Amboseli

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Amboseli is famous for its enormous herds of elephants and it has a magnificent view of Mt. Kilimanjaro whenever she chooses to show herself. Often, she hides in the clouds and haze as she did when we arrived. I have a picture of Greg and Lizzie with the mountain behind them. Unfortunately the mountain chose to hide from the camera. It’s right behind them. Here’s the picture anyway.


The elephants, though, don’t hide well and on our first drive they were around as were Wildebeest, Thompson’s Gazelle, Grant’s Gazelle, Impala, Zebra, Buffalo, Hippos, Jackals, Ostrich and a zillion kinds of birds, including Flamingos, Egyptian Geese, falcons, herons - we were overwhelmed. The place teemed with animals. But if you asked me, as our guide, Godfrey did, to say a single word that describes Amboseli, I’d probably say, as I did then, “desert.” But the second word that comes to mind when thinking about the topography of Amboseli is “swamp.” So, desert and swamp, all in the same 232 square kilometers. It is not like what Africa looks like in National Geographic. The animals are there but there are no vast savannahs. The ground is almost white with a salty soil where trees struggle to survive. Amboseli was at some time an ocean, but when Kilimanjaro rose up the sea drained and what was left was a 232 square kilometer ocean bottom. There is salt in the earth that leaches out during heavy rains and this salt keeps large trees, trees that have deep tap roots, from thriving. But there are also a few streams and adjacent to them, swampy areas that provide the necessary water and vegetation for the herbivores. Here are two pictures of elephants in the desert and in the swamp. These photos were taken about a quarter of a mile apart.




Of course, where there are herbivores, there are carnivores and remember, this is our first full day in Africa. The first one we saw was a spotted hyena. As we drove the dusty road we came upon an entire family sleeping in and around some limestone caves. It’s hard to call them anything but nasty. They just aren’t cute. Even the babies are nasty looking, but they sure do clean up messes. After the big cats finish, they take over. When an animal is sick, injured or just dies of old age (not a common experience), they clean up. When too many babies are produced, they take out the overpopulation. I’ve heard some Republicans compare the Hyenas to Obamacare. I’ve also heard it said that this insults Hyenas.



As we continued down the dusty roads we looked into the distance and except for right around our vehicle, where the dust from our driving has surrounded us, the air has cleared. Popping through the clouds scattered clouds was the snow covered peak of the 19,000 foot Mt. Kilimanjaro. The desert and the swamp become almost irrelevant. Now, we were seeing both elephants and the mountain. Spectacular! This is what Amboseli is famous for. Now I don’t have a picture of the mountain but Fran does. Ask her for it if you’d like to see it.


Our accommodations were at Tortillis Camp. It’s a beautiful “tented” camp, but it’s not roughing it. The tents are better than most of the new condos on South Beach. Check them out on the web. Google Tortillis Camp Amboseli. At Tortillis,


After lunch we laid down for a nap. Soon, Fran got to see her first African Dic Dic. She was very impressed. She told everyone about it. They seemed embarrassed by how excited she was as Dic Dics are very common in Africa. She was surprised by how large it was. What did she think it was, a Kudu?


After our afternoon drive we relaxed, looked out behind Tortillis to the watering hole. Dozens of elephants came to drink. A troop of baboons joined them. We had cocktails in 70 degree air and watched the sun come down. Then dinner. The food at Tortillis was good. The wine, not so. We adopted a new strategy; Gin and Tonic. The tonic is good for malaria. The gin is good for everything else.


The next day we saw more elephants. More of everything. I don’t mean to sound bored. I wasn’t. Each situation was interesting and beautiful and there were surprises; elephants wallowing up to their eyeballs in the swamp, baby hyenas, baby elephants, and baby antelope. But the big surprise was at the edge of the park as we were returning for dinner. We came across our first two lions, a young male and female, and guess what they were doing. They had no interest in us as they seemed to be in the middle of their six day sex marathon. Apparently they do it a lot, every 15 minutes at first, and then, on the sixth day about every hour. My guess was they were about four days into it. He was looking a bit weary; she was busy filing her nails and yawning. These were not the biggest or healthiest looking lions that I’ve seen, but maybe they were the happiest. No lion pictures here. Not that I don’t have them. I just have better ones that we will see in later chapters.

That evening we took a walk to a Maasai village. We had a guard, a young Maasai named Jonathan. He carried a spear for protection, ours, not his, we hoped. He spoke English perfectly but was 100% Maasai and has always lived in a village, the Maasai way. He took us to his old village which was abandoned. They leave and build new village every year or so. Why? At night they keep their cattle, sheep and goats in the village. After a year or so the dung piles so high they can’t get in their houses, which, by the way are made from wood and dung. It was a fun walk and Jonathan was really smart. He did want to know if I had animals and when I told him about my dogs he looked at me as if I were crazy. He meant real animals. Jonathan was very bright. His English was perfect. He has not been to school, or, to a shower. But he was a wonderful guard and guide and we wish him well.

More tomorrow

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