Our First Safari!

Jambo Everyone! Habari!

There are seriously no words that can begin to describe the experiences that I have been a part of the past two days!!!  But I will do my best :)

Monday was the first chance that we had to finally experience one of the world renowned national parks that this region is so famous for.  After taking a Wildlife Ecology class on Monday morning, we got all packed up and ready to head to Amboseli National Park about 45 minutes from the Kilimanjaro Bush Camp.  We packed our lunches with peanut butter and plum jelly, fresh veggies, and local potato chips, loaded up on sunscreen, and put on our best safari outfits.  The drive there was insane in itself.  I seriously don’t know how these cars still work as well as they do.  The dirt roads to get to the parks and camps feel like I am on a wooden roller coaster from 1900 and the cars we are in feel like they will just fall apart at any moment. 

By the time we finally arrived at the gates to the park, the excitement was killing me.  I could only imagine what we were going to see as soon as we went through those gates.  But not even my imagination was close to what we had a chance to see.  I forgot to mention, the best part about our safari vehicles is that they have rooftop hatches that we get to take off in the national parks, stand on the seats, and have our heads out in the open during the entire safari!  Despite the inevitable sunburn that comes from sticking my head out like that, feeling the breeze in my hair as I see hundreds of wild animals is a feeling that I could never explain.

From the second we pulled in the park, the things I was seeing felt as though I was once again in a movie. The huge Acacia trees scattered across the landscape, with Kilimanjaro in the background, and huge herds of animals covering the ground was the most picturesque moment.  The first animals that we saw were 3 ostriches, a male and two females, right off of the road that we were on.  But that was only the beginning.  As we coasted through the park to our lunch destination, we saw everything, from giraffes, tons of zebras, crowned cranes, jackals, hyenas, warthogs, secretary birds.  You couldn’t go half a kilometer without seeing some sort of wildlife.  But the most amazing part was the elephants!!!  They were everywhere you looked.  As soon as we got near the wetland area, there was such a high density of elephants that I didn’t even know where to look.  Suddenly, as we were approaching the lunch stop, there was a huge herd of elephants right off of the road that we were on!  Huge bulls, mamas, and little baby elephants were within 10 feet of our vehicles.  We were so close that I could see the expressions on their faces, the wrinkles all over their skin, and their huge flapping ears.  They were deep in the mud and wetlands and their legs seemed to disappear under the ground.  We were with one of my favorite instructors and he let us sit by the elephants for half an hour before we had to go and eat lunch finally.

We stopped at this beautiful overlook of the entire Amboseli National Park to have our lunch.  You could see everything from Kili, to the lakebed that was all dried up, to the palm forest.  It was so beautiful and relaxing up there.  And was a great break from the hot equator sunshine that was slowly turning every single one of us a nice pink color :)

After filling up our water bottles again and loading in the cars, we took off back down the road, and to my surprise, the elephants were still there and we once again got to see them up close. There were also zebras mixed right in, and a warthog family with three tiny babies right in the midst of everything.  It amazes me how all of these animals can mix and live together without ever bothering one another.

As we continued to drive and be quizzed over the radio by our professor, we suddenly saw a huge ruckus taking place across the open grassland from where we were.  There were around 10 other safari vehicles flying down the road so we knew something was going on.  We flung our car around and started taking off back toward the action.  It turns out there were 6 female lions making their way to the water hole!  They were so majestic and peaceful, walking right past gazelle and other prey to get water in the heat.  They were kind of far from where we were so I didn’t get a great look, but it was still amazing to see them in their natural habitat.  I can’t wait to see them more closely.

By the end of the day, we had seen everything I could imagine, and learned about all of the habitat types in the park and what can be found in each.  We also encountered some lovely American Tourists, sticking their heads out of the roof and yelling “yooooo hooooo” to try and get the hyenas to look at them for a picture.  The new joke around our camp is definitely saying yoo hoo instead of hello when greeting someone :)  I had such a great group of people to experience this first safari with.  I could not be more thankful for the entire experience.

Yesterday was a non-program day.  We finally got to sleep in past 6:30 and have the opportunity to lounge around with no agenda.  In the afternoon, we returned to Kimana to the huge marketplace that they have every Tuesday.  They take over a huge portion of land right in town and everyone sets up shops with clothes and fruits and veggies and shoes and everything else you could imagine.  The mammas were there again and I was laughing so hard.  They chase all of the students up and down the aisles trying to sell us anything they can.  At one point I had 17 mammas around me and I was backed into a corner.  I finally bought a necklace and took off running hoping to shake them off of me.  I bought some really great stuff, including lots of skirts and bandanas, but my favorite buy of the day were tire shoes.  They are sandal shoes with beading on the straps that are made from old tires.  They are so comfortable and have great tread.  They are my new obsession.

After being in the midst of the crazy market, we got a chance to go to a local bar called Club Kimana, or Club K for short.  They have a special agreement with our camp and let us sit in huge gazebos out back so no one tries to sell us more stuff.  We all got to try the African beer called Tusker.  It was great to be sitting with my new amazing group of friends, trying a new kind of beer, and talking about our experiences in the market.  It was a relaxing time that we all needed after our first successful week in Kenya.

Thanks so much for reading all of this!  I know it gets a little lengthy, but I just have so much to share.  I hope everyone is having a great week!

Love,

Mollie Ann