Amboseli National Park – Kenya

Amboseli National Park, Kenya

Amboseli is the land of giants. Amboseli is home to some of Africa’s oldest and bulkiest Elephants with enormous tusks. Towering above Amboseli is the jagged dome of Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa and the tallest free standing mountain in the world. An ever mutating patchwork of dusty plains and marshland, Amboseli is rich in wildlife and also an important ecological home to the Elephants and other mammals.

Amboseli National park consists of marshes fed by the thawing ice of Kilimanjaro. The average altitude of the Amboseli plains is 1000 meters above sea level. This vast and ever changing morass of marsh and open water is an important feeding and drinking point for large mammals during the dry season. The inspirational sight of Kilimanjaro snowcapped peak towering above the Amboseli plains provides a superb backdrop of the parks prodigious wildlife. One of the few places in Amboseli where you are allowed to leave the vehicle is at the observation hill. This is an isolated plug which offers superb views of the surrounding plains, marshland and the Elephants and Hippos as they wallow in the marshes during the day. The marshes also offer a great birding spot where dependent on the seasons you can view Flamingos among other water birds.
Dominating the western third of the park, Lake Amboseli is most often a dusty pan that fill up during the rainy season. When filled with water, wildlife and bird-life can often be found on this lake.