Day 4 - Amboseli

Woke up to complete silence apart from some crickets making a bit of noise.

The area around the lodge has a bunch of residential inhabitants. Cute as they may be they're rather cheeky.

They'll take any opportunity to steal something edible if you happen to leave it.
Our son was walking with a few biscuits in his hand, closely watched and followed by a few of these monkeys. I told him that the monkeys probably planned to steal his biscuits so he promptly ate them all, causing the monkeys to loose interest in him and wonder off.

Remember I told we yesterday were greeted by a really tall guy? Our son immediately grew really fond of him and even picked a few flowers in the morning to present to him.

Immediately after breakfast we went back into the reserve. Giraffes immediately greeted us welcome back.

Not far into the game reserve we ran into a little morning traffic congestion. A bunch of elephants blocked the road as they had the breakfast. In fact we found ourselves surrounded by them. Not that I ever felt concerned, they did not show any aggression towards us.

Traveling around the area during the day making wondrous encounters with the wild life.

We drew up to a vantage point in the midst of the marshes of Amboseli.

Here one really got an understanding of how flat the lands are.

No pictures nor text will ever be able to give justice to the experiences we made that day.

As we slowly made our way to the exit of the area I thought I'd shoot a bit of film to capture the surroundings. We then suddenly encountered a smaller herd of elephants. Pretty immediately one of the older bulls decided to show who was the king of the road.

 

There was never any real danger or at least I didn't feel afraid but we did get to back up the car a few times as the bull advanced on us.

Those few minutes gave life lasting memories.

It's was a battle worn and hardened bull that wouldn't had any problems tipping our car should he have wanted.

Later that night after dinner we decided to just stay around the bar area to enjoy the marvelous evening and try to digest all the impressions we made during the day.

At that point our tall friend and the lodge came out with a fishing rod and some bait. He then taught our son how to fish in the pond they had on the area.

Guess if the "tall guy" went from liked to loved by our kids.

Another day drew to an end as we yet again crashed into bed.

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.

Day 2 - Nairobi

Accompanied by the church bell across the street, the African sun greeted us to our first day in Kenya.

One might mention that hotel we was ok from room standard point of view, nothing over the top. But the breakfast was one of the best I've had. A nice selection of almost everything you can imagine and added to that typical Kenyan dishes. The kids absolutely loved the samosas they served.

Our first day would take us to the rather famous elephant orphanage in Nairobi as well as the giraffe center. Finalizing the day with a dinner at perhaps Kenya's most famous restaurant Carnivore.

The traffic in Nairobi is at it's best called unorganized though mostly I'd call it chaotic.
Fortunately we had our driver Ian to take us around. But to be honest it's nothing compared to India, the Kenyans at least have the common sense not to constantly use the signaling/car horn.

It was now we got our first exposure to the wild life. Marabou storks occupy many of the larger trees, waiting for an opportunity to finds something edible.

Marabou storks

A bunch of baboons were rummaging through waste bins for breakfast.
In fact this is probably what makes Nairobi so special. It's built around the wild life, animals and trees seem to thrive in the capital. Most western cities do the opposite, we  bring in a bit of green by building artificial parks.

The elephant orphanage is worth a visit as well as purchasing some souvenir in their shop. All money goes to the trust dedicated to protecting elephants.
The little baby elephants are adorable and you'll have the possibility to greet them and even touch them.
Their daily visiting hour is limited in time and people allowed in to the area. The reason is to limit the exposure to humans to ease their return to the wild.

The giraffe center is a rather small establishment operated by a trust dedicated to preserving the giraffe. The fun thing here is that one can feed the giraffe. Got a bit of education as well, didn't know there were three sub-species of the giraffe.
Besides that feeding giraffes was a rather odd experience.

These hop-on-off buses seem to traffic all over the major towns in Kenya. They run by no schedule nor do they have fixed stops but seem to have some fixed routes. People hop on and pay a fare and then hop off where they desire. Whilst it might seem rather unorganized I do find it a rather efficient way of transporting large amounts of people. 

Back to the hotel for a bit of lazy afternoon and prepping for the food carnage to come.

Jumped into the pool hoping to cool down a bit, but no luck there. No idea how warm the pool was but I'd say at least 30 centigrade. At home we need to warm up our pools, they do have the quite opposite problem.

Evening came and Ian picked us up to drive us to the much famous Carnivore restaurant.

The first thing one notes when entering the establishment is the gigantic barbecue best described as something out of Dantes Inferno. Hellishly hot when walking by it, wonder how anyone can work there. It was like a smelting furnace.

Hotter than hell

We decided to take it out doors as the nights are warm.
A slightly surreal feeling came to me when realizing there were small monkeys running on the roof and climbing in the trees. The wild life is never far in Nairobi.

At the table awaited us cutlery suited to take down larger animals.

Prepped for action

The table was prepped with various dips and sauces. Also note the little flag on top of the sauce tray. As the waiter explained "Eat until you surrender"....

By dropping the flag one "surrenders", up until then they will keep serving food.
You'll be first served a light vegetable soup but from there the veggies stop...it's all about meat...lots of meat. A vegetarian hell one might say.
They'll walk around with huge skewers with meat on them and ask you if you want a taster. That's how it continues until one "surrenders".
At the end of the night I felt like a lion that refused to give up on the kill and just kept eating.