Thread by @mwarv

Six years had passed since my last visit to Amboseli. I couldn't wait any longer. So when Uhuru gave us the uhuru to leave Nai, I got together with three friends & headed to Kilimanjaro's forecourt.

An elephant attack & other stories from #Amboseli.

#TembeaKenya #MagicalKenya

Our first stop was Kalekye's in Emali for fruits and veggies that @mumbi_muturi @joshkisamwa @truthslinger and I would enjoy during our 4-day, 3-night camping trip.

The juice from the oranges drips to your elbow! 🍊😋

After an early lunch in Kimana, we entered Amboseli through the Kimana Gate, set up camp at the co-named KWS Campsite, and headed for our first game drive at 1500hrs.

Being a migratory park, herds of elephants are not guaranteed in Amboseli. When we didn't see any for the first minutes of our game drive, we thought we'd come at the wrong time. But dark mounds in the horizon turned into elephants much to the delight of our eyes & cameras.

Elephants were here doing what elephants do : playing, eating, reflecting, entangling...

They were everywhere we looked and it was amazing. So peaceful... so gentle... so huge!

Our day's and the trip's highlight and scare came when two cars drove past us, speeding and hooting in a clear disregard for park rules on speed (40kph) and noise. We didn't realise how much this agitated the elephants until the matriarch displayed her not so gentle side.

Here's a video about the incident.

As the sun was calling it a day, Kilimanjaro gave us a glimpse of her snow-capped Kibo as two elephants and a calf struck a pose.

So I struck a shot!

We'd started the day weaving our way through Nairobi traffic and were ending it negotiating elephant traffic. We couldn't have asked for a better ending to the start of our trip.

At the campsite and under the starry skies, the elephant attack incident dominated conversations that were punctuated with wawawawa... helelelelele... sululululu...

Tuesday morning, we left camp before sun up with the faith that we'd capture the sunrise despite heavy cloud cover stretching beyond the horizon.

Our faith and early rise weren't in vain.

The sun pierced the clouds for less than 10 minutes which were just enough.

Amboseli is more than just elephants. So we decided to see just how many more animals we could capture over the next two days.

We saw many...

Many...

More!

Birdlife too is abundant in Amboseli.

Oya @kwskenya KPIs za huyu msee ni?

These tweeters are standard at many campsites in Kenya. If you don't see them, demand a refund.

Then there was this hornbill which made lunch of a locust.

I don't know why we didn't send a battalion of Zazus to deal with the locust invasion.

Amboseli Lodge was a hit with tourists visiting the Park a couple of years ago. Lake Amboseli's rising water levels seem to have forced it to close permanently. Today, elephants, zebras and other animals lodge here for free.

It looks like a premium photo shoot location.

We also got to visit a manyatta on the southern side of the Park, not far from the border with Tanzania.

We were observers to traditions and evening routines that haven't changed for years!

We made friends, made portraits and called it a day.

After three nights of camping, we went on our last game drive for a final immersion into the Amboseli wilderness that had embraced us in her warm beauty, showed us her wild side and whispered into our ears we shouldn't wait 6 years before our next return.

We agreed.

But first, Masai Mara for the Great Migration.