If you are lucky enough to get to visit Africa and go on a safari, it is one of the most amazing experiences anyone will ever have while traveling. You will probably want to go back again as soon as you can as seeing this only once is not going to be enough.
One of the things I didn’t know before I visited Africa was something referred to as the Big Five. This is a list of animals who are named the Big Five based on their difficulty to hunt (originally on foot), the danger when hunting them, and also because of the threat from poaching or the decline in their numbers. The term was then adopted by the tour companies for the main five to try to see when visiting. They don’t all exist in the same areas, and some are harder to see than others.
The Big Five include the following:
African Bush Elephant
African Buffalo
African Leopard
Black Rhino
Lion
We were lucky enough to see all of them on our trip, though we went to Kenya and Tanzania, so we didn’t see the Black Rhino until we got to Tanzania but we got to see the others many times while in Kenya.
The African Leopard is supposed to be a hard one to get to see but we saw them twice in Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and then saw another in Tanzania.
There are also a few other lists you may hear referred to as well, the Ugly Five and the Shy Five.
Then there is the Ugly Five:
Hyena
Marabou Stork
Vulture
Warthog
Wildebeest
The Ugly Five can also be seen on most safaris, we saw them all as well. Although I have to say that Warthogs were one of my favorites and their ugliness grew on me quickly and I fell in love with them. They love rolling around in the mud and their horns don’t help with their looks, but you see them running and their tail wagging as they run it is just so adorable.
And the Shy Five:
Aardvark
Aardwolf
Bat-Eared Fox
Meerkat
Porcupine
As far as the Shy Five, we didn’t see any of these except for the bat-eared fox. Most of these are nocturnal animals out only after dark so not easy to see. However, we did get to see an termite hill that an Aardvark had obviously been digging at during the night before.
All of these animals: big, ugly or shy are just amazing to get to see and experience their traits and how they live. If you are able to make it on a safari in Africa I would suggest jumping at the chance. Our safaris have been my favorite travel experience of everything we have been lucky to experience.
Note that all photos used in this post were taken by DaisyChainFun.
Amboseli National Park is in the southern part of Kenya in the Rift Valley. The Amboseli National Park is 353 square kilometers (219.3 square miles) and the game reserve portion is 243.65 Square Kilometers (151.4 square miles). The views of Mount Kilimanjaro make it worth coming to this park alone, but it is also known for its large elephant population.
Mount Kilimanjaro sits across the border in Tanzania and is a dormant volcano. It is 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) above sea level. It is the highest mountain in Africa, the highest free-standing mountain in the world and the highest volcano in the Eastern Hemisphere. This mountain is a major spot for hiking\climbing, there are seven established trails to Uhuru Peak. There is a large ice cap and glaciers which are the largest glaciers in Africa. It was created from volcanic activity more than 2 million years ago.
Lake Amboseli has some dry lake beds, at some point it was a very large lake and does fill up some during the rainy season.
Observation Hill is a high point in the park that offers great views of Mount Kilimanjaro’s peak, the plains of the park and the swamp areas. There is a variety of animals inhabiting Amboseli including Maasai Giraffe, zebras, cheetahs, monkeys and baboons, and a large variety of birds. There are multiple swamps throughout the park, which is why the elephants are drawn to living in this area.
There are 58 families or herd of elephants with a family consisting of 12-36 elephants. In 2010 when they started tracking the Elephants in Amboseli there were approximately 1,200 elephants, in 2018 the numbers had gone up to around 2,000. Elephants live an average of 60 years in the wild. As of 2020, Ganesh was the oldest elephant in Amboseli at 56 years old and is the oldest elephant in Amboseli as of that point.
This is a herd of elephants coming out of a deep swamp area.
The very young baby elephants walk underneath one of the adult females, usually their mother, as the swamp is over their heads so they can’t see where they are going. They hold their truck up to get air while crossing the swamps. This is a photo of two of the babies coming out of the swamp. The smallest was completely submerged while the other was big enough to cross as you can see how deep the swamp was based on the mud line on the larger baby.
The gestation period for mother elephants before giving birth is 22-27 months. The herds are all females and babies as the females work together to take care of the young. The oldest female elephant lead the families. Males are near but do not stay with the herd. An elephant average weight is 6-7 tons.
Elephants have elbows on their front legs and knees on their back so they bend differently. Their feet absorb the pressure of their weight which is why they are able to walk so quietly, you literally can’t hear them make any noise as they move along. You can also tell if an elephant is right or left-handed by their tusks, if the shorter tusk is on the right then they are right-handed.
