Amboseli

Amboseli National Park sits in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, and on a clear morning the mountain fills the entire northern horizon above a plain of pale dust and green swamp. It is the classic African image, and the park delivers it with unusual reliability.

The park is best known for its elephants. Amboseli has been the subject of continuous research for more than fifty years, and the herds are exceptionally relaxed around vehicles, allowing unusually close and prolonged observation of family groups, calves and the great old bulls carrying the largest tusks left in Africa.

Beyond elephants, Amboseli holds buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, hippo, lion, cheetah and hyena, plus more than four hundred bird species in the swamps fed by Kilimanjaro's meltwater. The birdlife, particularly in the Enkongo Narok swamp, is outstanding.

We usually combine Amboseli with the Maasai Mara for a first Kenya safari, or with Tsavo and the coast for travellers flying in through Mombasa. Two to three nights is ideal.