The Amboseli National Park in Kenya is part of the huge Amboseli eco-system which spreads onto Tanzania. Formerly known as the Amboseli Game Reserve, it is now a hotbed of Kenyan tourism. There are two things you go to Amboseli for: elephants and Mt. Kilimanjaro. Amboseli in the Maasai language means “Place of Water” derived from the two springs that provide year-round water to this parched land. The diversity of wildlife in this area is astonishing, but it is for the elephants that the national park is swarmed by visitors.
To experience this amazing place on earth I started from Nairobi, and got on the Mombasa Highway (A 109) turning off on to C 103 at a small town called Emali, en route to Amboseli. After a quick lunch at the SOPA Lodge nestled on the fringes of the Park, I was ready for the safari. Though it was not the way I had planned, the first photograph I would click, of a cheeky little ground squirrel, it was one that pleased me immensely. Like a foot-soldier guarding royalty, the squirrel watched us closely and as if in approval, allowed me to take a shutter-crackling amount of pictures.
From thereon, it was many pleasurable hours of capturing varied kind of wildlife and animal behaviour, working frenetically with the camera and its different lenses, with the presence of the towering Mt. Kilimanjaro taken for granted. Apart from elephants the other animals that made their presence felt were lions, giraffes, wildebeasts, zebras and hyenas. As if this was not spectacular enough, I experienced the canvas of the sun transform into a huge orange ball while bidding goodbye to the day. The interplay between the gold-swathed Mt. Kilimanjaro and the calm parade of the pachyderms with the setting sun in the background made for a breath-taking image.
It was a sight to behold; here I was, far away from my city life amidst a herd of elephants, the largest land animal on the planet, sandwiched between the towering Mt. Kilimanjaro on one side and the setting sun on the other. How I wish the moment had lasted forever!
Diinesh Kumble, after a Master’s Degree in chemical engineering from the US, returned home and founded India’s first sports software company, StumpVision. He is the author of three previous books on wildlife, with 'Dream Safari' being his first.
