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| Glenn's Journal for 10-27-02 - Amboseli We were up at our usual time for breakfast and an 8:00 am departure to Amboseli. The drive today was long but we chatted, read books, napped, and any other thing you can do in a car for 8 hours. We stopped in Nairobi for an hour or so, then stopped just outside of Nairobi where we had lunch under a shade tree in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. It was actually pretty nice as we enjoyed the tranquility of the location. After lunch we continued our journey to Amboseli. We arrived at the park gates around 4:30 pm. We then started our game drive through the park until we reached our lodge for the next two nights. Amboseli is one of the more popular parks due to having Mt. Kilimanjaro as the backdrop. The park is 329 square kilometers of mostly plains which make most animals easy to spot. Herds of wildebeest and zebra are roaming the plains along with the occasional jackal, warthog, and baboons. The afternoon game drive was enjoyable as we spent most of our time mesmerized by the site of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We arrived at the lodge around 6:00 pm and were shown our room which provided a beautiful view of Mt. Kilimanjaro from our bedroom window. Spectacular!!! The rooms here were a little smaller than Samburu but the service and meals were just as nice. We cleaned up from the day before heading to dinner. After dinner we relaxed by the fire while listening to a young man play the guitar. We then retired for the evening. 10-28-02 - Amboseli Today's schedule is similar to Friday's with a morning and afternoon game drive and time to relax in between. We were up and in the park by 6:30 am enjoying the morning beauty of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was a little overcast this morning so the clouds covered the peak but it is still breathtaking. This morning's drive included seeing a family of jackals along with many other of the more common animals in the park. After the morning drive we enjoyed breakfast and returned to the room for a little nap before lunch. After lunch included a stop at the pool before it started to rain and we headed back to the room. The afternoon game drive included a stop at Lookout point which gave you a view of most of Amboseli National park. Most of the water in the park comes from the snow melt off Mt. Kilimanjaro or the rainy season. It was definitely dry this time of the year. After the game drive we went through our usual routine. At dinner we did enjoy the company of a hippo eating the grass only 50 yards from our dinner table. What a wonderful way to enjoy a meal!!! After dinner we enjoyed the guitar player for a little while before retiring for the evening. Tomorrow we are off to Tsavo West. |
| An elephant paces across the plains in front of Mt. Kilimanjaro. There was hardly any snow on the top, as the past few years have produced drought conditions in the area |
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| A pair of lazy lionesses barely stirred to check out the vans parked just a few feet away. You can see the remains of their meal nearby |