Amboseli: the finest soil (salt), elephant heards and lions having sex!

I know it’s been a while since I posted, but we have been busy and also there have been days I didn’t feel like posting…after all I’m on holiday! July 7th and 8th we headed to Amboseli National Park. Originally we were planning to just do a day trip here but then were told we should stay the night, so we did. This park is known for their big heards of elephants so I was REALLY excited to get there. We booked this tour through a company and when they arrived to pick us up we had two drivers, one who was in training. They both proved to be amazing! One had the vision of, well, I don’t even know what to call it, but he was able to spot things from so far away without using goggles! We were amazed! They provided us each with a shuka (a thin blanket/wrap) in case we were chilly(have I mentioned it had been chilly in Nairobi???) and we were excited to get one thing “free”! We started on our journey after stopping for gas, knowing this would be about a 4 hour drive, pending Nairobi traffic.

By now, you know Ajali fell asleep during the ride lol, and I did as well. I woke up when we arrived at the park (I’m used to bumpy roads, as they don’t wake me anymore lol) when one of the drivers got out to pay the park entrance fee. It wasn’t necessarily the truck door closing that woke me, it was the noise of the Masaai women from the village talking an swarming the truck trying to sell their goods. Now, I love to shop and I like to bring back things for others when I travel, so naturally I opened the window. All the sudden hands started coming in, jewelry was being dropped inside the truck and even more people were coming to both sides of the vehicle trying to sell their goods. The girls were looking as asking for stuff they liked, and Ajali, in true old man fashion, grunted “oh boy” LOL as more people came.  One driver stayed in the vehicle with us. Our safety was never at risk, they just wanted to make some coins (we have never felt unsafe while here). I made some deals, the girls got some things and I thought were were done but the people wouldn’t go away lol. Jasmine took her shuka and hung it over the window creating. Curtain so nobody could see into the truck via the back side windows where she was lol. OMG I was mortified, meanwhile Ajali and Sanaa were laughing- as was the driver. It was honestly funny as hell- who thinks of that??? I told her to take it down, but she insisted this would make them leave us alone. It didn’t.  Sanaa just ignored them and was listening to music on her phone. I kept telling them “no thanks” and that I was done shopping, but that didn’t work either. Before I knew it, Ajali reached over me and closed the window! BOOM, that did it LOL. The driver who was still in the car with us began laughing and actually told me I had great negotiating skills. I mean, I got 13 pair of earrings for 1000 KSH, which is about $10 USD (actually closer to $9). The person wanted like 2000 KSH (closer to $20 USD. The driver said I have great negotiation skills. I swear he made my head get much bigger than it already was lol. Honestly though, I’m actually pretty good at it, and I attribute some of it to my mama!

Our accommodations were nice, We had connecting tent/hut/rooms with a single bed in one room and 2 beds in the other room for the girls. Mosquito bed nets were attached to the beds to keep mosquito outs (this is the norm in may African countries since malaria is prevalent. It’s actually chilly here, so that isn’t an issue right now).

So Amboseli means “finest soil” or salt. The sand in the park is very fine and there are many dust/sand tornados all the time. We even saw them as we entered the park to drive to our hotel. I’m not sure we got pics but I will check. They were like mini tornadoes of sand in a huge field, like you would see on TV. Pretty cool.  As we drove to our hotel within the park, the first animal we saw was an ostrich. Not sure we had seen them yet. We saw both a male and female. While on our 2 day visit we also saw wildebeest (one of the “ugly five”), zebra, elephants- lots of them, but not as many as I thought their would be, flamingos and lions.

