Pictures of Safari @ Amboseli

Hi everyone, I still have 15 or so pic's to add and it takes a while.

Here is the link for the 30 or so already posted;

Enjoy!

HTTP://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.stlaurent/safaritortiliscampamboseli?feat=directlink

Last Day in Africa

Another great night of rest. We woke up at 6:30am and began to pack. Our coffee arrived at 7:00am and was set out front for us. As I was packing I heard Jasmina yelling out "get away from there - leave it!...Who do you think you are?!" It was a black faced Monkey that was on the table with arm fully extended with hand in the cookie tin! You guessed it, he got all of our cookies. He then came back for the sugar tin, and once more for the box! We tried to chase after it but it was too late. The coffee was still good, black.

We had some breakfast, Jasmina bought some stuff at the curio shop and we headed to the air-strip. Before our plane touched down we managed to get some great pic's of Kilimanjaro as she was clear today.

The return flight was direct to Nairobi, arriving at 10:00am. Our pre-arranged taxi was awaiting us and we arrived at Dan and Trudy's at 11:00am. Dan arrived from work and took us to the village market so we could buy some last minute Nick-knacks. We had lunch there and picked up a few steaks for dinner. Beef is cheap in Nairobi. It is the same price as chicken. 4 x Rib cuts at 3/4 inch thick was approx. $12.00 USD. In Ontario, we pay more for just one!

Time was going by fast now as we were back packing before dinner. Our flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam departs at 10:05pm so we had to leave the house at 7:00pm.

We had a great dinner and a great bottle of wine. Stellenryck ~ South Africa Cabernet Sauvignon 1994. Excellent!

It was already time to go to the airport. Dan arranged for a driver and came along for the ride and to say good bye.

The drive wasn't too long for a Friday afternoon in Nairobi. We checked in, made it to the gate on time. KLM did double book our reserved "comfort zone" seats. After an hour of discussions and arguments, we ended up with emergency isle seats.It was a great 2 weeks. It literally felt like were were there for 1 month.

We boarded the plane and were ready for an 8 hour flight to A-Dam (arrival at 5:30am) with some well needed sleep.

Sun Downer

We had a hearty lunch, hit the pool for about an hour or so then cleaned up to meet Eric in at the bar for a coffee before our afternoon game drive.

The game drive was just as amazing as all others. Lot's of animals and birds. We seen the Lion's again but this time there were only 3 so we were constantly looking behind us! :-)

We ended the afternoon on what seemed to be the tallest hill in the park. Kilimanjaro to one side and Lake Amboseli to the other. The lake hardly existed any more due to the dry climate.

Eric, in full Masai Warrior dress, set up a table, chairs and whipped up a few gin tonic's for us as the sun set to the west. It was a great place to be. As Jasmina put it, how can something so beautiful and peaceful be so dangerous?

We headed back to camp in the dark. We stopped at the same spot where the Lion's were last and yup, you could see the glare in their eye's from the truck's lamps. Amazing.

We invited Eric to join us for dinner (with permission from John) that evening. He was back to civilian dress and we had a good evening with great conversation.

It wasn't long before it was time to go to sleep.

Game Drive ~ Amboseli

Following a good nights sleep, we woke up at around 5:30am. Our wake up call with coffee and cookies arrived at 6:00am on the dot. This camp is much different than at Elsa's. Our bed, washroom and shower was in a tent under a grass thatched roof and finished wood (raised) floor. out front, there were two chairs a table and lounger with two pillows. It was a great set up to have coffee outside with Kilimanjaro in the distance.

We showered and met up with Eric at exactly 6:30am to kick off our morning game drive with a planned bush breakfast.

We left the camp and within 3km's Eric said "there there are!".......Lion's! Resting in plain view within approx. 500 feet from us. It was amazing! Mom and 4 offspring. They were older and just about the same size as mom. Yesterday evening we were told by another group of folks that they had seen young baby's with their mother, today Eric assumed that the Dad was probably looking after the young'ins which is why he was not with the pride. I snapped quite a few pics that look pretty good. I'll Post them later.

We continued on. It was a great morning and Kili was somewhat clouded over. Eric took us to the top of a small hill, pulled out the table and 3 chairs. What a great bush breakfast overlooking the Savanna of Amobseli!.

We finished up our morning by visiting a Masai village not too far from camp. The Masai people are cow herders / farmers who wear very colourful beads. They believe that the wild animals belong the wild and the cows were given to them. The Masai are nomadic and move frequently. Their villages are built starting with a surrounding of acacia bushes (very thorny). This keeps out the wildlife and night predators. Inside the village, there are holding pens for the cows made of branches and then their huts/houses. These huts are built by the women (as the men tend to the herds). The huts are made of branches, straw and cow dung for waterproofing and insulation.

This particular village we visited has 4 families comprised of 110 Masai. Yes, each man has an average of 12 wives.

