Amboseli National Park, the Land of Giants, in Kenya

On July 22, 2021July 22, 2021 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Africa, Kenya3 Comments

We arrived in Nairobi about 15 hours later than we were originally scheduled to due to a variety of cancellations and flight changes. So, instead of arriving Sunday evening and getting a night of sleep before starting our safari, we contacted our guides, Perminus and David, and had them meet us at the airport to take us straight to our lodge at Amboseli National Park. Since we had been awake for over 48 hours at this point, we couldn’t have been blamed for drifting in and out of consciousness during the drive from Nairobi to the park. Since we didn’t leave Nairobi until early afternoon, it was near sunset when we approached the Zebra Plains Amboseli Camp where were to stay two nights. As we got close to the camp, animals could already be seen along the road, especially some wonderful views of giraffes as the sun set behind them. This would be the last time that we would not have cameras at the ready to capture every possible image, but we did take a few photos as we drove toward the camp.

Our Tent in the Zebra Plains Amboseli Camp

As we checked into to our tent at the camp, we were informed that we must always be escorted by one of the camp staff and Maasai warrior guards if we were to leave our tent after dark. This would be true at almost every place we stayed during our safari and it became very evident as to why on our very first night as we heard an elephant trumpet near our tent and even heard a hyena on the porch of the tent. Although we were up early every day and stayed out until dusk, we really enjoyed the places that we stayed. Our days always started with some wonderful African coffee and a warm and hearty breakfast. The lodges also provided us with box lunches to take along as we spent the day driving throughout the parks.

Thompson’s Gazelle – They Were Literally Everywhere on Safari

Amboseli National Park is one of the smaller parks that we visited, but we literally seemed to come across different wildlife around every turn. The park is known for the elephants, hence the nickname “the Land of the Giants”, which are not only large, but also have some of the largest tusks that we would see on the safari. It was also the place where we would have our up-close interactions with the elephants and even had a playful baby elephant lift his trunk and try to smell us. We understand that the park can get quite busy because it is close to Nairobi, but due to the pandemic, there were not many other tourists or other Land Cruisers (the “official” vehicle of safaris) around us as we traversed the park.

We Saw Hundreds of Elephants at Amboseli National Park

One of the Many Types of Antelopes and Gazelles that We Saw

Birds Often Ride the Elephants to Eat the Insects That Get Stirred Up

In addition to the many different encounters with the elephants, we also saw hundreds of giraffes, zebras, and wildebeest. Amboseli would also provide us our first opportunities to see lions, of which we saw several times during our day and a half in the park. We also saw many different birds in the park including the ostriches, African Crowned Crane, pelicans, flamingos (which there are two types known as the lesser and greater), and hamerkop (also known as the hammerhead). As the sun set after our first full day on safari, we asked our guide, David, to drive us back to the area around the lodge where we had seen the giraffes at sunset the previous night. We wanted to capture them with the camera since we didn’t pull it out during the drive to Amboseli.

We Played with Our New Fisheye Lens in Amboseli

By the time that our first day and a half was over, we had seen three of the Big Five, elephants, water buffaloes, and lions, just leaving rhinos and leopards to be seen later. It truly was an incredible start to our safari as we so many different animals and we especially enjoyed seeing some of the baby animals. It was also mating season, which was quite interesting as well. On the second day, we drove through Amboseli National Park to see many more animals before making our way to the border of Kenya and Tanzania to continue south on our safari. The full safari is a giant loop that starts south, then heads west, and eventually goes north and finally back east. We can certainly understand why people might make this one of their only destinations on safari, but we would recommending extending it through the many other national parks as we did.

General Thoughts on Visiting Kenya and Tanzania

On July 21, 2021July 21, 2021 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Africa, Kenya, Tanzania6 Comments

Now that we are back home, we wanted to take a moment to give some general thoughts on our trip to Kenya and Tanzania before we start giving details about each of the specific locations that we visited. First of all, especially after over a year and half without travel, getting to go someplace was its own reward in many ways. This, however, was really a trip of a lifetime and if you’ve watched any shows about the wildlife of Africa, our trip was like all of them in many ways. We would, without a doubt, recommend to anyone who enjoys nature and wants to see animals in their natural habitat, going on a safari is something that you should definitely try to do at some point. It wasn’t just about the animals, though, it was about the people as well, especially our guides, Shabani, David, and Perminus who you will hear more about as we talk about the specific parks that we visited.

Fascinating Crowned Cranes of East Africa

One thing that is clear is that travel during the age of the pandemic is not as easy as it used to be. Despite flight cancellations, delays, and getting tested for COVID four times in seventeen days, the end result of the trip was well worth the struggles that had to be overcome. Going on a safari isn’t necessarily for everyone and we saw people during our trip that probably shouldn’t have been on one. It takes patience, isn’t always comfortable, and you spend many hours driving through the parks looking for some of the more elusive animals. We found all of that to be part of the overall experience and it shouldn’t deter you from enjoying such an adventure.

We said this many times during our trip, on our site and to ourselves, every day of our trip was literally a different experience. Part of that is due to the fact that the parks themselves are different from one another as well as we covered a vast amount of area during our tour that took us to different parts of each of the countries. Some were savannahs, some were lakes, and one was even the world’s largest caldera. The other thing that is hard to describe is the actual abundance of wildlife that we saw as we travelled to each of the various parks. Whether lions, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, elephants, or any other animal, it wasn’t if we saw a handful, but in some cases there were thousands of them. We even learned a little bit of Swahili and visited a Maasai village, which we weren’t sure was going to happen due to COVID.

One of the Many Colorful Birds that We Saw

There is no way to accurately describe what our trip was like in a single post, so we will be providing many details and specific experiences over the next several weeks. Now that we have had time to get some sleep, we return to “normal” life and this is one of those times where we really are still absorbing the trip as opposed to starting to plan our next adventure. The world certainly has not returned to normal yet and depending on where you might be some places are getter better and others are getting worse. We certainly hope that the world of travel gets better if not for the people like us that like to travel, but also for the people that run the lodges, camps, hotels, tour companies, etc. that are all hurting and we saw that first hand during our trip.

Our African Safari Adventure Has Come to an End

On July 19, 2021July 19, 2021 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Africa, Kenya, Tanzania2 Comments

We are sitting in the Frankfurt airport waiting for the final leg of our flight to begin. We spent the last few days enjoying time in Nairobi and reminiscing about all of the animals that we saw. With about 8 thousand photographs to go through when we return home, it is definitely going to take some time to get through them all. Traveling internationally has also been an adventure as well, so we will actually be happy to get home and sleep in our own bed. It has truly been the trip of a lifetime, especially considering the over 19 month wait to travel once again.