We were in the vans out in the park by 6.30 am, looking for, well, whatever was on offer. No geographic misplacements this time, and we saw zebra, giraffe, impala, kudu and rock hyraxes. No big cats or rhinos but maybe later. Then it was back to the lodge for breakfast and loading up the vans to head for Amboseli, across the Shetani (devil) lava fields. Of course, this whole area is part of the Rift Valley so there is or has been a lot of volcanic activity.
A zebra crossing...
On the way our van got two flat tyres within the space of about ten minutes, but they managed to replace them pretty quickly. At the park gate there were once again a bunch of people offering jewellery for sale. Some of the others bought things but Bridget just sat and hoped they would think she was a man…
Once in the park the animals were coming thick and fast. Amboseli is a lot more open country compared to Tsavo. We saw zebras galore, gnus, elephants; not so many giraffe though (there were not many trees), impala, gazelles of several different varieties, warthogs, baboons…
After a late lunch we made our way to a Maasai village nearby, which was basically a tourist trap. After we paid our money, they greeted us with traditional dancing and we followed them into the camp. The medicine man told us about some of the roots and herbs they use (for malaria, stomach-ache, and ‘man power’). The chief’s son told us about the layout of the camp, and two others showed us their houses. Then we were led out the back to where the women had all their wares for sale. It was quite annoying how they split us up and took us to each mat, saying ‘this is my wife’, ‘this is my second wife’ – i.e. please choose something to buy. I ended up with a carving, a set of beaded boxes, ten bangles and five necklaces. Then the bargaining started: 9000 shillings ($180) for the lot. I took out piece by piece and got confused about the exchange rate, ending up paying US$45 equivalent for one necklace, one box, the carving and the bracelets (which I had decided I didn’t want after all, but they gave me anyway). Oh well – I should be able to sell them on TradeMe and recover most of the money. It would seem these people have been spoilt by American tourists prepared to pay a lot of money. I wish I had walked away – only a couple of people did. We already gave them 1000 shillings ($20) each to go inside, which should have tipped us off from the start.
From there we went for our evening game drive and again saw lots of elephant, eventually coming across a solitary hyena and finally a group of about five lions off in the distance. Then it was back to the lodge for dinner, at which a discussion ensued about distributing photos to everyone. I’ve been lumped with the task, more by default than voluntarily (not that I mind), but I’ve warned everyone it could take six months to put the photos into slideshows and make DVDs from them. We shall see!
Elephant at Amboseli
The highlight of today was being out in the park and watching a herd of about 20-30 elephants cross the road in between two of our vans. They would have been less than 20 metres away, and for large heavy animals they moved very very quietly. They are indeed most magnificent creatures. God sure does have a good imagination...
See the video here!
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