Amboseli (Day 12-14)

TROPICAL CATS TOURS AND SAFARIS - MOMBASA +254716006330

- 6 day tour Tsavo, Amboseli,Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha. Masai Mara

-Rating (Tour) 4/5 (Guide) 3/5

-$1650 USD a piece

Amboseli is known as the land of the gentle giants, known for the large free range families of elephants that live in this area. And it did not disappoint! Amboseli is bordered by Mt. Kilimanjaro that sits on the Tanzania side of the border but it is a giant that you can see from just about anywhere in the park.

We were very excite to get going and see all the elephants. But yet again once we made it to the park our guide brought us to the hotel, and went off to do his own thing. While we waited we sat in the bar, this hotel ran off of 100% solar power and the WiFi was only in the office and the bar.

At the start of the day the matriarch of the elephant family leads the herd to the watering hole for the day, then at the end of the day she brings them back to the safety and shade of the forest. We got to the park just as the elephants were starting to make their trip back. Our guide was really good at being able to anticipate what the elephants might do, either cross the road at a particular area or wait for the younger ones to join them. This journey must take a lot out of them, for even after spending all day at the little lake they all had to stop right next to our van in order to drink and splash some in the deep puddles along the road.

Our guide got better at trying to show us things as the trip went on and we kept asking questions, not sure if it was that his English wasn't good or if he was just that lazy but he would randomly point out the window saying things like "its out that way" or other things in the same mumbled under his breath. So when he pointed this time saying you can see it now, we looked out really excited to see what it was. Not seeing it we asked him what he was talking about he said to look above the clouds. As this evening wasn't to over cast as we were looking up we were greeted to Mt Kilimanjaro making its appearance amongst the clouds. Right when we were finally able to see this was when the elephants finished crossing the street and I was able to get some amazing pictures of them crossing right in front of it!

Our original tour consisted of going to Tsavo, Amboseli, Devils Canyon, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru and Masi Mara. Driving from the coast to Nairobi in 6 days, we were talking to our guide about how much my sister loved elephants and how we were so excited we got to see so many. He asked us if we wanted to spend another night in Amboseli since we had already been to the lakes at the beginning of our trip. We quickly agreed and we went back to the hotel for the night. The resort has a really cute dinning room, most of our meals at these resorts were buffet style and this was no exception. We loaded up our plates and took our meal outside to the patio, being the end of the rainy season not all the tables were set up but they had a fire going outside and we got to be away from the large crowds that were funneling in for the Chinese new year. (Kenya is a very popular travel location for people in China, the Chinese have been developing there for years and the families of theses people started this tradition years before while coming to visit their loved ones.)

We decided to spend all of the next day in Amboseli, getting to see Mt Kilimanjaro again with out much cloud coverage. We didn't go out first thing like we would of wanted due to waiting for our guide again. Though we still got to see a lot of animals when we did go out. Starting off with a lone cheetah that was hunting, lots of baboons and antelopes. This is where we got to see the Kori Bustard for the first time as well, the second heaviest flying bird in the world. We got to see hyenas and buffalo too and fallowed another family of elephants around.

For lunch we got a baged lunch from the hotel, we got to take ours up to the top of Enameshera observation hill. On the way up we passed a little river where there were hippos outside of the water grazing during the middle of the day! The hike up wasn't bad, slightly steep but not hard to get up. The observation center had information all around the walls talking about Kenya and its animals. While we were up there we were greeted by a cute little yellow bird who was very heath conscience and didn't want the bread we offered it. We saw this as the perfect spot to spread the rest of my sisters ashes, over looking the park and being able to be around the elephants and all the other animals in this amazing park.

After coming back down I went to the van to get a different shirt, the day got much hotter as it went on. Our guide parked on a slight hill and when I tried to open the door (having to smack on it and pull at the same time) I slipped down the hill under the van scrapping my knee really bad. Which leads to one of my suggestions of what to make sure you always have when traveling, your own first aid kit. When we booked our tour it said that first aid kids were available, this little fall proved that wrong. Luckily I had a few band-aids with us and some spray hand sanitizer that I used to sanitize my leg the best I could.

We stayed out tell a little after noon, tell it got hot out and it was harder to see any animals. That and my knee was really hurting, so we went back to the hotel. The night before we scheduled to have a massage when we got back. So after a early dinner I got a full body massage and my mom go a foot and leg massage. In the morning I woke up with bumps all over my legs and some on my arms, I thought I was having an allergic reaction to the something from the massage. Turns out after video chatting a doctor friend of ours that I got attacked by bed bugs. We used a bug spray that you put on your clothes that are good for so many washes and weeks after putting it on. You could tell exactly where my night gown hit my legs by where they didn't get me. In the morning none of the power was working due to everything including the WiFi running off of solar power. Because of this we had to pay cash for our charges, we didn't have enough and couldn't get our phones to work to download the app to pay the counter guy. So our guide paid cash for us and we paid him back once we got into town and an ATM.