In Mount Kilimanjaro's Shadow

Waterbuck - Crescent Island

The final Park in our Kenya Safari was Amboseli, in the shadow of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro. We were filled with anticipation but sceptical – several people had told us they’d spent a week in Amboseli and never seen the mountain – at the top of Africa, it spends much of its life cloaked in cloud, …and we were only to be there for two nights.

Lake Naivasha Fishers with Papyrus

On the way we’d sailed across Lake Naivasha in a small motorboat, at its centre Crescent Island, the location for the movie Out of Africa. David, our boatman, explained that the island had been populated with animals specifically for the movie – wildebeest, antelope, waterbuck, lion and leopard. But once filming was complete, they removed all the predators – effectively sending the herbivores into retirement – I knew how they felt!

We arrived at Amboseli in the dark but next morning I was up at 6am and out at the viewing spot. Aaarrgh – Kilimanjaro was completely covered in cloud. But… I returned at 7am and, wow, it was gleaming in the early morning sun. ‘You are blessed; she has undressed for you,’ Atanas our guide said.

Mount Kilimanjaro from Amboseli Sopa Lodge

We headed out at 8am and immediately ran into a parade of elephants – there they stood throwing dust on themselves with the mountain as a backdrop. We pulled out our cameras and snapped for all we were worth. Just as well, as we watched the cloud crept up the mountainside until it was completely clothed by 9:30am.

Bull elephant makes us move

Amboseli is famous for its swamps and grassland – home to hippos and elephants. We saw many, some very close, and all went well until we came upon an old bull elephant drinking from a pool beside the road. We stopped close by and took some shots. The elephant stopped drinking and clambered onto the road. A herd of elephants had just walked around us a mile back, so we stayed still and watched. But this guy had other ideas. He turned towards us, lifted his head and bellowed, then walked straight at us.

Elephant Hosers

There’s a rule on safari: Always give way to animals. We were two vehicles and Wanjay and Atanas, our guides, immediately engaged reverse and started to back down the track. But our elephant wasn’t done with us – he just kept coming – shaking his head from side-to-side, flapping his ragged ears back and forth and every so often lifting his trunk and trumpeting. 

Carol's always had a 'thing' for these creatures and she whispered: "If I die now, tell them I went happily; my last image was an elephant..." We slowly backed up for more than half a mile and had almost run out of road when the bull stopped and turned off the road.

Whew! It was off to a nearby lodge for a drink. Just before we arrived there we ran into a family of baboons – mother, father with newborn and soon to appear a gremlin-like 3-month old. The latter, like so many animals we’d seen, seemed to pose for my shot.

Little Gremlin

Next morning we left for Nairobi and I could barely believe it, Mount Kilimanjaro was clear again. But as they said everywhere we went when something unexpected happened – the power went off, the bank machine refused to give cash, or an animal jumped out from the bush: TIA (This Is Africa)!

Africa had bewitched us. We can’t wait to go back…