Spectacular Safari

 Journal Entries from Kenya...

7/30/25

We had the most amazing morning on safari.  We got up at 5:15 to gather for tea/coffee at 6 and head out to the Kitenden Conservancy.  Our car was the Novaks, Luceros, and us, with a driver and Benjamin (host/owner of our lodge), who was funny and share lots of cool info on the animals.  Before we began, he encouraged us to enjoy our free African "massage", meaning the bumpy safari ride.  As we left the lodge, we saw a gorgeous view of Mt Kilimanjaro, which is called the "shy mountain", as it is rare that it shows itself.  We had decided the night before to go to the conservancy over the Amboseli National Park because it would be much less touristy and we could go off road to get close to the animals- and boy, did we!  We started off seeing a few giraffes, gazelles, and zebras after a freezing ride in the open air jeep. Then we started seeing elephants.  Throughout the morning, we stopped many times- maybe 4-5- to sit and observe them up close, adjusting our vehicle periodically to get the best shot and get closer, which they mostly let us do.  Benjamin showed us one elephant named Holly.  He said he loves this one and she's so calm as she leads her group.  We loved when we saw an elephant families with a baby or two.  The first and tiniest one we saw was very protected by its family and they trumpeted at us when we got too close.  We were absolutely blown away by this opportunity to be super close to them in the wild.  We loved our picnic breakfast of lemon pancakes and potatoes with other vegetables, bananas, and honey.  The weather warmed up and it was such a beautiful day.  We also saw some ostriches and tiny, beautiful, bright blue birds called superb starlings.  We came back to the lodge for lunch, which was some African-tasting spaghetti, fried potato wedges, delicious greens, fruit salad, chicken legs, and mixed vegetables, plus smoothie-like juice.  After lunch we played Dutch Blitz with almost everyone, which was really fun.  We loaded up for afternoon safari about 4 pm- just our truck because we learned the other one needed a repair.  We got close to Amboseli and pulled over into a clearing overlooking a valley where we could spot lots of animals.  They said to get out and then the driver left us with Benjamin and another guy who had met us close by and was a warden.  We had no idea what was going on and why our driver left and wondered if we should be nervous for our safety.  The warden carried a stick, which we first thought was for protection but he said it was for his level of leadership.  We stayed there quite awhile looking for animals and wondering what the plan was, as it was getting darker and we had hoped to see lions (from our vehicle).  Finally the others arrived and we had snacks and drinks.  We spotted a large group of giraffes nearby.  When we had done some initial picture taking as a group and the giraffes had moved a little off, I noticed Benjamin, Shelby, and Liz walking towards them and they motioned me and Matt over.  They had gotten even closer to the giraffes and eventually the whole team joined us and we were able to quietly walk alongside them as the sun set behind them, which was such a cool experience.  We finished the day with another delicious dinner and enjoyed sharing stories and conversation with our teammates before bed.