The men are Masai Warriors who protect their cattle and the village. To distinguish the Masai Warrior from other (non Masai), they have scars on their cheeks, their bottom centre two teeth have been removed, their heads are slightly pointed and in some cases, their ear lobes are stretched. It was at this point that Jasmina and I realized that our driver "Eric" was a Masai Warrior too! You'll see in the pics.

We were greeted at the entrance of the village by the Doctor and the village chief. Their English is okay. They welcomed us and said they will show us how they make fire every day as thy have no lighters or matches, how the Doctor heals and they would show us their homes.

Just then, the village women and young men came out chanting and dancing to greet us. It was pretty cool. Jasmina joined in the ritual dance. You might have seen this on National Geographic but what they do is compete on who (men) can jump the highest. There was one Masai woman that held Jasmina's hand as they both jumped up and down. It was amazing. I was allowed to snap pics and did so.

Once the dance was over we clapped and thanked them. We followed the Dr. under an acacia tree where he proceeded to show us what plants and roots were used to treat specific ailments. Then they showed us how to make fire. It's a serious process. You need a piece of soft wood, a hard wood stick and lots for donkey or zebra dung...... It took one boy to hold the soft wood and three other boys, each their turn to rub the stick between their hands. It only took about 1 minute to see smoke..... they added more dung and dry grass and slowly blew into the pile (no pun).....Voila, Fire!

We visited a hut and it was quite the experience. Enter a little opening, turn right (180 degrees), there's a little hallway for lack of a better word, all the while crouching over, turn left (45 degrees) and you are in. In front of you is a mud stone fire pit for cooking, to the left is the area where the children sleep and to the right is where the parents sleep. Beds are straw and a top layer of cow hide (leather). They cook, eat, sleep and procreate (allot) here.

Once the tour was completed, were could not leave without looking at all of what the village women make. It was like a mini-market of jewelry made from beads, zebra hair from the tails, wood and or bone carvings, walking sticks and clubs.....and so much more. The way to shop is this, you shop with the chief and give him your selections. Once done, you sit under that Acacia tree once more as he displays everything in front of you. Then you begin to bargain. He pulls out his pencil...... (a tree twig) and continues to scratch the earth in front of us. We ended up at half of what he proposed but Jasmina and I knew it would help the village. With the money, they buy beads and produce from another village at the base of Kilimanjaro. The Masai do not grow a garden. They survive on beef, milk and beef blood. They will only kill a wild animal if it is threatening their heard. Of late, this village has and is buying or trading for vegetables as last year there was a devastating drought and it has reduced their cattle by 70%.

We said our good bye's as they chanted and danced once again.!

Eric, took us back to the camp so we could have lunch, a swim and freshen up for our afternoon game drive.

Tortilas Camp, Amboseli

Hey everyone.....

Sorry for not updating the Blog but you probably guessed, there was no connectivity with Bell....

We left Dan and Trudy's at 5:30am to catch our flight out of Wilson airport at 7:30am with Safari Link. We used the same cabbie that drove us the afternoon prior as he was kind enough to return Jasmina's Blackberry case....

The flight was short with 2 stops on the way. I had the first row seat in a cesna 206 single propeller. It was an adventure. The first touch down was West Savo air strip and we came upon a Cheetah chasing a Tomson Gazelle.... They split ways as we arrived to pick up one passenger. Without delay we were air born again. Dropped off another couple at East Savo and had a 15 hop to our destination.

We were greeted by 'Eric' our driver for the rest of the trip. He was driving a 6 passenger land cruiser with canvas top and no sides. We did a game drive on the way to camp that lasted almost 2 and a half hours. We saw Wilder beast, tones of birds, Pink Flamingo's, Zebra's, Masi Giraffe, and lots of Hippo's.

We arrived at camp at approx. 3:00pm and were greeted by John and Clair our hosts. We were walked to our tent (#5) and decided to just relax and take a nap before dinner. Oh, I forgot to mention the fist view of Mount Kilimenjaro....absolutely amazing! It is 19,340 feet above sea level and has a blanket of snow running down the tip right side. Just beautiful!

We had a good dinner and tucked in early to prep for our morning game drive and bush breakfast.

Safari at Amboselli is Booked

Hi there, just a quick note to say that our trip is booked.

We will leave tomorrow morning at 7:10am and will return on Friday morning at 10:00am.

I have added a link above but I will also put it here:

http://www.chelipeacock.com/php/camps.php?mid=1

~ We're back from the Village Market and we had a fun time shopping. This is a nice place with good eats. I had a philly cheese steak sammy and chips. It was really good. We went to the Masai Worrier Market and picked up a few things made by the locals. Pricing is okay but I hear that on Friday afternoon, there is another market that everything is cheap-cheap!..

We stopped for a beer (again), this time it was a cold Tusker. Nice! only $2.00.

We are now dressed and ready for our afternoon of golf. Dan should be home from work any minute now.

TTYS!

Gorilla Pics

Good Morning.

Here is a pic of the Sabinyo Family and here is the link to our Gorilla Trekking and the Lodge where we stayed. Hope you enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/dave.stlaurent/Rwanda?feat=directlink