I had the great fortune of visiting the
Amboseli National Park last weekend for a wildlife safari. Amboseli is about 237km south from where we are staying in Karen, and just north of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Tanzania border. Our tour driver, George, picked us up Friday and drove us to the park. We mostly drove on Kenya's main highway between Nairobi and the port town of Mombasa. It was a pretty decent road, but crowded with trucks hauling containers. The trucks use the road because the only train tracks between the cities were built by the British in the late 1800's and cannot manage the weight. There is a plan in place for a new rail system, which is all set to go pending government funding.
One interesting item about the drive was, the trucks move very slow and most of the highway is only one lane in each direction. If you get stuck behind a slow truck, you play chicken and move into the other lane to pass him. Now, in the US you can manage this pretty easily due to the power most vehicles have, but in Kenya, most engines are small and do not accelerate quickly. Needless to say, there were a few close calls, but George had everything under control.
Now, back to Amboseli. We stayed in the
Ol Tukai Lodge which was very nice. We were able to see three of Kenya's "Big 5" animals, including elephants, cape buffalo's and lions. Additionally, we saw cheetahs, wildebeests, hippos, a puff adder, gazelles, antelopes, baboons, and other monkeys. The "Big 5" refers to the African lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and Cape buffalo.
The term "big five" was actually coined by big game hunters and it refers to the difficulty in bagging these large
animals, mostly due to their ferocity when cornered and shot at.
Enjoy the photos...
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| He's waiting to get into his room... |
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| One of the Big 5 |
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| A Cheetah for my son John Paul |
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| One of the Big 5 | | |
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| One of the Big 5 |
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