Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Day 2 - Amboseli National Park

let's not think too much, there ain't no problems
so long as we keep this low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low-key
Lowkey - NIKI

There will be many pictures in this post, brace yourself. This was when the whole day was spent in Amboseli National Park. The day before K told me, meet at 7 AM if I'm not mistaken and my head was like, what?!? I'm not a morning person at all, but I'm glad I was never late for him or anyone else throughout this trip. The thing that concerned me the most about this full day game drive was how's the toilet situation, like no I don't want to go to the bushes. K assured me there will be a stop at a lodge for me to to use the washroom and I promised him, I'd try to only go one time, which I did. I just took little sips of water that whole day :D So that morning on the way out of the camp, still very near to the camp compound, I saw an elephant which is very common because there are many elephants in Amboseli. K wasn't even impressed. I guess for the people there, seeing animals like this up close is so normal. It was quite a cloudy day, like the clouds were kinda low in the sky which if I'm being honest made me a bit gloomy. Pictures here are in sequence of being taken. So among the first we saw were a group of warthogs. K pointed out that when they eat, they sometime kneel on their 2 front legs. They run funny which I love but couldn't figure out why. K said their tails go up when they run and I guess that's it :D Then there's zebras of course. They, the wildebeests, and gazelles are very common that I don't think much about them.

Then K got us to this spot where there were many vultures. Some of them were eating a dead baby zebra. They were scary because they were very fierce and they would fight each other. K said only the strong will eat so there were many others who didn't eat and it was interesting that the rest would just stand nearby with their backs turned. The bigger birds are the marabou storks and even them could only stand and watch. Thinking back about it now, I was so excited to see a vulture in the wild back in Paracas, Peru, and then in this trip seeing this group of vultures in their community doing what vultures do, well it's quite an experience.

Then there's more elephants. Seeing baby elephant will always be a happy moment and it's really a happy thing to see a number of baby elephants there. Then there's also giraffes, I don't know why I didn't have many giraffes pictures from here. The other animals in the giraffe picture are the Thomson's gazelle. Then there's also baboons, also nice seeing them in their community with their babies as well.

Oh, the local Maasai villagers are allowed to bring their cows to graze in the park, so yes there were cows as well. I asked K if they would travel around the park for days with their cows and K said no, they would return back later. Considering that there are so many animals eating the grass or plants there, it's amazing how somehow nature provides.

Then K heard there's a cheetah sighting and we went there. There were 2 cheetahs actually, but this cheetahs were so far off that I couldn't seem the clearly, like I couldn't see their spots from where I was. This is a picture of one of them after I cropped the picture to just focus on it. It's pretty.

Back at the swamp, the one lion from yesterday was still there. The dark brown animal below with the interesting horn is a waterbuck and the one below it, I think they are gazelles, I don't know, maybe they're young impalas? I feel embarrassed that I cannot differentiate them. Anyways, that morning there's also buffalo in the swamp.

Then there's like this body of water, like a lake where there's a hippopotamus. We saw it eat awhile and it ate like a machine, like gosh it looks tiring :D Part of the lake looked so still and I love how still it looked and there's flamingoes in there too. Okay the hippo and the flamingoes might be in a different body of water, I couldn't remember now. Side note: somehow the only memory I had when I was on a field trip to the zoo when I was in kindergarten was of seeing a hippopotamus. I couldn't remember any other animal, only the hippo and I remember seeing its feet because its pool had glass around it. I remember what we wore, the uniform with the pink hat. I don't know if this memory is real. If only there's a way I can be sure. Other side note: one time in Singapore zoo, my dad asked if we're going to see flamingoes next. I said no because we're not at the bird park, but actually in the end we did see some flamingoes in the zoo. In this trip, I knew I would have the opportunity to see flamingoes. I just didn't expect to see them in Amboseli. Before the trip, I wondered if my dad (in spirit) would see it with me, but I didn't feel him each time I did see flamingoes. I don't know what happen when we die. Last side note: sometime when I travel alone, I imagine all my dead grandparents, aunts, and uncles were with me in spirit because it's nice to travel to see new places that they had never been and it makes feel like I'm being watched over by many and now I imagine they bring my dad along too :D

By mid-afternoon, the sun is out and it was quite hot. For lunch, K has collected the packed lunch from the camp and he sent me off with that up a path to a viewing point in a hill while he hung out with his other friends. I guess it's kinda weird funny because it's like off you go, but I think it's kinda nice to have that alone time. There were a number of people there but I managed to get a bench and table after I saw a South Asian looking family was about done with their lunch. So in this viewing point, there's a lot of chirpy birds. Then you have this wide open view of Amboseli, with elephants and other animals in the distance. It's pretty arid. In fact one of the things that I found fascinating are the sand-spouts (I think that's what they're called). They're in the first picture below. I love seeing them; sometime they move really fast, sometime they just dissipate. The sand and dust are really on you in Amboseli. After that full day in the park, I realized I was dusted with sand.

This last picture is an interesting one for me. It's taken on the way down the hill after lunch. I saw these 2 elephants some distance away from each other and I just had so many questions. Do they know each other? Was the one behind following the one in the front? It was perhaps one of the most interesting thing I saw all day. I just marvelled seeing them.

I thought Amboseli was great. I know I started perhaps not feeling all that great but I love the place and I really won't mind coming back - can I? Will I have another chance? By the way, after each dinner the 2 nights there, I stood outside my tent a bit and just looked at the stars. There were so many of them visible and I just wondered. More so because I've been going through lectures on Practical Astronomy. I don't absorb much of it, but I do learn that no we can't really see north star from this part of the world, like from Jakarta where I'm from, it's a definite no. Anyways, I do wonder if the lecturer teaching it would be excited to stargaze in a place like Amboseli. I also think it must be nice to observe the stars with someone who can give you explanation about it. Okay, so that's Amboseli. For pictures from there, you can go here.

:) eKa @ 10:15:00 PM •