Amboseli National Park

My first glimpse of African wildlife, extraordinary wildlife and beautiful landscapes

Well, Amboseli was our first stop of our 13 day expedition in Kenya. Something that we read when planning our trip was that most people try to skip Amboseli and Aberdare and spend more time in Maasai Mara, but we decided not to and yes, we were rewarded. You don't get the same type of giraffes in Maasai to begin with, so you'd lose out on that.
Amboseli was simply great, really loved the landscapes which included Mt. Kilimanjaro. We were lucky enough to see herds of elephants, giraffes, zebras and a group of flamingos. The weather was chilly during the day and rather cold in the night (I'm from Sri Lanka and it gets pretty hot here, 34 degrees during the day). My highlight at Amboseli was when we tried taking photographs of the milky way over Mt. Kilimanjaro at about 1AM. It was freezing, but I managed to get a few shots of the night sky in all its glory. (must do, if you're a photographer). One of the travellers in our group (my mother) is a bird watcher and she spotted quite a few number of birds in Amboseli.

We stayed one night and that was at the Amboseli Sopa Lodge. The hotel was good and the food was excellent. A small note to travellers coming in from hot climate countries, you might want to wear winter clothes when you go to bed since it gets very cold during the night. Transportation and guides were brilliant, they were the same two guides we had for the whole stay in Kenya. We travelled about in two safari ready luxury coaches with plenty of space for the eleven us + baggage.

Remember - Do not skip Amboseli :)

Most Exciting part of our safari - Amboseli park

Wildlife - The abundant number of elephants was astounding. we saw herds of Elephants roaming freely and many crossing the roads right in front of us.
Weather was extremely cool and cloudy, Scenery - With Mount Kilimanjaro the background was great.
Accommodation was in tented camp and the facilities like water and electricity were taken care very nicely.
Transport - The vehicle provided was Toyota van with flexible roof opening which was in perfect condition. even though it had a seating capacity of 6 people Kenya Walking provided the entire van for our exclusive use.
Guide- Our driver Mr. Zakari doubled up as our guide with in-depth knowledge of animals and birds. What's more his eyes never missed an animal or bird, man we could not see with naked eyes till we zoomed our cameras.
Highlights - We saw one lioness with 2 grown up cubs , 2 herds of Elephants coolly walking past our vehicle on two different occasions, Giraffes, Hyenas, Hippos, Zebras, Wild beasts, Gazelles, Impalas walk past our vehicle. Wild buffaloes and wart hogs were sighted within a few meters.

If seeing the big five and their various cousins is your goal, this is certainly the place.

Amboseli embodies much of what we think about Kenya: scenic land, kind and attentive people, good food at the Serena hotel, and exciting views of many of the animals of Africa, moving freely and naturally on their own land. (Views of Killimonjaro just add to the delight.) Our guide was a splendid endless source of information and humor (he referred to us as a "cocktail of characters"). Yes, the roads are dirt, bumpy and sometimes rutted. So? If you want paved roads, go to the zoo. Paved roads would just tempt people to zip by too fast to see what is at the Park. The way guides from competing companies cooperate on animal sighting ("hyena in its den" "wildebeasts on the move" "giraffes moving to their night stay" etc. makes the visit even richer. The Serena was very comfortable and in just the right spot.

I had a wonderful wildlife experience at Amboseli National Park

We were a group of 8 photographers, and we stayed at Amboseli Serina lodge for two nights. We were very pleased with our accommodation and food at the lodge. As we went just after the rains, the park was lush green everywhere. The wild animals had babies with them and it was a pleasure to watch the baby elephants with their mothers and their families. The bird life was less than we had expected , but the ambience of this park with the Mount Kilimanjaro at the background was breath taking. We photographed elephants blowing dust at each other and also baby elephants playing in the mud. The scenery was wonderful and we took sunset and sunrise photos at Amboseli with elephants and water holes in the foreground.
We experienced good weather, no rain and the temperatures were cooler than I had expected. The climate was very pleasant indeed. We travelled with Arunga tours and we had two very capable drivers /guides for our two four wheel drive vans. I would recommend Amboseli National Park to any traveller who appreciate wildlife

Awesome

It was a great moment in Kenya. all service by safari was awesome. am so delighted having them as my tour guide.

Stunning with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background and lots of elephants on display. Great place to bird too, with over 70 species seen on just one of our many game drives.

Elephants! Who doesn't love elephants? And lions! And Kilimanjaro's majestic rise above the flat plains. It's one of the most beautiful places you can visit.

Amazing! The elephants were stunning and I could watch them for days

The best place in the world to photograph large herds of dusty elephants

Elephants walk in the field near roads. Easy to see them. Elephant's mating season is short, only few days in February. Male elephants fight for females. I was lucky to watch and photograph those giants fight for a couple of times in a day. One time I saw three males fighting together. Amazing!

There are a lot of zebras and gazelles, some ostrich and birds, a few lions. I saw two couples of lions mating. In a small pond, there are some African kingfishers. They are the most beautiful kingfisher in the world, I think.

The lodge in the park is very comfortable, like any nice hotels in America. It has hot water and nice environment. The restaurant inside the lodge has nice food.

Guides are very friendly and professional. They know all secret spots in the park and bring you to get there at right time.

Amboseli is a beautiful park

Amboseli is a beautiful park. Animals are plentiful and there is always opportunity to take photographs of them with a backdrop of the kilimanjaro mountain.