Day 3 - Nairobi -> Amboseli

On the road

Day 3 dawns and we prepare to travel to Amboseli and the Amboseli Sopa Lodge.
Traffic is as always rather dense on this so called main road. Heavy trucks haul goods from Mombasa to Nairobi and even further west to other neighboring countries.

Every now and then one encounters a cement factory. As it seems Kenya is experiencing a rapid building boom and to facilitate all ongoing construction sites cement factories pop up like mushrooms in rain.

Wherever there's factories, there's job opportunities. Small communities harboring the workers for the factories just spring up from nowhere. With little planning and money they tend to become shanty towns.

Whenever entering smaller communities there tends to be road bumps. I guess to lower the speed of the vehicles in populated areas. Industrious individuals have figured out how to make money on all the passing traffic. They sell various goods such as water and fruits directly through the window of your car.

As always the wild life is with you wherever you look. Zebras and giraffes roam around completely oblivious to the people and the traffic.


As we approach the Amboseli area we're getting very close to the Tanzanian border which becomes very evident as Mt. Kilimanjaro towers in the distance. The mountain would for the next few days be a familiar sight.

Hot and dry as it is dust devils are a very common sight.
A few days later we got hit by one at the lodge causing towels and chairs to be thrown around.

The lodge

Finally arriving at the lodge we where greeted by what has to be one of the tallest guys I've met in a while, more on him a bit later. Wet towels soaked in acacia really does wonders to freshen up.

A quick walk around at the lodge before dip into the lagoon like pool to cool down a bit.

All cabins are spread over an area hence there's no feel of being crowded.

Our cabin

First safari

Later that afternoon it was time to travel into the Amboseli reserve and go on our first safari.

As always Ian picked us up.

Pretty immediately when we entered the reserve we spotted various gazelles.

But the thing that really shook us was the staggering amount of elephants there were in the area.

There's an abundant amount of water in the thanks to the closeness to Mt. Kilimanjaro which has caused a rather great amount of elephants to stay around in the area.

At first we saw them on bit of distance.

But as we traveled around we encountered them everywhere.

Dusk was upon us and we had to leave the park. The sun sets rather quickly and we found ourselves driving in the darkness. Just some twenty meters ahead of us a giraffe walked into the road causing Ian to step on the breaks.

Wildlife is everywhere and one has to pay attention wherever one drives. 

After a dinner at the lodge and a small drink at the bar while the kids spent the last of their energy and the entire family crashed into bed.