Lowes Travels

Aug 17-19, 2023

From Tanzania we crossed the border back into Kenya, and after immigration formalities we bid goodbye to our awesome Tanzanian guide, Goodluck. Our previous Kenyan guide Benson welcomed us back into his trusty and apparently indestructible Land Cruiser. Thankfully it was only a couple of hours to Amboseli National Park on mostly decent roads.

You might think we’d been on so many game drives that we’d seen all of the wildlife here. But no, we were about to embark on another adventure in a unique place that held even more surprises!

Amboseli National Park is special because it’s located near Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. Even though the mountain is in Tanzania, Amboseli offers it’s best view from Kenya.

The sight of the snow-capped mountain (although the glacial ice is now decreasing) added to our new experiences and what makes Amboseli National Park so unique.

The name “Amboseli” comes from a Maasai word meaning “salty dust.”

For the final part of our journey, we checked in at the Ol Tukai Lodge in Amboseli.  This is where we would spend the final two nights of our odyssey.  The rooms were okay, but  not up to the plushness of our last stop. This lodge within the park has cottages with amazing views of the open plains where you can spot the amazing animals as they stroll by. It’s protected by an electric fence to keep them at a safe distance, but the local baboons and monkeys are free to play and wander around the property.

The monkeys and baboons roam freely inside the property, and they were so fun to watch!

We also had amazing animal and bird encounters during our game drives here. Unlike the larger parks like Masai Mara or Serengeti that we had visited, Amboseli is smaller and made our game drives less hectic.

 There were excellent areas for birdwatching, and with our onboard ornithologist Benson I was ecstatic to get introduced to many new and beautiful east African birds:

The flamboyance of flamingos left me awestruck!

According to Benson, the park is well known for its massive herds of free-ranging African elephants. In fact, it’s estimated that there are over 1,200 African elephants here. It’s a delightful sight to see these genteel giants even if we’d seen many of their cousins previously. I’m telling you we could never get enough of them!

I included the slideshow below featuring elephants to showcase their majestic presence. This amazing creature faces the threat of extinction across many parts of Africa because of poaching for ivory, conflict with humans and loss of habitat due to increasing human population and climate change. They are so amazing!

At the park was an observation point, a pyramid shaped hill that Benson drove us to. This was the only time we were allowed out of the vehicle and walked up to the hill to stretch our legs while getting excellent views of Mount Kilimanjaro and the great expanse of Amboseli National Park.

On our way down from the hill we spotted a family of Hyenas in their dens (this is one of the “Ugly Five of Africa”), and one of the kids was tickling his mother:

In another area a pride of lions with cubs were out and about. Female lions are strong enough to bring down mammals like giraffes and buffalo, which are twice their weight, by hunting as a team.

We were glad to be back with our guide Benson. He is incredibly knowledgeable about all of these animals and has an amazing ability to spot wildlife from far away. He also knew how to position the vehicle to get the best view of the animals up close:

You’re probably bored seeing these pictures and videos of animals, but it’s my last post from Kenya and I feel good sharing our moments:

At last we saw a hippopotamus up close out of the water, he’s so huge!

It was inevitable that this wonderful journey had to come to an end.  Over the past week we’d become good friends with almost all of the other fifteen adventurers in our group, and with our fantastic drivers/guides.  Meeting folks from a wide variety of backgrounds and professions, but all with the common desire for adventure and excitement – this is what travel is all about!

During our game drives we each had our favorites. Steve loves the unusual giraffes, while my favorites are the zebras because of their black and white stripes. After seeing so many pictures during our game drives I wonder if one has caught your eye. Do you have a favorite animal?

I must say the experiences we had are beyond words. The stories I wrote and pictures/video clips can’t translate how amazed we were with the animals and the untamed beauty of nature. These adventures are not for rest and relaxation, but rather for several days in a whole other world. The game drives we had from beginning to end were the most exciting and memorable experiences we’ve had. Africa is a magical continent, and we hope to return in the future.

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Next Up: Our experience with The Giving Exchange