It's all about the animals.....

How's this with your morning coffee? For our first game drive at Amboseli National Park, we had to be ready to go at 6:00 AM, but were rewarded with a most magnificent sunrise. The standard routine on safari is to go out early in the morning and then again just before dusk. There is no use going out at other times because as the day heats up, the animals look for shade and places to rest. This is especially true for the big cats. Lions are so lazy they rest or sleep twenty hours a day. Giraffes, on the other hand, sleep the least of any animal, just two hours a day. Here's two other tidbits: lions are the only cats that don't groom, are usually infested with lice, and generally smell. Giraffes are the only animal to have never been seen bathing. Hygiene aside, if you want to see animals, you have to be on their schedule.

So, with barely time for a cup of coffee, we climbed into the Land Cruiser and were off for a morning's game viewing. Our sleepiness quickly disappeared as we sighted our first animals. Two magnificent young bull elephants engaged in a test of strength.

They pushed and shoved each other back and forth. When they separated they pawed the ground. This went on for about twenty minutes until the smaller one went bounding off defeated. What was really funny was that the whole time those two white birds just watched and hopped around to get out of the way. One has to wonder what they were thinking.

Not too far from the elephants we came upon a small grouping of zebras. You never know what you are going to sight or when, thus the anticipation level is always quite high, especially on the first drive on your first day.

One never seems to get tired of seeing zebras. Obviously they really stand out in the dry grasses and one theory for their stripes is that it makes seeing them more difficult for their predators. As docile as they seem to be, they are fierce fighters and effectively use their hind legs as weapons.

A reason Amboseli has so many animals is that the springs from Mt. Kiliminjaro feed several large bogs. The animals love to gather around these and it can mean some pretty interesting pictures like this one of an elephant we named two tone.

And where you have water, you'll also have hippos.

Then there are the lions. Of course, everyone wants to see a lion and the first sighting is always a thrill, but it's more often lions lazing around than lions on a hunt. These are a mating pair who were laying by a water hole. Every twenty minutes they did what a mating pair is supposed to much too the delight of the occupants of the twenty or so safari vehicles surrounding them. We do have the video.

Game drive over you head back to the camp for breakfast, then shower and get ready for your next adventure. Ours was to be to visit a Masai Village in the afternoon and then another game drive. Since it is already Thursday and we are in the Serengeti, I can tease and say the Masai Village trip was amazing and will be the subject of another post.

There is not much down time on this trip and we are covering quite a lot of territory. The roads are very poor and travel is slow. While each lodge has had Internet service, it is satellite based and doesn't always work. We thought we knew conditions in third world countries, but being out in the bush is very different than being in cities. We are having a fabulous time, but not finding much time to write. I trust you understand.

Sunset in Amboseli National Park in Kenya

 

 

 

 

 

 

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