Under the gaze of Mount Kilimanjaro in the South East corner of Kenya lies Amboseli National Park, the second most popular park in Kenya after the Masai Mara. The park’s large ecosystem spreads from Kenya to Tanzania and is one of the best places to see large groups of elephant. It’s also a bird lovers paradise with swamps in the park attracting over four hundred species of bird life.
Mount Kilimanjaro
 
The swamps that are a major part of this area could clearly be seen as flew into Amboseli from the Rift Valley
Amboseli National Park
 
Excitement rose when we spotted a large herd of elephants. It wouldn’t be long until we would be following them on the ground.
Amboseli National Park
 
Protecting the ecosystem was the main reason Amboseli was declared a National Park in 1974. For most of the year Amboseli Lake is dry but if it floods in the rainy season, it becomes very salty. Thankfully there is actually a lot of fresh water in the park too …underground streams from then melting snow on Kilimanjaro feed into the marsh land creating a haven for over four hundred species of birds.
Amboseli National Park   Amboseli National Park
 
It was exciting seeing our first herd of elephant especially as there quite a few young ones with them.
Elephants in Amboseli National Park     Elephants in Amboseli National Park

Elephants in Amboseli National Park
Check out these tusks!

 
Outside the park, most of the land in the area is owned by the Masai people. Lodges such as the one we were staying in lease the land from the Masai and help support the village. We learnt a lot about this support during our visit to the Masai village. I would certainly recommend doing this.  
Masai villagers in Amboseli National Park 
Just behind our lodge was one of the few high points on this generally flat land. Giraffe were making themselves at home here..perhaps they knew this was the spot to see one of Africa’s fabulous sunsets.
Amboseli National Park
Sunset over Amboseli National Park
Have you been to an African wildlife park?
 
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