Amboseli - Baboons in the Back Yard!
We arrived late in the afternoon. We had a quick, and very late, lunch, got checked into the lodge, and readied ourselves for our first real safari. Although tired from the day long trip, we were pumped to see more of the area and the wild life it offers.
We stayed at the Serena Lodge in Amboseli; it is a beautiful place. The lodge is within the Amboseli NP (Wikipedia) (Kenyan Wildlife Service). The surrounding area is quite flat, and it resembles a dry lake bed; however, John assured us it was not, even though during times of great rains it turns into one. I guess it's all in the one's definition of the word lake. The park is on the Kenyan side of Mt. Kilimanjaro, which was the main attraction for going to Amboseli. As luck would have it, clouds obscured the mountain for much of our visit. Only once did the peak peek out of the morning haze for viewing.
Our visit was during the "short rain" season. As some rain had arrived previous to our visit, the countryside was greening, and the animal population was disbursing into the newly greened plains, grazing, and rounding the gaps between their ribs. Lucky for us that we were able to see such variety without the horror of drought plaguing our African experience.
The backside of the main Serena Lodge building is a huge patio over looking the nearby forest and the savanna beyond. Elephants, baboons, wildebeest, and various other animals were within view, including some rather bold and pesky black vervet monkeys that were in residence. One could sit in the cushy chairs of the patio for quite awhile slupping beers and soaking in a natural world while the resident Maasai chased the vervets away with their sling shots. The night prior to our arrival, lions had attacked and killed a waterbuck just outside the protected area of the patio. Maintenance personnel had to remove the remains the day we arrived to assure the lions did not return. We spotted three lions doing just that later in the day.
Off the reception area is the eating area where we were assigned a table, and all meals were at the same table for the remainder of our stay. Food was presented buffet style (given how the predators eat in the bush, buffet style is an interesting delivery metaphor). We expected to see a spread of Kenyan food (whatever that is, as we did not know), but what we found instead was that about half of the food was the same stuff we eat in India - rice, curry, steamed vegetables, masala potatoes. Maybe Indian food is not Indian food, but rather the food of humans living in similar environments - the Indians must have laid claim to the brand naming rights early on. The food was quite good, and they served beef, ham and a couple of other things not readily available in India, which I suppose is the Kenyan food.
One general note about doing a safari like this - you stay in the vehicle. You cannot get out of the vehicle, unless you are at a designated rest area. The roof of the vehicle raises, and you drive around all day with the roof up. With the roof raised, one can stand up and clearly see 360 degrees, and it is an absolutely exhilarating to travel through the bush holding on to whatever you can, standing with the wind in your face constantly scanning the horizon for the next new promise of adventure. Our vehicle for this segment of the trip was a rather large Toyota van - two wheel drive, which did not trouble us in Amboseli, but would prove to be a hindrance when we got to Masai Mara.
The area we were touring was about two degrees South of the Equator. Our day was pretty close to a 12 hour day, and by 6pm it started to get dusky, which is the reason that the parks closed their gates and the lodges wanted folks within the protective electric fences - stuff happens in the dark in Africa. Stuff you really don't want to personally experience, unless you're well armed.
Day 2 - Dec 26 - Evening Safari (MapMyRide)
We loaded up and headed out about 4pm, and we needed to be back on property by 6pm. John wanted to orient us to the types of animals we would see throughout the week. Being typical tourists, the first 50 Thompson's Gazelle were exciting and fun to watch, but after that they just became "Tommie's", and we paid little further attention to them. Of course, being the favorite food of Cheetah's, if we would have witnessed a kill, that would have demanded attention.
As noted before, the two years previous had been drought years. A lot of carcases in various stages of decay littered the savanna as hyenas and vultures will only eat fresh kill. Once it lays a bit stinking up the place, decomposition is left to the beetles, who take a bit to do their work. Well fed beetles don't work too hard, and the carcases pile up.
