Amboseli National Park - Jan 31-Feb 1

We had a morning flight back to Arusha from the Serengeti Air Strip that necessitated our being up at 4:30, bags out by 5:00 and leaving at 6:00. Who says vacations are for sleeping in? But then, if we’d left later we would have missed this gorgeous sunrise. Here’s Larry with the plane, a single engine model seating 15.

Us with Tanzanian guides Severin and Manase

Because he was one of the tallest in the group and likes flying in small planes, Rachel asked Larry if he would mind ‘riding shotgun’ in the co-pilot’s seat. He had a great time during the flight reading the instrument panel and trying to figure out all the details. Our flight took us almost directly over the places we had already been:  the Serengeti National Park, Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater. It was quite a different sight from 9,200 feet above sea level, or about 2,000 feet above the top rim of the crater. Here are a few shots from the flight:

Over Ngorongoro Crater

We drove this road along the rim of the crater

Once back in Arusha, we boarded a small bus and drove up to the Kenyan border. Once through customs, and having been able to avoid the throng of souvenir peddlars that swarmed the area on the Kenyan side, we continued our journey into Amboseli National Park. Here we were staying at the Serena Amboseli Safari Lodge. Here are some photos of the lodge:

Our Room

 

Once settled into our rooms, we had lunch and a little free time before our afternoon game drive. We took the opportunity to sit down in the covered porch area overlooking the park, have something to drink and read our books. Rachel had previously warned us about the Vervet Monkeys that hang around the lodge and their shenanigans. There is always coffee and tea available as well as some small cakes for the guests, but the monkeys are always looking for a treat, and will not hesitate to steal the cake right off your plate. We knew this and made sure not to have any food around, but there were a few other guests who had just sat down with coffee and cakes in front of them. In less than a flash, we witnessed ‘grand theft Vervet’! In three bounds, the monkey jumped down from the roof over our heads, landed on a short stone wall, leaped across to the table and had grabbed the cake. It took him even less time than that to disappear. Now, the lodge employs Maasai men as security guards and to help keep the monkeys away from the guests (using sling shots) but even the closest one wasn’t fast enough to get the monkey to drop his stolen goods. Don’t they look cute when they’re not pilfering from the guests?

Our game drives in Amboseli started a little later in the afternoon – 4:30 – so we would have a better chance of getting animals on the move to their night-time spots, and perhaps a good view of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Well, the mountain didn’t do much more than just tease us, peeking through the clouds here and there and dropping rain on us. But we managed to see a lot of wildlife nonetheless:

Hyenas

Great Crowned Cranes mating dance

A hippo foraging. Usually they only come out of the
water at night when it is cooler but because of
the weather this guy was out early

These two Thompson's Gazelles were fighting to be
the dominant male in the group. We could hear how
hard their antlers crashed

 

Lioness and her cub walking home. She was keeping an
eye on a couple of hyenas not too far away
 

Doesn't he look a lot like little Simba from 'Lion King'?

Safely headed toward the setting sun

The next morning and we were out early again, but this time on a visit to a local Maasai village. We were greeted by Daniel, the young man in charge of such visits. They bring money into the village to purchase items that they don’t generate in the traditional way. The villagers tend cattle, sheep and goats the same as most other Maasai and live traditionally, although Daniel has an ‘office’ out behind the village where he has a computer and cell phone service so he can arrange and co-ordinate tourist visits. There are actually more cell towers around Tanzania than in many areas of North America and the service, including Internet, has been relatively good for us even though we’ve been in some remote spots. Back to the village. Here are some photos of the welcome ceremony and the village:

 

John, the village medicine man with
some of the herbs he uses. Villagers
can still go to hospital or clinic if he
can't help them at home

 

Dick and Dona will be celebrating their 50th anniversary
this year, so Rachel arranged a special ceremony
for them at the village

Because it had rained quite heavily the night before, there was quite a bit of mud along with the standard cow, sheep and goat manure on the ground. And because of all of this, there were more flies than usual. To help counteract this, the villagers loaned us all zebra tail flyswatters with beaded handles:

Thanks, Rodney for modelling some
of the billions of flies

Larry's Maasai flyswatter

After our visit to the village, we went back to the hotel for breakfast and some time out during the day – we think we spent most of that working on the blog – before making a short visit to the Cynthia Moss Amboseli Elephant Research Project. A number of researchers have been working here for 40 years identifying, tracking and studying the elephant population in Amboseli. From this research they have discovered many interesting and surprising things about elephants, including their social hierarchy, how they communicate, and especially how good their memories really are. Elephants DO NOT FORGET much of anything, and their social structure ensures that all the knowledge from one generation is passed on to the next and the next. The matriarch is the oldest female in any group; remember that bull elephants are usually loners so groups are made up of females and young males. She is responsible for leading the group in emergencies and for passing on what she knows and what she has learned from her elders to the next generation. It is absolutely fascinating to realize just how intelligent and caring elephants are. At the end of the talk, Rachel advised us that Tauck made a $50 donation to the Project on behalf of each of us on the tour.

Researcher's tent at the elephant project

Some elephant jaw bones. Elephants have been known to
come into the compound, locate the bones of
family members and grieve for them.

Our afternoon game drive started when we left the research project. Having just heard about elephants in detail, we were lucky to find some on their way to their overnight resting area, but before that we saw a few birds:

Guinea Hen

Pink headed Pelicans

Eagles

Elephants in front of Mt. Kilimanjaro

 

 

 

And as it was getting close to sundown, the hippo pool was starting to come to life. The big guys who had spent the day wallowing in the water were ready to come out to eat.

And that was our cue to get back to the hotel for dinner! Another early day tomorrow as we fly from Amboseli to the Mt. Kenya Safari Club.