Day 1 - 2 - Amboseli National Park, Kenya

18th Aug'2012 & 19th Aug'2012 - Nairboi - Amboseli - We landed at Nairobi airport and were met up by our tour operator. Our driver and tour guide Isaac was introduced and we started our safari sojourn filled with excitement and anticipation. 
We were warned of our long drive ahead to Amboseli National Park - about 140kms away from Nairboi which would take almost 6 hrs to reach. It was around 8:30 am (Kenya time) that we left the airport. I had my request laid out in terms of breakfast (I need to be fed at regular intervals). We stopped around 11:00 am at a small cafe where we spotted a crow with a white neck and breast. I got to know later that it's a "Pied crow" and these are what is found across Kenya generally.

We moved on towards Amboseli (a few kms of bad road) and then turned onto the actual route to the National Park.

Sweeping plains, spectacular landscapes were my first thoughts....wow!

At the first sight of a Wildebeest, the 4 of us (me, TJ, Sneh & Radhakrishnan) screamed at Isaac to stop the car. A bewildered Isaac was not sure what went wrong until he saw us frantically clicking pictures of the Wildebeest and Zebra. He had a smile on his face......little did we know what was in store for us.

We checked in at Amboseli Kibo wildlife lodge for a quick-lunch and moved on to our first actual game drive.

We saw lots of Elephants, Thomson's gazelles, a few giraffe and a couple of Masai giraffe (darker than the regular Giraffe)

We were nearing the end of the evening game drive when we spotted a herd of elephants with babies amongst them. As they crossed the road in front of us, one of the teenagers was left behind and came charging towards the vehicles in confusion making furious noises. A call from one of the elder elephants redirected the teenager towards the path of the other elephants. Phew! Now we know what a "Close call" means!

As we headed back towards the lodge, we spotted a waterbuck and just about managed to grab a picture in the fading light.

As we headed out the next morning checking out of Kibo after breakfast, we spotted Crown crested cranes dancing. The pair was a very pretty picture posing beautifully. Too bad I can't put up many pictures here:(

Superb Starling male and Hildebrandt starling - brightly coloured birds, an Oriole? (not sure), Sparrows or finches (not sure) were also spotted. 

Male Ostriches trying to woo the female as also Grey Herons were some of the birds spotted during our trip at Amboseli. 

We also spotted an Eagle (not sure which one) in the twilight zone the previous day.

Interestingly, apart from the baby elephants,we also managed to catch sight of a baby giraffe, a baby wildebeest and a baby gazelle (have to check out what all these babies are called??) Honestly they do not look like babies at all!!

Before departing the early morning views of Mount Kilimanjaro (the prime reason for me being in Amboseli) and the snow-capped mountain view on our way out of the park gave me hopes that I was going to return soon.

But for now we were on our way to Lake Nakuru via Nairobi. Get set for another long drive to another spectacularly beautiful and amazingly different landscape.

Evening sky at Amboseli.