Adventures in Africa: Amboseli National Park Morning Game Drive, Kenya

Before I went to bed last night my guide Isaac encouraged me to wake up early so that we could be back into Amboseli National Park just after sunrise. So, I was up before 6:00 and as I came out of my tent there was Mount Kilimanjaro across the border in Tanzania. It was pretty special to see it; in just a few days I will attempt to summit this mountain. 

Workers at the camp told me Kilimanjaro is typically visible first thing in the morning, but after that is generally hidden behind the clouds as the day progresses.

We left camp at 6:30 and were into Amboseli by 7:00.

The first animals we saw were some antelope, which perhaps you can pick out in the photo below.

Although antelope are nice to see, they typically do not feel worth stopping for and I was eager to see bigger or rare animals. I did not have to wait long, as just down the road we met a family of elephants.

Even by now Kilimanjaro was slowly disappearing, and, anyway, with my phone I was not going to be able to capture any of the truly iconic photos of elephants in front of the mountain. And, yet, still Kili is there, looming large in the background as this family ate their breakfast.

After watching the family for awhile we moved on, turning a corner just in time to see a young ostrich cross the road. I had seen an ostrich or two from a distance earlier in the week, but this was the first time I was seeing one nearby.

Shortly past the ostrich we came to the lake where I got to see an enormous flamboyance of flamingoes. They were quite far away and they are small, so they proved difficult to photograph or even to see individually. But a great big pink flock of birds was still quite something to see!

We carried on around the lake, and this lone wildebeest appeared to be posing just for me . . .

. . . and there was another flamboyance of flamingos on the other side of the lake.

Another poor photo below, but I think there are about a dozen bat-eared foxes in the grass here!

I had told Isaac I was eager to see hippos out of the water, so we drove around to this spot where apparently they are frequently grazing in the morning. Sure enough, we saw many of them, but they were all quite a distance from the road.

You can see them only slightly better in video.

We saw more in a swamp later, but perhaps just as far away.

After the hippos we found a herd of buffalo. The sun was getting hot by now so most of the buffalo are well into the shade of the bush, but these few were out and grazing on the thick grass.

Isaac spotted cheetah tracks near here, but we did not see the cheetah. While we waited, however, I enjoyed watching this small family of elephants. We had this area all to ourselves, so it felt like a fairly intimate encounter, especially when the elephants approached the road and got so close to us that Isaac moved the vehicle a few metres to clear the way for them. I actually think we only stayed with them for about five minutes, but in a way time stopped and our time with them felt much longer. Of all the elephants I have seen yesterday and today, this encounter felt the most special

As the family carried on, we left them and found another family, but this time a family of hyenas, not elephants. They were not as close, but still really cool to see them in and around their den! The first one we spotted is all alone roughly in the middle of the photo below.

But as it was walking I noticed where it was going and saw the rest of the clan. 

After watching the clan of hyena it was approaching 10:00 and getting hot, so Isaac said it was time to go. We drove about another half hour in the park, but did indeed see very little--just small animals like birds and warthogs. However, as we headed towards Nairobi we left the park to the north on a very rough road.

But even along here, outside of the park boundaries, we saw ostrich . . .

. . . giraffes . . .

. . . and zebra. 

I have been amazed at how much wildlife you can see in the parks, but I think perhaps even more surprising to me is that there are large animals like this even outside of the park!

In my two games drives in and around Amboseli, here are some of the animals I saw:

1. Elephant
2. Lion
3. Buffalo
4. Hyena
5. Hippo
6. Giraffe
7. Vervet monkey
8. Flamingo
9. Jackal
10. Mongoose
11. Anteloppe (various)
12. Zebra
13. Ostrich
14. Wildebeest
15. Warthog
16. Bat-eared fox