We were looking for an easy getaway for the weekend--just something to get us out of the city and away from the remaining items left to be settled into out home. After exploring a few options, we settled on Ambosolei National Park, which is about 230KM south of the city, close to the border of Tanzania. Amboseli is one of the smaller national parks inside Kenya and every guide book will tell you that it is most famous for its elephant population; they also will mention that it is a borderline tourist trap. I feel that last point is somewhat unwarranted, though I certainly understood where the writers were coming from as we encountered numerous buses full of Chinese and German tourists and our hotel, which we were extremely pleased with and plan to stay there again, was constructed primarily from 1990s African kitche'.
The drive down from Nairobi went smoothly and we passed through some of the most spectacular countryside we have seen to date. The primary road you take to the park, Mombasa Road, also is the primary trucking artery linking Mombasa with Nairobi so you spend the first half of the trip weaving in and out of semi-trucks hauling goods to and form the port. We stopped for fuel in a small town located roughly at the halfway point, the turned down the road that would take us into the park. While I knew we were on the right road, I'd managed to misplace the map I printed out and our hand-held GPS couldn't figure out where exactly we were. Additionally, the GPS in our vehicle is still programed for Japan and appeared to show us cruising smoothly through stop-and-go traffic in downtown Tokyo, so I was forced to put my full faith in the Kenyan tourism bureau's sign department.
We came to the park entrance around dusk and purchased our safari passes, but it still was another 20km to the hotel. While we were waiting to pay we were surrounded by local Masai villagers trying to sell us africrap and show us around "a real Masai village." While there still is a large portion of Masai that live as nomadic herdsmen, these Masai clearly were the "tourist Masai" that has become more prevalent in this country as the tribal lands have shrunk with time.
We arrived at the lodge just in time to find our rooms and freshen up for dinner. The rooms are individual chalets and as requested, we had one with a view of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We then went to a nice dinner, had some drinks at the bar, and headed back to our chalet to look at the millions of stars in the sky.
The sound of monkeys woke us up early in the morning and we went out to see breathtaking views of Kilimanjaro and herds of zebra, elephant, buffalo, and wildebeest moving across the plain towards a large watering hole just beyond our hotel. It was pretty amazing and we spent most of the morning on our porch, with books, just taking in the view.
After a nice lunch we headed out on safari. Amboseli is known as the best place in Kenya to see elephants and we were not disappointed. We saw many elephant herds and several babies. We also saw lots of antelopes, zebra, and wildebeest.
Once we'd seen our fair share of animals, Kerry noticed on the map that there was a Lake Amboseli located on the corner of the park and wanted to check it out. I agreed, but as we drove toward it the roads became more trails, and the trails more suggestions of place to drive. Soon, the track marks were simply indications that at one point in history, someone had traveled in this direction. But just as we started to lose faith that we in the right place, we saw in the distance the tell-tale signs of water and animals grazing in the distance. I aimed our vehicle towards the water and started driving:
About two minutes into the drive, I realized there was no water. It was a mirage, as classic as any a Looney Toons character might have fallen for. My wife, however, remained convinced that water was near; "just a little further," she would reply as I continued to say we should turn around. Finally, enough dust and scattered bones convinced her that there was no water where we were. In all fairness, had we studied the map a little closer, we would have noticed that the lake is only a lake approximately one month out of the year. The rest of the time it is bone dry. Admitting defeat, we retreated back toward civilization.
The next morning we enjoyed some lovely tea on our porch and inadvertently left the tea cups outside until we heard them clatter and saw that the monkeys were in the process of stealing them. I gave some strong raps on the window as I normally do to scare squirrels and birds back home but to my surprise the monkey attacked back! He pounded on the window right back at me! Another monkey sat on the outside of our window and watched us get ready. That window did not have blinds and it was slightly creepy.
After breakfast we packed up and hit the road back to Nairobi, normally about a 3 hour drive. Unfortunately our car started having some issues and the trip ended up taking over 5.5 hours because it wouldn't go over 30 kilometers an hour.! I held my breath as we went up each hill, hoping we would make it up. I was really proud of Andy for managing the car the whole way home because we were in the middle of nowhere and had no cell phone reception and it would have been a long walk home:).