They can communicate semi-sonically so you don’t even hear them talking. The males can leave the group and go off alone but know where their family is so they are able to join again later. They also have very good memories, they can remember things for up to 10 years.
When driving around the park you will see large fenced in areas, they have to fence in huge areas for 5-6 years to let the vegetation grow back after elephants have devastated it. Elephants eat about 300 pounds of food per day and drink about 200 liters of water. With each elephant needing to each that much and Amboseli having a huge population of elephants, they can clear vegetation of an area fairly fast so the park has to help manage letting areas regrow.
The hippos love the swampy areas of this park as well. Hippos are the most dangerous animal in Africa.
Amboseli is home to “White Wildebeest” which is different from those you see in the Serengeti or other areas of Kenya. They have white stripes unlike the others. The White Wildebeest don’t migrate like the other Wildebeest. Those in the Serengeti migrate in huge herds.
We also so Warthogs, Zebra, Giraffe and Ostrich.
There were also so many water birds along the swampy areas and the lake. There are now Lesser Flamingos in Amboseli, this has only been since about 2018 as thousands have always migrated to Lake Nukuru. But with the changes in weather and more rain then in the past, the water level at Lake Nukuru has risen and the algae that the flamingo come to eat can’t grow like before so they are finding other places in Kenya to go and Amboseli is one of those places.
The park supplies a few places to stay with Kibo Camp and Ol Tukai Lodge. We stayed at Kilima Safari Camp. It was a lovely place with beautiful grounds, lovely restaurant and the “tents” were huge. This was our “tent.”
Camp is really a deceiving term, while you are in a “tent” it is really like a hotel room that just has a few canvas walls. There was also a lovely pool.
Amboseli Nation Park and Game Reserve was gorgeous place with so many different animals and birds and the amazing views of Mount Kilimanjaro, you just can’t beat that view.
Note that all photos used in this post were taken by DaisyChainFun.
Lake Nakuru National Park is in the Rift Valley in Kenya. Nukuru means the “dusted place.” The lake is at 1,754 meters (5754.59 feet) above sea level. The park is 188 km (73 miles) and was created in 1961.
It is one of the “soda” lakes of the Rift Valley. A “soda” lake is a lake with strong alkaline with a pH value between 9-12. They usually have high concentrations of carbonate salts, like sodium carbonate, and also usually high in sodium chloride making the water saline. This helps them be highly productive ecosystems compared to freshwater lakes.
As far as I can tell, Lake Nukuru Lodge is the only place to stay, but it was a nice lodge with great views of the lake, a bar, restaurant and pool.
Lake Nakuru is mainly known for the migration of thousands Greater Flamingos. The lake would be hardly recognizable, just shifting of pink. These days with the changing weather the lake is becoming deeper which means it isn’t creating the regular amount of algae that has always drawn the flamingos to this lake. The more algae a flamingo eats, the more pink in color they become. There are still large populations of flamingos coming here, but a lot are finding other lakes in the area like Amboseli and others to go to as well.
The lake has a lot of other water and wading birds like White Pelican, Avocets and many other along with eagles, storks and so many others.
The park also has Rhino’s and also Rothchild Giraffe, different than the Maasai Giraffe that are found in other parks in Kenya.
Hyenas are a large threat to baby rhinos and also to mothers when giving birth. Baby rhinos will always walk in front of their mother for protection. They are amazing animals to get to see, but to get to see a baby as well was so exciting.
For tracking purposes to control their population from extinction, they used to cut the tips of the horn. Then they tried painting them, but the paint didn’t last. Now they implant a device by drilling into the horn and placing the device and then patching the hole. White Rhino’s are basically extinct already.
The Rothschild Giraffe is one of the most endangered distinct populations with less than 1,400 mature giraffes estimated in the wild. Rothschilds Giraffe’s have a different color coat but is similar to the Maasai Giraffe so not so easy to tell the difference in Kenya. It took a bit of searching to get views of these giraffes in the park, but we were able to find them a few times.
When we first drove into the park we sighted a group of Black and White Columbus monkeys. They are fairly rare, there are only two families in Nakuru and are considered extinct as they have been killed off for their fur.
There were also Blue Ball monkey and Olive Baboons.
Another rare sighting we had was seeing Water Bucks, which look similar to elk and are similar in size. They excrete a skunk like smell from their skin which they use as defense mechanism against predators.