Several African Elephants loitered the plain. Some alone, some in small groups - nothing that you could call a herd. Mothers, babies, teenagers, tweenies, and the occasional big bull. Grazing gently with trunks in constant motion. Babies scampering about their groups being kids. In the morning the elephants come out of the foothills of Kilimanjaro and head into the Amboseli swamp. In the evening, they work their way back to the foothills as to stay on the plain at night time is to predation of the young by lions and hyenas.
Gazelle, Warthogs, a Hippo, one lone wet and dejected Spotted Hyena sleeping in the mud, and Crowned Cranes were the beasties of this first sojourn. It is interesting to view the animals in their home environs as compared to the concocted world of a zoo. For example, zoo hippos are blubberpusses, and wild hippos on the plains are buff - I mean buff as in they just worked out at Gold's Gym. Bush hippos are blue collar; they work for a living, and it's a jungle out there.
Heading back towards the lodge as the sun was getting lower on the horizon, John spotted a bunch of vehicles in an odd place; so, we went to see what was up with that. A lioness was lounging against the edge of the palms with her two cubs. She was about 60m away from us, which started the conversation that we needed a bigger and badder zoom lens for the camera - a conversation that persisted and grew in crescendo throughout the trip. We watched the lioness and her cubs for 10-15 minutes before she disappeared into the bush. She looked gaunt, and with such little ones around, she was protecting them, but it was clear that she needed to eat soon.
Retreating towards the lodge, we spotted another lioness and three cubs about 1km down the road, moving from left to right in front of us, likewise heading towards the lodge - presumably to feed on the waterbuck kill by the lodge. The group of lions crossed the road in front of the car ahead of us affording us fantastic visibility.
Needless to say, upon our return to the lodge, we were very excited to have seen such a large variety of animals in such short a period of time, and lions - oh, my! Babes in bush, we were; it was only to get better.
Day 3 - Dec 27 - Morning Safari (MapMyRide)
This was the day that we caught a glimpse of Kilimanjaro. Our outing circumvented the swamp, which is a persistently wet area. We again saw the same species as the night before; although, the animals were much closer to the vehicle for better reviewing. Species added to the list included a few Wildebeest, more Hippo, Ostrich, several active Hyena, Marabu Storks, Pelican, Fish Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Ibis, Goliath Heron, countless Plovers and Weaver birds, Baboons, and a couple of Zebra. We kept a diligent eye towards the mountain in case it peeked out, which it briefly did in mid-morning.
Our initial track of the day took us through an abandoned lodge. At some point in the past persistent rains flooded out the place (water 4-6 feet deep) and ruined it. So, sunken ships on reefs, it decays in the middle of no where while various species make a home of it. We encountered a troop of baboons hanging out by the side of the road. One mother with a very tiny baby worked pretty hard to make sure that we could not view the baby.
At one point we rounded a corner, and there was this dead tree full of vultures. Larrie's immediate thoughts harken back to a scene in Disney's The Jungle Book. It was quite surreal. The morning out lasted for about 3 hours, and we returned to the lodge for lunch and a nap before heading out again in the afternoon. Jessie took advantage of this time to try out the pool, which was quite coolish. Several vervet monkeys were around the pool hoping to snatch whatever the humans had not nailed down.
Upon returning to our room for an attire change, Jessie and Larrie witnessed a mature male baboon outside the glass door to our room tearing the bark off the tree with its teeth. Baboons have impressive teeth. They ignore humans, but it would be foolish to provoke one.
Day 3 - Dec 27 - Evening Safari (MapMyRide)
The highlight (for some) of the evening safari was traveling to the Hyena den. Five of our adventurers found the baby hyena to be "cute"; however, one brave and solitary soul witnessed the event with stoic objectiveness and declared that with Hyena's ugly is pervasive - nose to tail and all the way to the bone. They are just not a graceful nor pleasant to look at. We spent quite a while watching the various families of the den interact. Newly arriving females had to pay ritualistic submission to the leader before they would regurgitate the days food for their young (GROSS!), not unlike a number of cultures we have experienced during our tenure on the opposite side of the globe. One would hope that humans could rise above hyenas, but then, we are all in the cycle of life, eh?
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