Now, Amboseli looked a lot different than other parks we have been to. It was a very open are with not as many bushes or tall grass. It didn’t seem like it had really big places for animals to hide. Now, one thing that never hides at hotels/safari camps are monkeys and big ass baboons! OMG!! These thing are ridiculous. Now, you are not supposed to feed them, but there are people who are not rule followers. I wondered why there were Masaai people standing outside by the dining area, but I never asked. On the second day, after breakfast Sanaa decided she would bring a croissant back to the room and was eating it while walking. Let’s just say after this incident that never happened again! As we asked to the room we noticed one monkey coming close, then two, then OMG there were more! My first thought was oh now, we got to go! Lol. Before we knew it one midsized monkey tried jumping on Sanaa’s arm to get the croissant. In the process of that happening Ajali kicked it in the head BUT the monkey kept going at her! I yelled “give him the food” lol and she dropped the croissant and we all were yelling/screaming snd trying to get away. Randomly we turned around and a Masaai was standing there with a sling shot going after the monkeys and they are were running away from him. Well hot damn! LOL. I’m not sure if he had rocks in his hand or if he had anything in his hand to actually shoot at them and honestly it didn’t matter- they were afraid of him and his sling shot and that was all right by us!

We were glad to stay two nights at Amboseli, as we didn’t seemed rushed like other park visits. Typically we decided what time we would leave for a morning drive, with breakfast before or after, a little rest time, then lunch, another game drive and then dinner. We could do up to 3 game drives a day. There was one more exciting thing I was awaiting while at Amboseli…to see Mt. Kilimanjaro! We were told that it’s hard to see at times due to the clouds and fog but we did get a small glimpse of the top of it, with a view of it snow capped top! There is a saying that people from Kenya to say to those from Tanzania- “you got the mountain, but we got the view”. Yep, it’s so true! The view of the mountain is beautiful! It looks like Tanzania is literally just miles away.

On safari, you never know what to expect. One of our amazing drivers said he saw simba (a lion) in the bush. As we looked with the binoculars we saw him too. As we waited to see if anything exciting would happened, another lion emerged right next to him and it was a female. They looked pretty comfy together. The driver mentioned that they were going to have sex and it would last 3 seconds. Wait- how did you get all that out of us just spotting two lions??? Well, he was not lying! Those lions had sex, it lasted 3 seconds, the male lion did a big ROAR and boom it was over. LOL. The kids were like- what in the world and we all were laughing. The driver then informed us that they were going to have sex again, it would last for 3 seconds and it would stop. This time I totally believed him! Again he was right! There was no roar this time though lol. The female was trying to get away slightly, or maybe just playing hard to get at the moment. We learned that this will happen for a week straight and she will become pregnant.

We also saw a wildebeest eating a zebra and hyenas eating a wildebeest. It’s the circle of life.

We also experienced a random older woman (I think she was actually American) walk in Jasmine’s face and reach out to touch her hair saying “Oh my I really love your hair”. What the heck??? I immediately stood in front of her and blocked her as Jasmine backed up. I raised my voice asking what are you doing???? She still seemed to have no clue that she was not only in someone’s personal space, but that she frightened a child. I told her to never touch my child, and she needed to go away. She looked at me and said “Oh I’m sorry, I really just like her hair beads. Sorry I ruined your day” and walked away. Huh? Really? I was so pissed and people were staring at us because we were in the dining area. Now I’ve had people in the US try to touch our hair before but never thought I would have to address this in Africa! I mean, especially with COVID being so big right now. Dummy lol.

Anyway, that didn’t ruin our trip and even the staff and I laughed about it later together. One cool thing about this visit is that there was a group of elementary age school children on a field trip here. They were staying overnight, but not sure for how long. How cool is that??? I mean, we went to the zoo as a kid, but this was on another level in my opinion lol.

Prior to leaving the hotel, our driver picked up box lunches for our way home. These were provided by the hotel. Honestly, the food wasn’t great, but there was a chocolate bar that was really tasty. They provided juice, fruit, a small sandwich with meat, and one with veggies, chicken legs (yes cold chicken legs), yogurt and crackers. We stopped on the way home at a place with tables and chairs, a restaurant and store to enjoy lunch. There were other tour vans there as well and everyone had a version of a box lunch. Our drivers sat with other drivers and had tea and whatever else they bought from the restaurant and once we all were done, we got back in the truck and headed back to Nairobi.