I met a wildebeast researcher (Tom) at my colleague's place and he invited me to tag along with him to visit friends in Kenya for the weekend. I said..."hmmm OK!!!" So Tom, myself, Matt & Jane, David & Julianna, all came with to enjoy the time away from Arusha.We headed out Saturday for Namanga which is the border crossing for Kenya and Tanzania along the major route to Nairobi. We then went to Amboseli National Park where his friends were at the famous Amboseli Elephant Research Center inside of the park and at a baboon research camp just outside of the park.
I got the inside scoop about animal research in Africa while talking to Tom about the Masai people, elephants, wildebeast and all the other animals. Tom is a PhD student from Dartmouth and is tagging wildebeasts with GPS units to complete his research. Overall, it was a very educational and scenic weekend.
Amboseli is very unique in its topography and for another reason....
Kilimanjaro is the backdrop for the park! It is a beautiful park because of many reasons (lake plains, savana, elephants) but surely this is number one. The first night we drove onto a small extinct volcano to view sundown. 
We stayed just outside the park at a public camping site. Our tents were situated looking out towards the park. The fence was loose cable and wouldn't stop anything that wanted to move across. One elephant visits the camp every morning and knocks the fence down daily. The first night we heard lions and hyenas into the distance and not too far away. Stay by the fire and don't go wondering :) Seriously, the elephants would squash you if you did or worse you may get eaten. But it was fun to be so close to lions and hyenas calling at night. We awoke and made coffee as the sun came up over the horizon on Kilimanjaro.
Later that morning we had a nice game drive over the flat and dry plain of Amboseli. We saw many elephants and grazing ungulates.
Elephants in the swamp where there is a little water left.
One unique sighting was of a fresh zebra calf death due to either starvation or exhaustion. The buzzards just started their feast when we drove up to it. The pictured bird was the "leader" and it had the prime picks of the meat. They squabbled and fought as they ate just like on National Geographic. The bird would bury its head, way up the freshly opened cavity and dig around occasionally pulling out intestines, viscera, and other connective tissue. We were parked only 10 feet away so it was very intense.
We left on Monday morning, really early to get back since the drive was four hours. We had a safe drive and shared many stories about New Zealand, Australia, Africa and even Minnesota/North Dakota. The memories will live on!
Later that morning we had a nice game drive over the flat and dry plain of Amboseli. We saw many elephants and grazing ungulates.
Elephants in the swamp where there is a little water left.
One unique sighting was of a fresh zebra calf death due to either starvation or exhaustion. The buzzards just started their feast when we drove up to it. The pictured bird was the "leader" and it had the prime picks of the meat. They squabbled and fought as they ate just like on National Geographic. The bird would bury its head, way up the freshly opened cavity and dig around occasionally pulling out intestines, viscera, and other connective tissue. We were parked only 10 feet away so it was very intense.
We left on Monday morning, really early to get back since the drive was four hours. We had a safe drive and shared many stories about New Zealand, Australia, Africa and even Minnesota/North Dakota. The memories will live on!
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