Safaris Bring Out the Kids In Us All
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2009
1
106
196
Trip End
Jul 21, 2010
Where I stayed
Amboseli National Park, Kenya
Saturday, December 12, 2009
After the Masai Mara, our second stop was at Lake Nakaru which we enjoyed because we felt like the only ones in the park. The Masai Mara is very popular so we saw a lot of jeeps and minivans while we were cruising for wildlife, but at Nakaru we felt like explorers almost. Nakaru had a large population of rhinos but what it is most famous for is its population of flamingos. We enjoyed watching a hyena slowly make its way towards the flamingo flock and carry off a flamingo in its mouth. There are signs of environmental change at Nakaru – the water levels are very low – one of the rhinos had skin discoloration; Caleb said the disco was caused by not having enough water to submerge in. There is also not a lot of grassland in the park – the erosion is partly caused by the lack of rain and also caused by irresponsible safari vehicles. The Park is trying to change this and now there is now no off-roading.
Our last stop was Amboseli Park, which did not have the wildlife of Masai Mara or Lake Nakaru but the backdrop was the star: a crystal clear view of Mt Kilimanjaro. During the day the clouds would come and you couldn't see the top – but after a short rain the clouds would lift and the snow capped peak dominated the skyline. What was also surprising about Amboseli were the different habitats. Some sections were extremely arid – like no water had touched the ground in months. In these areas we caught whiffs of death – rotting carcasses. What was particularly unsettling was seeing the carcass of an elephant getting torn apart by vultures and buzzards. However, in another area there was a swamp – water runoff from Mt. Kilimanjaro that collected to form a swamp which supported a large bird population. Finally, there was a flat tropical area with palm trees – which was peculiar to see with Mt. Kilimanjaro's snow caps in the background. The animal highlight again came from the lions: this time it was a trio of baby lions with their mother who were napping in the middle of the plains. Camping at Amboseli Park was amazing – sunsets were an explosion of color with red, orange, and yellow colors painting the sky - and the nights were clear and with no lights the number of stars dazzled!
We definitely would want to come back to Kenya to do another safari at some point in our lives. Maybe we'll even start a savings fund when we come back to the US in order to take our kids!! (I know real forward looking!) But the kids that we saw with their families on safari REALLY seemed to enjoy it, and so did the kids inside us!
