is a lot of it--everywhere. Also saw dust devils everywhere--dust tornados.

Some teen boys had brought their cows here to graze (which is illegal, not to mention dangerous), and later we saw them being caned for it. What we DIDN'T see were lions for the first time. Benjamin guessed they must have had a kill the night before and were sleeping it off.

Headed back to the resort about 4 and I went to the bar (open air) to have a Tusker and use the wifi--they brought me POPCORN! What a treat. Met up with our old tour folks when they arrived after a long day of driving, then had dinner and enjoyed a short Masai performance by the bonfire. One last game drive tomorrow...then back to Nairobi!

Headed out in the morning (after saying goodbyes to May and Maya who got up early to see us off) and were greeted by the same giraffe near the entrance we saw as we were leaving the night before. We also saw an area of the park that used to be a resort, but was flooded and went under literally and figuratively. Animals have taken it over--especially the velvet (blue-ball) monkeys. Saw lots of cranes (the national bird of Uganda), and sadly, a dead baby elephant. It wasn't attacked--there weren't even any vultures yet. It must have died from starvation or disease. So very sad. Benjamin had a habit of pointing out animals that looked sick and would probably die--which is not pleasant conversation--but it is real life. However...we also found a family of elephants outside of a female researcher's house (she lives in Amboseli)...and they were using the sign to scratch their butts. But still no Kilimanjaro! As Benjamin says, "Kilimanjaro is asleep."

And the Masai tribe women at the entrance of EVERY park trying to sell things! Some are incredibly aggressive. You learn very quickly to roll up windows and look straight ahead--DO NOT ENGAGE or they won't leave you alone!

I didn't ever get to see Kilimanjaro...but I did snag a piece of her. Turns out Kili is a VOLCANO!! It has been long dormant, but there is a ton of volanic rock around.

Then, time for the 4 hour drive back to Nairobi. Thanks to it being a Sunday, there wasn't as much traffic and we made good time. We stopped for our lunch at a souvenir place, then Benjamin took us directly to our Airbnb. Time for showers and a LONG night of sleep!