Amboseli

After Lake Nakuru, we went back to Nairobi to have lunch at the home stay where I spent my first two nights in Kenya. The food throughout the trip was really good and I've probably eaten more vegetables than during the rest of my life :). 

After lunch we headed to Amboseli national park, just me and the driver/guide in our big van. Since it was just me, I got upgraded to a lodge so the cook didn't need to come along. The safari lodge was again tents but these were nice tents. I had a double bed, porch with chairs, table, sink, shower and toilet. Electricity was available 5:30-8am and 6-10:30pm. There was a pool, although it was freezing cold :). The food was not quite as good as Elijah's (cook). One night I decided to forgo dinner and they came around to check that I was okay and didn't I want to eat. It was very nice. 

Amboseli is different in that has lots and lots of elephants. And big ones too! The ground is much drier except for a swath through the middle fed by underground springs/runoff from Mt Kilimanjaro (a volcano that my crazy friends Stephanie and Cindy climbed a couple years ago). 

In fact, the land previously was more of a lush forest but the water levels changed way back when and it changed the vegetation and animals in it. Not really any rhinos here. We saw lots of elephants, playing, eating and bathing. We saw some female lions from a distance. Some hyena, vultures, and hippos from the distance that actually got out of the water! There was an eagle eating another bird. And one of my favorite highlights the last morning before we left we saw two cheetah! I didn't think I'd get to see these cats. 

Amboseli had a very bad drought in 2008 and 80% of the animal population was wiped out. It is slowly starting to grow again. 

We watched as some elephants and hippos almost had it out. The elephants wanted in the water that the hippos already claimed. We watched it all through binoculars. Thankfully my guide had some I could borrow. It was neat just to be an observer. 

Here are some pics of the animals:

Elephant crossing

A lone hyena, we did see two the day before and it looked like they were carrying pups in their mouth but you could only see them with the binoculars 

The two cheetahs walking toward the trees....if you can find them :)

Lots of ostrich running around

Crown cranes flying in

A look at Amboseli from a hill in the middle

You can see the green change to brown. There are two hippos out in the middle and some elephants wading through the swamp/bog.

An eagle with lunch

An elephant with Mt Kilimanjaro as a backdrop

Lazy baboon