Amboseli National Park

This is our 3rd Safari in Kenya, each one very different, even if some of the animals are the same. Masai Mara is long dry grass, acacia trees, and the Mara River. Lake Nakuru is obviously a lake, but also the surroundings are green and jungle. Amboseli is mostly semi dessert with a large wet area in the middle. Early morning and late afternoon when air is clear, it has the backdrop of kilimanjaro.

The "fun" begins 25km before we even get to the park gate. The road is mega super awful. If you stay on it, you probably have to go at 10-15 kmh. Of course Tom our driver does not stay on the road. He drives in the V-shaped drainage at the side. There is no covering, just packed sand/earth. Tom drives this at 40-60 kmh. It's absolutely terrifying. Every 300m, he gets around obstacles by banking the car to the max left, then right. It seems to me he needs the forward momentum to stop the car landing on its side( see films in this post, which do not show the full horror).

Then we reach the park, with roads a bit better, = so bad no one in Europe would use them. At first, the park is a bit underwhelming. We do see lots of elephants and various birds. However, as time goes on, the number of animals we see dramatically increases, till at lunchtime, there are animals everywhere. It's because they all go to drink in the time window 11am to 2pm. Normally, in parks, animals drink 1st thing in the morning, but here they know it can flood, so they stay away from the water and walk to it together to have safety in numbers.

Enjoy the photos.

Of course, the trip ended with a 2nd hair raising ride. It seemed Tom went even faster, maybe because he wanted to get home. I put on Google maps to nervously watch how much more of this hell was to come . I survived in one piece, which seems to be my 2022 themeRead more