Day 5 - Lake Naivasha to Amboseli

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We learned more throughout the day about the rift between our tour company and the camp we stayed in last night. Additional knowledge helped us get past the occurrence and focus on the up and coming.

We hit lots of traffic on our drive to Amboseli so travel was slow. Trucks are the only way to move goods in the country and there are few main roads, leading to tons of traffic. When we got to Nairobi, we traveled that same beat up dirt road to get around Nairobi I mentioned on the first day. I asked Francis if the government would eventually just build in to the national park since all these new buildings were there. He said the people had voted and decided the buildings must go and the highway would not be allowed to take land from the park. He said Kenyans were well aware of the ripple effect by taking park land for this road and wouldn't allow that to happen. Fascinating.

We had a lunch of 1/4 chicken with french fries for $4.50. In Peru that same meal was closer to $1. Kenya isn't on par with Chile and Argentina but is closer economically to those than Peru and Ecuador. Although the poor in Kenya are every bit as poor as the poor in Peru.

We further discussed the American Hunter incident. Sarah said I didn't do a good job making my point in the other blog so I might need to revisit, but not today.

Francis gave us even more information about some of the lions in Maasai Mara. There are 4 male lions, brothers, who are of particular interest. 3 of the 4 we saw close to the river on our day long drive. The 4th was the bigger of the two we saw two mornings ago, the bigger of the males that were awake and playing. Typically there is one male that rules the pride. But these four, for reasons nobody knows, coexist peacefully. They have never been seen fighting. The scenario is concerning as collectively these four should be able to take down any other pride.

Under normal circumstances one dominant male will fight another dominant male for women and territory so that is normal. But with these four being united and brothers, there is concern with them taking over Maasai Mara and causing major issues with the genetic diversity.

One or two of the four got in to a fight with the big male who rules over the huge pride we saw yesterday morning. That male was injured in that fight but did fend them off. Francis was concerned that if the four came back together they would finish him off without a problem and the large 4 would then have a huge territory.

You could tell Francis has a deep passion for these animals and it is fascinating to learn from him. Also, the more I learn the more I appreciate the Lion King story. Disney did an incredible job rooting that story in fact.

Francis also told us more about the Cheetah. The big male we saw was one of two brothers, the oldest and biggest in the park. He just learned that the other brother had just died three weeks ago due to disease close to where we saw the other brother. He said the American Cheetah woman is trying to figure out what the disease was that caused the death to see if it will impact the other Cheetah.

Nairobi is working on building a railway and it is under construction on the highway heading out of Nairobi that we drove. The amount of development going on is unreal.

After turning off the main highway to head to Amboseli things calmed down a bit. No more trucks and traffic. Rather a wide open road with open savannah stretched out in all directions. It is weird to see zebra and other wildlife out in the fields with the goats and cattle.

We arrived in Amboseli and had to drive through the park to get to our lodge on the other side. Amboseli is much more desert like than Maasai Mara. How does anything survive here, let alone giant mammals? We came across a big group of Elephants. Francis taught us that Elephants mourn a death. In an almost ritualistic show, they will circle the dead elephant with their trunks held high and let out sounds of sadness. He said even after the body is gone and there are just bones left the animals will pay their respects when they come across the bones by touching the bones with their trunk. The babies who never even knew the deceased would also pay their respects. Wild.

He also taught us that Elephants lose their tusks every 10 years and the next set grows back in bigger than the last. Elephant poaching is a major problem across Africa. In Tanzania the population has gone from around 100,000 to around 40,000 in the last 10 years. The Chinese in particular have created a strong market for the tusks. They believe the ivory is good luck and having ivory is a sign of status and wealth. They even eat the ivory. Just recently a Chinese woman was arrested in Tanzania. She had been facilitating poachers and exporting tusks. Tanzania is charging her for moving around 700 tusks and that value is astronomical. It is really sad that these great animals are being driven to extinction because of superstition.

I asked Francis if the park gathers up the tusks when the elephants lose them. He said you would never find them. The Elephants hide the tusks as soon as they fall out. Other elephants will even take the tusks from a dead elephant and hide them. I have to wonder if that is a learned trait based on all the poaching?

We got our answer to how these mammals survive in this harsh environment. Amboseli is at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro and there are springs created at the base of the mountain. There are huge marsh/lake areas that provide plenty of water to the animals. It was interesting to see the elephants and buffalo up to their chests in the marsh.

We saw a very full hyena with its belly hanging to the ground leaving a buffalo carcass. We also saw tons of water birds and a Kingisher. We had a group of Elephants trying to cross the road and the vans were in the way. They were confused about what to do and you could them considering their options. Eventually a van moved and they were able to cross. We were really able to understand their size when they crossed the road next to the vans. They are enormous animals.

As we continued in the park we drove through some lodge areas and saw a helicopter with its propeller spinning. There were also lots of national police. Turns out the First Lady of Kenya was visiting the park. She sounds like an impressive woman and is well respected. She seems to have done more than any previous first lady. She was in Amboseli to campaign against elephant poaching and women's empowerment, such as health care and lending.

We closed out the evening game drive with a really funny scene of a hyena chasing a plastic bag.

We arrived at Kibo Safari Camp just outside of the park. The camp was super high end, even nicer than our place in Maasai Mara. After some annoyances, that I won't get in to here, we were able to have a fantastic dinner and settle down for the night in a very comfortable room.

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