After leaving the Ngorongoro Crater area, we had a long day’s drive back through Tanzania to Arusha, where we had lunch, and then continued on to the border of Tanzania and Kenya, to the border town of Namanga in Kenay. We were headed to our next location, Kenya’s Amboseli National Park, renowned for its elephant population. We stayed at the most fabulous Ol Tukai Lodge in Amboseli. For two nights, only, we were there, and it was a lovely place. Very different from our previous lodges and I could easily have stayed longer. At Kenya’s immigration center, once again Lois was fingerprinted. All 10 fingers. She’d been fingerprinted when we arrived in Arusha, Tanzania, and I was waved right through. For me, clearing immigration was a breeze in Tanzania and Kenya, but each time I had to wait and wait for Lois while she was required to use the fingerprinting device. She was even fingerprinted at the Nairobi International Airport when we were flying out of Africa and, once again, I was waved right through. Finally, at this last location, she asked the immigration official why he waved me through while she had to be fingerprinted. He looked at me, then at her, and responded “It’s because of her age”…. once again confirming what I have already learned: being older does have its advantages! I laughed out loud when he said that and was glad to be over the magic number… 62? 65? Who knows? When the youthful Lois cleared immigration, we were met by our new driver at Namanga, who drove us throughout our visit to the Amboseli National Park in Kenya. Amboseli is located, seemingly, at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro , and I was beyond excited to see this fabled mountain. Our drive to the Ol Tukai Lodge, located within the Amboseli park, was dusty and quite bumpy, and took place during the late afternoon. We arrived at the Lodge as the sun was spectacularly setting. Our guide told us that “Amboseli” means, in Swahili, “dry and dusty”, and I certainly think this area is well named. You’ll notice in these photos how different the conditions are from those at the Ngorongoro Crater. The majority of Amboseli seems to be dry and dusty savvana-type vegetation, except for where the magic of water works its wonders, and then one will see lakes, streams and marshes. This miracle water comes from the melting snows of Mount Kilimanjaro and is a life-saver for this area. With the well-documented shrinking of Mount Kilimanjaro’s permanent ice field, coupled with the consistently declining snowfalls, there is great concern about the impact these changes will have on water availability in the entire region, and upon the human and animal life that depend upon it.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:09:27 +0000
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