Amboseli - day 1

We were up at 5am, had breakfast at 5.30am and were ready for our pick up at 6am - an early start after little sleep! However, coffee and excitement soon overcame our tiredness and when we took off in the little plane for our flight to Amboseli it was all rather thrilling, flying low over the Nairobi National Park which is right in the city where we had great views and could spot the animals below us. When we landed at Amboseli 35 minutes later we were greeted by our smiling Masai guide, who served us coffee and snacks next to the safari vehicle which was parked just off the runway - I am loving this African way of doing things!

We then set off on a game drive en route to the camp. Within minutes we spotted wildebeest, hyena, buffalo, zebra, gazelle and of course many elephants. Amboseli is known for its large elephant population and of course its views of Kilimanjaro (when it is not shrouded in clouds). We are staying at a lovely camp which was only built in 1994 when the Masai people who own the land gave it to the Cheleni family as they could be trusted to build an eco-friendly camp instead of the 200 bed hotel that was originally planned. It is run on solar power and everything is done in the best ecological way possible, and was the first boutique eco-lodge in Kenya.

The camp has its own watering hole and sitting on the verandah watching the never ending parade of animals coming to drink is wonderful - elephants, baboons, gazelle being the most numerous. I have been surprised at the number of birds we have seen and also the numerous butterflies - the latter being particularly unexpected as Amboseli is very dry and dusty, with almost desert like conditions.

After a delicious lunch we lazed around on the verandah enjoying a cappuccino (soya milk provided for me) before setting off on our game drive at 4pm. Our guide is very knowledgeable and he will be our guide for the whole time of our 3 day stay here.


We met our guide again at 4pm for the evening game drive. Wow, it surpassed our expectations - he found us a lioness with her four cubs, we then went to the stream which is the only green area in this conservancy (melted snow from Mount Kilimanjaro) where we saw elephants bathing in the swampy marsh against a backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro. The best for me was when a very timid giraffe came down to drink - it took ages to come as it was wary of our vehicle, but I loved seeing it against the setting sun, so this had to be my blip today. Then we dashed back to see the lioness against the sunset, we found the male lion - a real lazy thing, we drove right next to him and he did not budge. It was an incredible, what a day!


I had such a choice of images today, I have added some as extras. Tomorrow we are meeting our guide at 6.30am and we are having a bush breakfast mid way through our game drive which will be a real treat.