Africa: Kibo - Amboseli National Park

In the morning we packed up our stuff, left Wildebeest Eco camp and started the rest of the drive to Amboseli National Park, which is famous for its view of Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro is actually in Tanzania but Amboseli (which is right on the edge of Kenya) has the best views of the summit. Amboseli is also famous for having a large population of elephants. After the last few hours of driving we made it to Kibo camp right around lunch. We checked in and then took our bags to our tents. 

Kibo was definitely my favourite camp. Everything was made out of natural wood and they even had wood slab shelves. After we took all our stuff to our tents we checked out the rest of the camp. There was a great view of Kilimanjaro from the camp and there was even a pool.

At the front of the camp there had been a fire a few months before that burnt down the main lodge so we all ate in the bar area which they set up with a bunch of tables. The bar area was still super nice so it made me wonder how great the main lodge must have been. After finishing lunch we swam in the pool for bit before leaving for the evening Safari. Unlike in the Mara Kibo wasn't actually inside of Amboseli National Park but it was 5 minutes from the park entrance. Once we entered the park we immediately saw a small herd of elephants walking along the road side. After awhile they turned towards Kilimanjaro and into the more jungle like part of the park. 

We continued onwards with dust blowing through the open windows until we saw a big group of jeeps up the road. Once we stopped we saw that they were all watching a cheetah out in the long grass. They were a few gazelle close by and it looked like it was trying to stalk them. After a long wait one of the lone gazelles started walking close to the cheetah.  Soon the gazelle was within ten feet of the cheetah and the cheetah hadn't pounced yet. The gazelle grazed for a bit right in front of him before starting to move on to a new patch of grass. The cheetah must have fallen asleep or was just lousy at hunting because it wasn't until the gazelle was fifty feet or so away that he sprang up and started to chase after it. Cheetahs can only run at 70 mph for short distances so soon he had to give up the chase.

The cheetah laid down in exhaustion and the lucky gazelle started to graze again now that he was out of harms way. It was starting to get dark so we made our way out of the park and back to Kibo for the rest of the night.