Amboseli is probably most
famous for its photographs of elephant with snow-capped Kilimanjaro
in the background: a picture that above all says, "come to Africa".
Amboseli is a fairly small but well-established national park of 392
sq km. It borders onTanzania and is 240km southeast of Nairobi. The
name comes from the word ‘empusel’, which in the Masai
language means ‘salty dust’. It derives this name from when Kilimanjaro
erupted some thousand years ago and covered the area with dusty volcanic
ash.
Amboseli’s landscape of open plains trampled by hundreds of
animals still looks dry and dusty today. However, it is well-watered thanks
to the ice cap on the top of Kili only 25km away. This constantly
feeds two springs in the middle of the park even through periods of
drought.
There are some 900 elephant in the park which are reputed to have the biggest
tusks in Kenya. The park is one of the best places in Africa to watch elephant.
There’s also an abundance of plains game, and cats include lion, leopard
and cheetah.
Amboseli has been a game reserve for over 100 years. It was gazetted
a national park in 1974 to try to stop rampant poaching and hunting.
Unfortunately, rhino have been wiped out here. As with other East African
parks the Masai, the ancestral inhabitants of the land, were sent
to live outside the new park's boundaries. Today the Masai live
peacefully on the edge of the park and are very protective of their
local wildlife.
Amboseli is one of the most popular parks in Kenya as it provides
wonderful game viewing throughout the year in stunning landscapes.
The park has an excellent network of roads for game viewing. The best
of these are found around the central swamp areas and springs and at
the lookout on Observation Hill, which offers views over the whole
of the park and beyond.
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