Last stop, Amboseli

Our final safari destination was Amboseli National Park. It started with a daunting day-long drive from Lake Nakuru leaving at 7:30am, through Nairobi, and finally arriving at Amboseli in the late afternoon.

Amboseli is renowned for elephants, and we expected to see heaps. When we finally arrived, our guide explained that numbers were down because of the drought the previous year. After missing out on the genuine flamingo experience, once we heard this we were prepared to be disappointed. But we couldn't have been more wrong.

Within minutes of arriving, we were confronted by a mass migration of elephants. There are around 250 in total, and they crossed the tracks mere metres from our van. Having spotted 1 elephant there, 5 elephants here in Masai Mara, this was an unbelievable experience and probably the highlight of the whole safari.

The Sopa Lodge was swarming with really playful monkeys. Our first evening, we watched a couple of monkeys wrestling each other and this other one below casually kicking back and enjoying the action.

The next day we headed out for another game drive. We saw heaps of elephants, zebras, hippos, gazelles, warthogs, hyenas, and various cool-looking birds.

After lunch, everyone was pretty worn out and we retired to the lodge. The monkeys provided more entertainment, this time hurling themselves from the tops of trees and grabbing the lowest branch on the way down, which would bend down and slingshot them back into the air. Really fun to watch.

Amboseli provides great views of Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. We were told not to leave without getting a photo of an elephant in front of it, but throughout our stay the peak was submerged in cloud cover and eluded us. But as luck would have it, once we'd left and were on our way home, the clouds lifted and we passed a few rogue elephants. We got our shot!

With our safari finally complete, we headed back to Nairobi for 1 more night in a resort before departing. I left for home, and Liz headed for Paris!

Overall, Amboseli was the highlight of the safari for me. The experience with 250 elephants was breathtaking. And while it didn't seem that there was much new at the time, that was because it was the last park we visited. The only animals we didn't see at Amboseli were lions, and the volume of most animals were more than the other parks.

Chris

Naivasha and Lake Nakuru

It was going to be a long (6 hour) drive to Lake Nakuru, so we opted to break up the journey and stop at Lake Naivasha to visit some hippos and do some bird watching.

We set off on a tiny boat and almost immediately ran into water hippos, who were clearly cooling down. They were submerged in the water, except their eyes!

A few hours later, we arrived at Lake Nakuru to see the flamingos. Unfortunately, due to the drought in Kenya, the flamingo numbers were down and there were not as many flamingos and we were expecting to see. They are the pink birds in the distance...

 

However, we definitely caught a good glimpse of a few white rhinos, including a baby rhino.

and there were a ton of baboons all around our hotel and the rooms.








We wrapped up the day with a beautiful sunset...

  

On Safari at the Masai Mara

On Sunday, 31st Jan, we began part 2 of our African adventure - we started our safari.

1st stop: Masai Mara National Park (in the west of Kenya, bordering Tanzania)

Departing Nairobi, we set off on a 6 hour drive to the Masai Mara. We arrived at our lodge, Mara Sopa Lodge, located inside the National Park. The lodge was so African in everyway and simply stunning. We enjoyed our 1st hot shower in ages and a nice mosquito net surrounded our bed. At sun set, we set off on our 1st safari.

We immediately spotted gazelles and zebras. The gazelles and the impallas are so graceful. And the zebra is just so funky looking against the wilderness backdrop. We immediately came upon a lion, resting in the shade.

 

There were impalas and gazelles everywhere; and we also came across a herd of giraffes just chillin' out!

   

The next morning, we were up at 4.30am to do a Balloon Safari over the Masai Mara. A few dramas with the balloon company later, we were gently floating above the national park and spotting more lions, zebras, warthogs, elephants and a ton of giraffes. The view from above was simply breathtaking, and definitely allowed for a very different view of the Masai Mara, as compared to the ground view. 

We wrapped up our balloon adventure with a champagne breakfast in the Masai Mara. Yep, a nice breakfast  right in the middle of the game park. I do appreciate that a herd of animals could have come upon us and had a nice breakfast of their own. But still, the experience was sensational!

Lastly, we wrapped up with a visit to a Masai village. They gave us a tour of their home, which is made of sticks and cow dung (yep, cow dung!). The men hunt and protect and the women build the homes. Very interesting experience walking through a home made entirely of cow dung.

  

Next stop: Lake Nakuru National Park.

~liz