We also got see some lions, mainly a mother and her two cubs. The were so adorable as they were playing and annoying their mother as they did so.
There are large herds of zebra in Lake Nakuru National Park as well.
This park is small but houses a great number of animals, some that you don’t see in other parks and was definitely worth the visit.
Note that all photos used in this post were taken by DaisyChainFun.
Maasai Mara National Reserve (also known as Masai Mara or Mara) holds a special place in my heart. I have traveled all over and so far this place has just stole my heart and is the first place I think of if anyone ask what has been my favorite place to visit. It is huge game national game reserve and is named after the large tribe of Massai that have always ruled this area. The Mara part of the name means “spotted” in the Massai language and was used to describe the reserve due to all of the short trees covering the land. Mara is the only protected area in Kenya for protecting and conserving the wildlife.
The park is approximately 1,510 square kilometers (580 square miles) and is located in the southwestern part of Kenya. The elevation is 1,500 – 2,180 meters (4,921 – 7,152 feet). The rainy seasons tend to be twice a year in April and May and then again in November and December, with the rest of the months being very dry with the arid climate.
There was a lot of talk around the climate and weather changes on our tour, similar to the changes we have been experiencing in Michigan. The weather is shifting, we were there in March which is supposed to be the end of the dry season, working its way into the start of the rainy season of April and May but they didn’t have much of a dry season and these changes had been happening since the late 1990’s and affecting the landscape, the animal way of life and migrations. However, was so outstanding to get to see the storms move in across the plains toward you and see how hard it could rain. These storms would build up fairly fast but move through just about as fast.
Some of the roads in the park were washing out due to much more rain than normal and were just large mud holes which makes it difficult for the safari drivers and sometimes has required them to drive on terrain that they shouldn’t be forging some new driving areas. This is where the safari vehicles and amazing drives come in as they know how to handle getting through these areas, some of them were a bit scary.
Mara is home to so many different animals and bird which can be seen only through safaris which are all done with small groups in safari vehicles that can manage the terrain. You are not allowed out of the vehicles, but they are equipped with full viewing windows that open for photography and viewing and open roofs for the same. Since they are all small groups, it allows everyone to get good views and photos.
If you are on more than a day trip safari tour, you will stay at one of the camps within the reserve. We stayed at Fig Tree Camp which was a smaller camp with a lovely restaurant offerings fantastic meals, a bar for a local beer or mixed drinks, a pool and fabulous tests.
Another way to see the park is by taking a hot air balloon ride. These run early in the morning and then finish with a breakfast near where you land and are picked up. We didn’t do this as you can also do this in the Serengeti in Tanzania and we planned to do it there instead, but it looked like such an amazing trip. There are a few companies that run the hot air balloon rides, and this is usually an excursion that is separate from your safari but can be purchased and planned with your tour company.
There are so many animals and birds to seen in Mara that I can’t cover them all, but a good start is that you have a chance to see the “Big Five” in Mara, which are African Bush Elephants, African Buffalo, African Leopards, Lions and maybe even the Black Rino.
There are a lot of antelope or deer type animals including Impala (shown), Thompson’s Gazelles, Grant’s Gazelles, Topi to name a few.
In the dog type family, there are Jackels and Bat-Eared Fox on the smaller side and Spotted Hyenas (shown) on the larger side.
For the cat family there are Lions, Cheetahs (shown), Leopards, on the larger side and on the smaller (more the size of house cats or slightly larger) side Servals, African Wildcats and Spotted Genet.
Then of course you can miss are the Zebra, Maasai Giraffe (more common than and Rothchild Giraffe) and so much more.
There are the mischievous monkeys and baboons as well. They can be problematic at the camps and lodges and are patrolled to keep them out. Another predator, but so cute, was the Tree Hyrza (African Raccoon shown) which we had living in the tree next to our tent. It was adorable until it got into a fight with what we think was a monkey during the night and woke us from a dead sleep while hearing it screaming. It was a horrifying sound that if you were in the city you would assume a murder had occurred, but all seemed fine in the morning.
Along the rivers you will find Hippopotamus (shown), Nile Crocodile and a variety of lizards like the Nile Monitor Lizard.
Then you can’t forget all the birds starting with Ostrich (shown) which you will see throughout the park, many types of eagles, stork, vultures, Secretary Bird, Crowned Crane and so many more.
I hope you have enjoyed this information about the beauty of Maasai Mara National Reserve in Keny and all you can see on a safari of this amazing place.
Note that all photos used in this post were taken by DaisyChainFun.
