Tulia Amboseli

 Saturday 8th June

We had a very early morning today as we had a hot air balloon flight booked.  Driving to the take off point it was pitch black, certainly no street lights around here,  There were 6 others on the flight, including our driver and a friend of his.  Sounds like he gets to go up fairly regularly, but it was her first time.  The flight was very serene but there was some cloud cover so it was cold as we went high up.  Twice we broke through the cloud layer and the second time we got spectacular views of Mt Kilimanjaro.  We first saw this from the ground yesterday and it is beautiful, rising majestically above the plains to a height of 5,895metres 

(thanks JoP ;) )

As well as the mountain we saw elephants, zebra, wilderbeest and giraffe.  We weren't low enough to get decent photos, but I could get a pretty good look with my binoculars.  The landing was a bit rougher than ones we experienced last year in Turkey as there was a bit of a breeze.  We didn't tip over though so have to be thankful for that.  A glass of customary champagne and then it was breakfast time.

We did a game drive straight after  breakfast and went 'hunting' for a 52 year old Tusker elephant called Craig. Several of the local Maasai keep an eye on him and save him from poachers.  He is not in the Amboseli National Park, but instead stays in a 'conservancy'.  These are areas where the Maasai own and live off the land, different to a National Park where no-one can live. We spent several hours looking for him, doing some real bush bashing and off road driving.  I stood up most of the time (the roof was raised) and found it more comfortable than being jostled around in the seats.  We came across several big bull elephants - none were Craig - heaps of giraffe (17 in a single herd), ostrich, zebra and assorted antelope/gazelle.  We eventually gave up on Craig and headed back for lunch.

After a bit of a break we headed out towards Amboseli National Park to look for lions.  We were there only a short time - seeing a couple of cheetahs - when our driver got a call saying they had found Craig.  We raced back to the conservancy and found him heading to a water hole.  Well, he is huge and his tusks almost reach the ground. We were allowed out of the truck to watch him amble towards the water hole, as he is very used to people, and then watched him drink.  Not only could we see him drink but we could hear him as well.  We spent around 20 minutes with Craig before he wandered off.  It was incredible being so close.

Hopefully you can hear him drinking.
Back to the camp for dinner and bed. 

Sunday 9th June
The plan for today was to leave the camp at 8:00am and return at 2:00pm, taking a box lunch and spending the day inside Amboseli National Park. Amboseli is pretty big at a bit over 3,000 square kilometres. I'm sure our driver, Daniel, had a rough plan but the drives are governed to a certain extent by where the animals are.  You can always tell something is going on by the number of trucks parked on the side and - often - in the middle of the road. We came across one such roadblock watching a group of gazelles and zebras all looking in the same direction. Normally they wouldn't create such a stir but the rumour was that there were 3 lions sleeping behind the small grass mound that those animals were looking at. We stayed there for around 45 minutes, after the zebra and gazelles were gone, but didn't see the lions.  We had a few more near misses but never managed to see any. A bit of a shame but we did see warthogs, pelicans, flamingos along with the usual zebras, elephants and gazelles. We didn't see any giraffe as strangely they are not in this park.

At one point we were standing on Lake Amboseli (now dry) and saw a herd of around 60 elephants. They were some way in the distance but coming our way, so we waited.  They passed very close by and seemed happy, then we drove ahead and positioned ourselves so they would come past on our left.  Unfortunately a few broke off and went to our right and very young elephant found himself on his own and confused. This caused some mayhem as the mother and a few others ran in to protect the baby and started trumpeting. We drove away fairly quickly and could hear them trumpeting for quite a while afterwards. Was a little bit of a concern at the time but was another amazing encounter.

We had lunch near Observation Hill, then went up for a look over the very flat plains. Arrived back at camp at 3:00pm

Just prior to dinner we met Barry and Jude, the owners of Tulia Amboseli.  Jude is good friends with Tracy's brother and sister-in-law and are the ones who donated the 3 night stay at Tulia that we bid on.  We had met Jude about 25 years ago, though none of us really remembered each other.  We had a good chat though about family and the camp.

After dinner we went on a night game drive.  Though we didn't see a lot of animals, we did see a genet cat, honey badger and some eland that we hadn't seen before.  It was fun in the dark driving through the bush.

Monday 10th June
A slower day today, though we were woken earlier than our alarm by some Zebra at the waterhole - and then we heard a hot air balloon overhead.  Not a bad way to wake up,  and when we went outside, Kilimanjaro was in its full glory with very litte cloud cover.

We headed out on another game drive at 10:00am with no real plan or destination.  Driving down some pretty ordinary tracks and through bush land making our own, we saw the usual zebra, elephants and gazelles. I know how that sounds and it is a shame when we no longer stop for zebra (unless there are cute babies) or gazelle. We did come across a herd of 23 giraffe and stopped to watch them. Our driver had never seen a group so big.  They too stopped and watched us for about 10 minutes before moving on.
Daniel, our driver since we arrived, then took us to his house where his wife presented me with a necklace and Trace with a bracelet.  Both are nice but I won't wear mine after today. Trace will likely keep hers on for a while.

Back to the camp for lunch, before a lazy afternoon and 'Sundowners' at 5:30, where we were joined by Jude. Prior to that though we had 3 Zebras and an Elephant appear at the waterhole that we can see from our tent. The Zebra's didn't stay long but the elephant stayed for about 15 minutes, drinking and playing in the mud.

For Sundowners, one of the guides, Moses, walked us through the bush as per our bush walk on day 1. The difference being that we finished at a small fire, a bar and 4 chairs. We were given a welcome drink and then later could order from a pretty well stocked bar and there was popcorn, cashew nuts and mini beef skewers. We had a lovely time watching the beautiful sunset,  and talking to Jude, before bein driven back to camp for dinner - which neither of us really needed.

Sadly we check out tomorrow after a wonderful, exciting and restful 4 days.