Best Kenya & Tanzania Day 6

Day 06 - Sunday, September 20, 2009 - Lake Naivasha/ Overland to Amboseli National Park/ "A Day in the Life" of a Kenyan School

There was no wake up call at 6:30 as promised, but we were up and ready to go at 6:15. The porters were there to collect the bags when I went out at 7:00 to pay the bill and upload the journal from yesterday.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with the phone connection so we all had to pay our bills in cash. The internet was also having problems so I sent the journal to our son, the Tech Guru, and hopefully he was able to put it up for us.

I checked the weather stats on this beautiful Sunday morning. It was 59ºand 83% humidity. We had breakfast, checked our room one more time, and verified that our bags were in the trucks.

After saying goodbye to all of the lodge staff, we made the two and one half hour trip back to Nairobi. Along our route we saw thousands of people dressed in their Sunday best walking to and from church.

We had a brief stop at a modern shopping center to use the rest rooms and look for a few things. Barikiel is trying to help me find a G3 Broadband card for internet access, but the one sold there had limited range.

We had a difficult trip over very dirty and dusty roads because of road construction detours. We stopped at 1:30 at Paradise Gallery to eat our box lunches.

All of the land surrounding this tiny oasis is parched. Leonard told us the Maasai people who live out in the bush are water independent and only drink the milk from the goats and blood from their cows for moisture to survive.

We had a leisurely lunch and then browsed in the gift shop. The restrooms here were very clean and as we are discovering, a welcome find in this part of the world.

After lunch we continued overland towards Amboseli National Park, so Barikiel and Leonard opened the roof for us. We also stopped at an abandoned Maasai Village - one family krals.

This nomadic family has moved away because of the drought. The huts are made of mud, cow dung, and sticks.

One man would be the patriarch of the village consisting of his wives and their many children. The number of wives and the number of cattle indicate the wealth of the men in this society.

At the gate of Amboseli National Park we were met by a group of Maasai people selling their carvings and jewelry. One lady asked me to change dollars into shillings for her.

Once I helped her, it started a flood of people who wanted to convert money. We were sorry we could only help a few of them.

After a few purchases, photos and a lot of goodwill because Gennie was giving away Obama post cards, we started into the park.

Our first discovery was a rare gerenuck, the tallest of the antelope family. It was standing on its hind legs trying to eat the branches from a tree.

The game drive in the park took us over an immense dry lake bed, now only fine dust. In addition to the many animals we have been seeing, we saw elephants and ostriches.

In the distance we could see our first glimpse of Mount Kilimanjaro, as we were on the border of Tanzania. Amboseli National Park shelters more than 400 bird species and is said to have once been the home to over 50 species of animals. Because of the drought we saw so many carcasses of animals that have not made it this year!

We were very excited to see our first elephants. Amboseli's elephants, which are said to be among the biggest in the country, are fond of the swamps.

Fortunately, there are still a few spring fed oasis where the animals can find cool water for survival. We left the park feeling reassured that there was still a little water and that optimistically, the rainy seasons would come soon.

We arrived at the camp, Sentrim Tented Camp just outside the park at 6:00. We had just enough time to unpack and take a shower.

At 7:00 we were to meet in the bar area for our regular evening information session. Our dinner was served at 7:30 and we were treated to music by several Maasai men who will be guarding our camp during the night.

We came back to write the journal and sort our photos for the day. The wind was very strong, blowing the sides of our tent so we had a very cool breeze.

There is generator that provides electricity from 5:00 to 11:00 PM and then for a few hours in the morning. Because there is absolutely no light pollution here, the stars seem so bright and so close you can reach up and touch them.

Accommodations: Sentrim Amboseli Tented Camp - - - Meal: B, L, D

If you wish to travel with OAT Click Here.

To receive $50 per person off your first reservation with OAT, mention the following information when reserving your Overseas Adventure Travel Trip: Mr. Victor Garcia Customer #673062

A few journals ago you mentioned water buck sleeping outside your porch. Well, later that same day mom and dad had 2 bucks outside their house, one with Christmas lights all wrapped up in his huge antlers. Mom wasn't real happy because they were eating her geraniums! :)

Day 13: Azores & Madeira: Portugal's Unspoiled Archipelagos

Island Beauties

Island Beauties

Island Beauties

Island Beauties

Island Beauties

Previous Next

Day 13 - Saturday, April 22, 2022 - Depart for U.S.

The hotel prepared a box breakfast for us as we had to be in the lobby way before the breakfast room was open.

Last night we found out that our departure flight back to...

Continue Reading Day 13